“Ruth, you haven’t even told your parents?!?!”, asked my doctor.

“Ugh, I was waiting to gather as much information as possible….”, I replied.

“OH – MY – GOD!”, said everyone.

“Well, yes, we are very thankful to God!”, I replied to everyone.

“SERIOUSLY?”,  said almost everyone.

“Yes.”

“YOU’RE JOKING?” said about 50% of everyone.

  “No – For – Real.”

    About one to two months ago, this was the dialogue that I was having with my very shocked family and associates.  Their responses to the news that I am pregnant was somewhat surprising.  Now that baby number three is almost 7 months along, it is really obvious.  I look in the mirror and almost don’t recognize myself.  It’s like I woke up one day and aliens had inflated my belly to soccer ball like status…

  No one told me/warned me that the 3rd pregnancy would go by in a flash!  Aside from the typical unpleasantries that accompany pregnancy, along with a few “3rd baby” discomforts, things have been going fine.  It seems that life doesn’t stop just because you have a little human being incubating inside your body, especially when your other progeny need you – as well as your husband, your work responsibilities, etc….  But, it seems that I thrive on a challenge and this is pretty exciting to say the least!

  For those not familiar with my upbringing, I was surrounded by the topics of pregnancy and babies.  I have 7 living aunts and my Grandma Wooton had a total of 11 kids (with my dad being the only boy and the next to youngest child!), so childbirth was not an off-limits topic.  I really don’t like going into specifics about my personal health or biblical relations between me and my husband, but pregnancy seems to make such squirm worthy discussions up for grabs.    I am always shocked (if not inwardly mortified) when I am asked, “were you guys trying?”.  Ugh – I want to disappear when someone asks that.  I try to handle the question with grace but “it’s a blessing” or “a hoped for miracle” is my glib reply.  I hate glib responses, but it’s the best that I can muster.   Once I considered giving a slightly inappropriate answer that veered into R-rated territory, but good-sense put me back on-course before I could be a potty-mouthed smart-aleck.

We had just found out that baby 3 was on the way.

Such interrogation is one of the reasons that I typically stay mum during early pregnancy.  This time around we were even more cautious, because being 40 and pregnant can be a sobering event.  The risks jump, a lot, even relative with that of my 37/38 year old self that produced Sarah Amelia.  Everyone knows about those risks, and Bryan and I tend to worry.  So, I wanted to have a good hold of how things were going in the event that someone starting spouting off the odds for this  or that problem that someone had with her late-in-life pregnancy.  I also needed a long time to process this pregnancy.  I don’t know why, I just did.  In an odd way, it was kind of nice to keep the pregnancy underwraps for a while.

As mentioned, I am an old mom or as the medical community likes to put it, I am of “advanced maternal age”.  Yep – that means old.  It is a little bit of a blow to my fragile self-esteem, but that’s the reality.  I am technically old enough to be a grandma!  As usual, I can count on Dad for affirmation in times of such ego-busting reality – “they always said that ‘change of life’ babies are the best ones!  They are the smartest!”.

“Change of life”?  Well, ok.  I am not sure how baby number 3 could be any “‘better” than Rachel or Sarah, but I will take that as a vote of confidence!

 Oh, almost forgot to mention – it’s another GIRL!!!!  Yes, I know, we are in for a lot of trouble!!!!!  As far as names go, “Miriam” is a top contender.  Bryan is holding out for “Aoife” – an Irish version of Eva – pronounced ee-fa.  Again, we are at odds over the name.  I did have a dream that I was yelling “come here Miriam Aoife”.  I was always told that if you dreamt of the name, it was bad luck to not give the name to the baby, so “Miriam Aoife” may be a lock.  If you don’t like that name, please don’t suggest alternatives.  You might hurt Bryan’s feelings 🙂

Don’t be fooled by the picture. Rachel and Sarah are super excited about their little sister!