for my husband

Today is our 18-week ultrasound. It is 4:30am and I've given up on trying to sleep. I am excited, nervous, anxious -- all of the above. I just can't wait to see our little one again and be told again that everything looks perfect. We could be finding out the sex of our baby today, but we've decided not to. Ok, ok, my husband has decided not to and I have reluctantly agreed. If you knew me, you'd be surprised. I am a planner to the nth degree. And patience with waiting is not really my thing.

But this is my gift to my husband.

My husband is probably the most easy-going, agreeable person I have ever known (not that we don't have our occasional arguments here and there over little things.) But with the big things, I usually get my way. It's not that he's not a push-over. It's just that he doesn't usually have strong opinions about things. He's pretty content no matter what.

Let's take our wedding for example. It didn't matter to him whether we got married on the beach or on the moon. He didn't care what colors or flowers or food I picked out or what the invitations looked like. Every panicked question I asked him was answered with, whatever you want, honey. As you can imagine, this completely irked me. Can't you just pretend to be interested??? But the truth is, the wedding details bored him to death. The only thing he really cared about was marrying me.

I can't really blame him for that.

This whole baby thing is an entirely different experience, though. He is reading the pregnancy books and watching A Baby Story on TLC right along with me, tearing up each time the baby is born. He kisses my belly every chance he gets and whips out our home doppler to hear the heartbeat just as much as I do. He tells me every single day just how excited he is. He is just as in love with our baby as I am.

And I really do think he spends some of his spare time day-dreaming about his big moment. It goes something like this -- one last push and the doctor calls out, It's a boy/girl!!!! and he and I hug and cry and hold our new tiny miracle in our arms. And then he runs out to the waiting room and shouts to our parents the type of grandchild that just entered their world. And everybody cheers and screams and cries and hugs.

It is his biggest moment and I can't help tearing up every time I think about it too. His giddiness about it makes me fall in love with him all over again. So this gift is one I am honored to give him.

Even if it means I have to suck it up and wait.