One for you and one for me?

My best friend, who I have been friends with since childhood, is pregnant. She is due to give birth to a little girl on or about October 7. I am so excited for her and her husband and it will be fun to have a new little one in our "family".


Since finding out she was pregnant, she has frequently called, emailed, and sent instant messages asking for advice and with questions that expentant mothers have. And I have to admit, while I don't consider myself to be a wealth of knowledge when it comes to pregnancy/childcare, it has been nice to be the one who has already been through it. I usually preface what I tell her with "now this is what I did, but by all means do what feels right to you". I don't ever want to seem pushy or seem that I know it all because I am still learning each day with my own little man. Every day is a new experience when you have a little one!


My friend's shower is coming up on July 21. She is registered at Babies 'R Us, the mother ship of all things baby. Shopping is always fun, but shopping for a baby is the best. I believe in keeping to a person's registry. If they register for it, then they feel they need it and that item is what they prefer. I totally respect that. Plenty of people will give her cute little outfits, but they won't buy her what she needs. One day she will be sitting in her living room looking at this beautiful baby girl in a cute pink outfit and thinking "how I am supposed to feed this child, but damn she looks adorable in that outfit!" So I have bought many items for her off the registry and supplemented with some of my own baby "wonders" that my husband and I have found to be helpful in our quest to be great parents. I made my initial shopping trip a few weeks ago, but I am excited to make another one soon. She has since added some new items to her registry and some of these items are similar to items I "supplemented" with. So I will return my items and get her what she asked for.


Since I have been shopping for her, I have been having my own thoughts about adding to our family. It's a hard decision to make or at least it is for me. We went through the fertility process with our first and I just don't feel mentally and physically ready to go through that again. I find myself very content with what we have now, but know that I may always feel differently in the future. I just wish I knew. Another friend of mind knew she wanted another and she just did it. Now she has two beautiful children, one girl and one boy. And yet another friend has two and they are talking about adding a third to the mix. How do they know? Do they have some baby sensor that I don't? Is my sensor malfunctioning? Can I get it tuned up so I can just make a decision and move on?!


So I will keep thinking about it and enjoy the time I have with my little man. Besides, my friend's baby girl will be here soon enough and that will probably be the reality check I need.