Yes, I’m 31 years old, yes I’m a mom, yes I’m pregnant with number two and yes, I love Edward Cullen. There, I said it. I recently read the Twilight series and devoured every page. I have watched Twilight a million times and can’t get enough. So this weekend I will be joining hundreds of tweens and packing into a crowded theater to watch my favorite vampires (and the hot new werewolves) do their thing.

My birthday’s a marker of a kind, one that impels me to stop for a moment and marvel at where I am right now, where I’ve been, and the exciting conclusion that there’s no telling where it’s all going. This year, as I look forward, there is one, huge, bigger-than-ever thought, and moment, before me. It stops me in my tracks.

Oh my God. I am going to be someone’s mom.

As nervous as I am to only have 8 weeks left before the baby arrives, I am starting to get excited about what that means. But I’m not talking about the fact that I will have a little baby girl to cuddle and love and care for. That is the real gift, obviously. But there are other things to look forward to as well. Far less important things but things I can’t stop thinking about nevertheless. And today I want to talk about those….So, here’s what I’m really looking forward to:

Sleep has never been our problem. For all the issues we’ve faced with Alex -- MRSA, his severe allergies, his eczema, the fact that he now climbs out of his crib constantly and says F---! a lot -- sleep has never been one of them. He started going through the night on his own at about seven weeks and we haven’t looked back. Now bedtime is around 8 and he wakes up at around 7 and we rarely hear a peep out of him in between -- and he’s never, ever slept in our bed. Needless to say, I get plenty of sleep. But something tells me that’s going to change very soon….

We realized that we needed to get serious about our budget, both due to the economic situation and to the fact that our pregnancy was a surprise -- we weren’t planning to pay for diapers in the immediate future, let alone establish a college fund. My husband’s work also slowed way down after our honeymoon, and we had to re-evaluate a bit. But there is a bright side to all of this.