Reality Check

I fell down the stairs the other night, just slipped on my pants leg and slammed down half a flight.

In the moment, the scariest thing was that I was in the process of calling my mom, and when I slipped I had already hit "send" - I could only imagine the panic of answering the phone and hearing commotion, and your daughter yelling out. I arrived at the basement floor in a heap, holding my head, sobbing, and trying to communicate to Dave that he needed to take the phone and let my mom know I was okay.

I bruised my butt pretty good (and guess what? it turns out stretch marks don't bruise, so I have this giant, dark purple circle striated by white- another fabulous side effect of having Clio), and my elbow doesn't quite want to straighten out, but it could have been a lot worse.

When I pulled myself together and went upstairs, I said something to Dave like, "I Hope the Baby's okay."

He got that wild grin and deer-in-headlights stare that I recognize from telling him the pregnancy test was positive with Clio, and said,

"There's a real baby in there."

I nodded.

"We're in big trouble," he said.

I think that was the moment this became real for both of us.

This baby has already been through a lot; I did go to the midwife today, and I swear, even before the monitor hit my belly, I could hear a heartbeat, strong and true, as if to say, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.

I hear you, baby.