It's raining babies . . .

The best thing that happened today was that we went to our friends' house to hang out, talk
and play board games.  It is a weird time in our lives. My best friend is pregnant with her first child, and we are all VERY excited for them. I know that everything is going to change from now on, and this makes me a little sad and nostalgic, and then I feel incredibly guilty for feeling this way.

Children are beautiful, and I love working with them in the Hospital and playing with other people's kids. But I am very much not ready for children and we won't be having any for years to come. To be frank, when we visit it is a relief to hand them back at the end of the visit, and I need to go and have a nanna nap. At least I now know how to pick one up! I worked out that the best way to do it was to treat them like a cat. 
All the squirming in the world and I still have them held nice and tight! It is so strange to think of them becoming parents, after we have done so many things around about the same time throughout our whole lives.

To be brutally honest, we are reaching that point where we are starting to be the odd ones out for NOT having a little nappy-filler running around the house. We won't be there for a few years yet, and this thought fills me with such relief.

The other one I keep hearing is that I shouldn't "leave it too late!" Honestly, do men EVER hear this? I know that a woman's fertility drops dramatically with age, but men don't seem to be held to the same kind of standard of reproductive timetabling. I have even seen a book out there called 
"Oh no, we forgot to have children!"
I realise that the title is humorous, but it annoys me quite a bit. Women who haven't had children by a certain age have not been ALLOWED to forget about having them, as we get asked about it by every second person we meet for the first time.

I'm quite sure that I will NEVER have the following conversation:

"Hi! I haven't seen you in ages. Did you have kids?"
"Damn! I knew there was something I should have added to the to-do list! That, and buying more cat litter!"
"I told you not to leave it too late!"
"I know, I'll NEVER get the smell out of the bathroom! Now what was that other thing again?"

I even get asked whether I'm having kids soon by people who know that I'm going to be spending the next 4 years as a broke and stressed medical student. What kind of a question is that??  Here is something else you'll never hear:

"Roll up, roll up and see the Amazing, the Incredible, the Unbelievable! She's the Worried Womble, Super Mum and Medical Student, able to balance a baby on one hip and an open copy of Rang and Dale's Pharmacology on the other, able to breast-feed while simultaneously practicing auscultation on her baby, with the ability to juggle lectures, childcare, a mortgage, cooking, cleaning AND study, all on zero hours sleep! For an extra five dollars you can poke her with a stick to check that she's real!!"

Never. Yes, I know it won't be easy having children as a doctor. But at least there will be money for things like childcare, nannies and FOOD. Food is good.

I am very much looking forward to my friend having her baby. Although she'll have less time for the frivolities of child-free life, it means she'll be able to drink again. And that's what REALLY matters here. (I'm kidding. Really. I already have presents for the baby stashed away. Just don't tell her.)