You haven't met me yet. I'm still about 60 miles away. You'll learn how far that is as you grow bigger, but right now I just wanted to pop in and say, "Hi". Are you awake? I still am, all excited about meeting you later. We can't talk yet, so I'm sending you all these thoughts now so you'll know who I am when we meet.
I'm an old lady now. In fact I'm 75 years and 5 days older than you are. I'm going to look about as wrinkled as you will later today when you come out and meet the world. You'll smooth out. I'll just stay wrinkled, and get even more so as you spend more time with me. It's OK. It's supposed to be that way. If you're lucky, you'll get to look like me in a whole lot of years from now when I won't be around any more. Maybe you'll remember me then when you see your own wrinkles. These people have things called mirrors you can look in to see stuff like yourself and what's behind you without needing to turn around.
A whole lot of people have been waiting to meet you. Mama of course, probably the most. You're still tucked right in there next to her. That thump thump you've been hearing for nine months is her heart, beating with love, beating for her and for you, keeping you both alive. In a little while you won't hear it any more, not until she picks you up and holds you next to her heart again while she feeds you, looking at you and marveling at every little bit of you and how you turned out, thinking how much she loves you, wondering how you'll grow up in this world, how it'll treat you, and how you'll treat it. I bet she's already got some plans for that.
Since you'll be outside of her later today, she won't be breathing for you any more. You'll have discovered how to do that for yourself already by then, and the thump thump you'll hear when things are very very quiet will be your own heart, beating on its own, only for you. But it will also beat for all of us as we rejoice that it's beating just fine, keeping you here with us all. Take very good care of it.
Who are we? Well, there's Mama of course. She was my own granddaughter when she was born. I got to watch her grow up, help show her the world, make sure she knew she was loved and cared for. Now she's your Mama. She already made two other kids for your family. You'll meet them soon. You have a big sister Anna. She's five and already starting to go to school and learn all kinds of interesting things. I bet if you're nice to her she'll tell you about a lot of them. She might even be your best big protector as you two grow up. Then you have a big brother Tommy. He's not a big as Anna, and still busy figuring out the world, mostly what happens to it when he hits it with a stick. Sometimes he even notices what happens to the stick when it hits something. You're going to have to watch out for him for a while, but Mama and Daddy will help. Daddy is really tall, a lot like Mama, and he'll be picking you up a lot and carrying you around. It looks different way up that high, but don't be afraid. Daddy will hold you tight. So will Mama.
Then you'll meet me and Great Grandpa. We've been waiting a long time to meet you too. Great Grandpa is even older than I am, though I think he doesn't have as many wrinkles. Just like you, though, he doesn't have any teeth either. You will grow your own in a few months, and several years later even grow a replacement set of them. Grandpa won't. He's already grown all of his and they went away. We can explain that to you later. Great Grandpa has a favorite thing when his grandchildren get a bit older than you are now: he'll want you to eat the rim of his hat. Don't worry, he'll have a fairly clean one for you, but he'll also want a picture of you eating it. He does it for all of his grandkids, and it makes him very happy. You'll be just about the perfect age when we see you again next spring.
It's going to be cold once you're outside of Mama, or at least colder than it was inside Mama. They are going to put something called clothes on you, and tuck you in under blankets. Those will be soft and will keep you warm. When you get older they will put these hard things on your feet. You can decide if you like those or not, but they do keep your feet from getting hurt by pokey things when you start to walk. Nothing to worry about yet, you'll figure it all out. Just watch the people around you and do what they do when you're bigger. There is also something called diapers you'll have to wear for a couple years. I'll let Mama and Daddy tell you about them. They had two practice kids already so they know what happens when they take them off of you, don't have the next one ready yet, and you get cold for a minute. (It's a really fun game!)
You'll go to live in a big house and sleep in a crib. There's even a nice dog you can play with, as long as you're nice to it. If you aren't, the dog will stay away, so try to be nice and not pull ears or tail while you're discovering what a good friend a dog can be. If you learn to throw a ball, the dog just might learn to play with you by bringing it back.
Are you still awake? Have I been keeping you up? Goodness, you better get some sleep. You and Mama have a really big day today. Great Grandpa and I will stop by and see you maybe the next day and get to hold you. When I have my turn I'll tell you who I am so you'll know it's me, the one who's been thinking all these loving thoughts your way to welcome you into the world. We can do it a lot when I'm not around so you don't feel alone, and I don't either. There's so much more to tell you about the world. I can't wait!
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