It's the babies birthday today. She is turning two so I guess she isn't really a baby anymore. I went and bought her some things to open tonight. We are all going out to dinner and then to our condo to eat cake and open presents. I remember two years ago last night, when my best friend called me at 1:30 in the morning to say I needed to come and stay with the kids as she was going in. She had the baby within six hours. So different when she had her first. It took days. I was visiting in the hospital room and she said I could stay while she had the baby. That was awesome!! Of course for baby brother I had to stay with the older one. That was a horrible experience because my best friend got really sick. She came home from the hospital and was in the emergency room the next day and for a week she couldn't breath.
Then, while that stress wasn't enough, the pediatrician called and said the baby had to come in for testing immediately because he was lacking a certain enzyme which could cause mental retardation. Luckily this all happened the week after school was out and so I had time to go to hospitals and doctor's offices for hours on end, day after day. Everything turned out to be fine.
I actually have a lot of experience watching births. My best friend's sister had a troubled period in her life and thought she could make things better by getting pregnant with people she was dating. The guys ended up not sticking around. I was her labor coach for her first son who is a freshman in high school right now. I was also in the delivery room for her third child who is also a boy. He was born with a terrible birth defect inside his little chest. They actually did last rites on him and told us to prepare for the worst. He was perfect on the outside and we couldn't understand how something could be so wrong with him. Basically, his chest cavity didn't form completely, allowing his organs to form around his lungs. His lungs didn't develop properly and his liver wasn't under any protection at all. He went in for major surgery to move everything around and he is alive and well today. The only thing he can't do is play contact sports. I believe he is a fifth grader right now. When my best friend and I were living together in college, we often had to take care of her kids while her sister was trying to rid herself of inner demons. She still has not really accomplished it, but at least she has stopped having children. She has five in all. While this was all happening I was getting my degree in social work and tried the best I could to get her into programs. I realized that some of those programs are really not helpful because the clients meet each other and feed off unhealthy behaviors and continue their dysfunction often times together.
I think all this of this adds to my feelings for wanting a child. I know I could do a great job at providing a healthy environment for a child.

I guess this post really took off. I need to get cleaning a bit before I leave. As I scan the condo, I can see it's kind of messy for guests.