Fake Labor

Had to write this down before I go to bed. Was doing some deep thinking while on the pot and had an insight. Had dinner with preggo last Sunday and she mentioned how she's having contractions now, fake labor, to get ready for real labor. I asked her what it was like. She said sharp pains, like her whole uterus is moving to the center. I think she said that you know it's real labor if you're not doubled over in pain or can still stand up. Something like that.

Anyway, it hasn't escaped my attention that we are both on the opposite ends of the same process. She's bringing in a new life, I'm watching one get ready to leave. The cycle of life. She has mood swings, so do I. We both have gained "mommy muscle," hers for baby coco, mine for mama. Everybody needs softness, methinks. So, I realized on the crapper that the past months have had moments of fake labor for the family. Times when things feel like the end is near, or there's a catastrophe, and we all contract, come close to the center, fight whatever it is that needs fighting. And then it passes. There will be a real labor. A time when everything comes undone. But, the fake ones have gotten us ready to get through it, as a family, as friends.