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For six years, I was a single parent. When my daughter was 11 months old, my first husband and I separated and I didn't remarry until she was 7 years old. Single parenting had its challenges and I knew that someday I wanted to remarry, but I became accustomed to our life and I think I managed pretty well. Luckily, I met a wonderful man who adopted my daughter and we've been happily married for three years. This past week, he went out of town for a conference and parenting alone was so much harder than I remembered it to be!

Maybe it is was more difficult because now instead of one daughter, I have a daughter and two sons! One son is only 2 1/2 weeks old. For several days prior to my husband leaving, I thought "How am I going to do this?" Then, the day came and he was gone. The first day and night were okay. Luckily, my little guy is still a good sleeper. Then, the next day my little one decided to cry for an hour at a time during the morning, afternoon, and at night. It was hard, but we made it through the day. The following day, he cried again. By then, I was frazzled. When my husband called that evening, I was anything but nice. I didn't want to hear about the nice dinners he was having or the details from the conference. I was thinking, "How could you be having fun, when I am here with a screaming baby?" He got the hint because his next phone call was much sweeter and when he got home he was extra willing to help!

When my husband finally arrived home, we had made it through the four days he was gone. The house was in decent shape and all the children were happy. Of course our little guy hasn't had any crying fits since Daddy has been home. Maybe he missed his Daddy as much as I missed him. The vacation from Daddy reminded me how hard single parenting can be. It can be done, but I am so thankful to have a partner to parent with and my kids are thankful for their Daddy too!

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Our "overdue" baby arrived June 12, 2008 at 8:12 am. He was six days "overdue." For awhile I thought he would never come, but all day on the 11th I felt different. All of us moms know about our intuition. I told my husband that I think he's coming soon. I stayed up past midnight, then I finally decided to go to sleep. Sure enough an hour after having fallen asleep, my water broke.

This was my third time going into labor, so both my husband and I were fairly calm. We made the 2:00 am phone call to my parents who graciously came over to stay with our two kids. Then, we headed to the hospital. We settled into the hospital room and the doctor examined me and told me the baby would be here within a few hours. I was just beginning to feel light pain when I received my epidural. I commented to my husband, "Wow! This is going to be the easiest labor ever!" Then things changed...

Our "overdue" baby was still sleeping. He wasn't moving at all. This is not normal during contractions. I was given medicine to increase the contractions and to wake the baby. Still no movement. Much to my dismay, the doctor suggested a c-section to get the baby out quickly. I'd never had a c-section and didn't even consider having one with my third child, but I wasn't going to argue with the doctor. I wanted to do what was best for the baby, but the thought of the recovery and not being able to hold my 20 month old brought me to tears. Needless to say, I had a c-section and our baby was delivered quickly. He had a few breathing problems, but after a few hours in the NICU, he was fine. Our "overdue" baby is now known as our "sleepy" baby. He sleeps so well!

The recovery from the c-section gets better each day. I am able to care for the baby. He is so precious I am enjoying every minute of being with him. I miss holding my 20 month old, but he can now sit on my lap and he is such a big helper with his little brother. I've had plenty of rest and I think I needed that. The c-section has forced me to slow down a little. Again, things didn't go as planned, but everything has worked out fine.

Overdue. It's never a good word. We have to pay fees for overdue books, videos, bills, etc... We don't like overdue apologies. We lose friends when our phone calls and visits become long overdue. With pregnancy, the word overdue is just as bad.

I shouldn't be complaining about this overdue baby I have inside of me. I've been fortunate to have a healthy pregnancy. I'm also fortunate enough to have two healthy children. The first was born 5 weeks early and the second was born 2 weeks early. That is why this overdue baby is driving me crazy!

I knew he was going to be born early because my other two had come early. We've had the room ready, the bags packed, the cupboards stocked, and our hearts ready for a month now. My husband took the first 3 weeks of June off, so he could be home with the baby. With this baby we were going to be READY! It's our third baby and we were going to be pros, but life doesn't always cooperate! Now we're going to be lucky if my husband is home a week. Our cupboards need to be restocked and I'll be lucky if the clothes I packed in my hospital bag still fit! One thing hasn't changed, our hearts are still ready to meet our new little boy. When God is willing, we'll be thrilled to welcome this overdue baby to the world!