Babymooners in Oblivion

It seems it's raining babies in my life. I just found out today yet another close friend is pregnant. That makes four of us in a group of about 12 girlfriends, with due dates ranging from November 8 (ours) to next May 6. Girlfriend number five should be joining the ranks any time. Five babies have been born in the last year and a half. Our last get-together looked like a busy day at Gymboree. We were all blown away--how did it come to this? Because we've all been friends since grammar school, the scene appeared in striking contrast to our soirees from decades past: slumber parties, college keg-fest weekends, even our adult cocktail parties from more recent years. It dawned on us all how much life has changed since the children came along.

Walking with one of the mamas a few weeks ago, she asked if the hubby and I were going to get away before the baby comes. We didn't have any plans so I hemmed and hawed, only to be slapped with "YOU MUST DO THIS! You'll never have another chance for just the two of you to go anywhere alone without worrying about the child." She had a point. It's funny how, when you decide to start a family, the gravity of the life-long responsibility is only on the far edge of your consciousness--way overshadowed by the romantic notion of being pregnant and having a sweet little bundle of joy. Even during the pregnancy, I've been surprised how little I've pondered the reality of being a parent. But hey any excuse for a vacation is good with me.

Then today I came across the concept of the Babymoon while doing some research for Honeyfund. (I wasn't surprised some travel agents and resorts have found a way to capitalize on this trend.) And I realized we'd actually had a quite extravagant babymoon, pre-pregnancy. In February we took a 10-day Mexican cruise, calling it our "last hurrah." We booked it before I got pregnant because I wanted to really party! Which we did and it was a blast.

But I do find myself, now 7 1/2 months pregnant, yearning for more time, more vacations, more pampering, and more quality time with the spouse before our lives change forever in a way we can't really know. So we took my girlfriend's advice and booked a romantic spa weekend. Since I don't feel like traveling, we did it close to home. A visit to Nob Hill Spa, dinner at Millennium, and no laptops all weekend. It was heavenly.

I still don't think we can really appreciate how different life will be in just a few weeks. But hey, I got a nice facial and some quality time with the husband, which is never a bad thing.