"Morning, Mrs. Y," Miranda Jennings greeted me at 7:30 AM on Monday morning by wrapping me in a big hug, her usual way of saying hello to friends. "Still no baby yet?"

My response was to laugh. Thirty-eight weeks along now, I had grown accustomed to this comment. "About two more weeks. Maybe sooner."

"That long?" She flashed me a grin and adjusted her backpack. "I half expected that you would go into labor this weekend. Hang in there."

"How's Natalie?" I asked, changing the subject. (These days, it seemed like all people wanted to talk to me about was the baby.) "How's biology?"

"She's making a B so far," Miranda said. "And I've hardly had to tutor her at all."

"Good!" I nodded enthusiastically. "Tell her to keep it up."

...WAIT! What am I doing here? You're probably wondering what brought me back to New Haven Science and Engineering Magnet.

I'm teaching! Well, student teaching. When I returned from vacation, Mr. Park asked me if I wanted to come back. No replacement had been found for me. He knew before he hired me that I would be taking maternity leave in about a month and a half, but he asked me back anyway. I decided to take the job and work up until the baby came.

I had worked all the way through September, and here I was, still working in the second week of October. Nothing stops Janine Kishi Yamakawa.

I take that back. One thing was being delayed. Classes. I was taking one class via the internet, and that was all. There was no reason for me to take on many new things right now. No rush, no hurry. A new approach on my life.

I take that back. No rush? No hurry? James and I were rushing to do everything we could before the baby came. Last week, we finally finished her room. We had converted what was formerly the study of our two bedroom apartment into the baby's room. After the baby shower that my family had given me a few weeks ago, we had accumulated enough to start with.

My favorite touch in the entire room was what we had hung over her crib. We had framed two of the pictures that Claudia took on the beach, and hung them there. One of the pictures was the one that Claudia had actually entered in her exhibit. She won first prize for a picture of me staring up at the sunset with a hand resting on my bare stomach. The other picture was one of the shots of James and me. In the center of those two pictures, we had an empty frame.

That was where her picture would soon be.

Soon. She was coming soon. I was seeing my doctor every week now. At my last visit on the first day of my thirty-eighth week, we received some interesting news.

First of all, I was already dilated two centimeters. This did not mean I was in labor yet. The birth could still be another two weeks away. I did not like the thought of being like this for two weeks. I was not exactly comfortable.

Secondly, the baby had already dropped, meaning that her head was down and she was in a much lower position. This meant two things -- first of all, I could breathe. I could breathe much easier without having the baby pushing against my diaphragm. But it also meant that I started to waddle more than usual. So it was pretty obvious to everyone that I was not exactly comfortable.

I was tired and anxious and excited and scared. I would make it through each day, glad to be productive and glad to be doing something to get my mind off of the Big Event, but when I came home at night, I would pour out my anxiety on anybody who would listen. Usually James.



That evening, the weather was awful. It had been pouring down rain for three days. It had suddenly gotten so cold that everyone was already wearing jackets. I hated wearing a jacket because it made me look and feel even bigger than I already was.

Being nine months pregnant and waddling around in the rain was not fun. I was not in the greatest of moods that evening, and James wasn't home yet. So I called Mom.

"I'm so worried about the birth," I confessed, while laying back in my chair with the phone in one hand and my other hand rubbing my stomach. "All that horrible pain. I'm having second thoughts about this."

"A little late for that, sweetheart," Mom gently said. Then we laughed.

"Yeah," I said. "I know that I said I wanted to have a natural birth, but now I'm thinking an epidural would be okay. It just scares me to think of making that decision in the middle of labor. But I still think I want to feel what it's like before I --- also, I've heard, you know, that the delivery could take longer with the epidural, and I'm not sure I want it to take longer."

"Tough choices," Mom agreed. "You'll know what to do when the time comes."

"Mm-hm," I said, still rubbing my belly. I had been doing that a lot lately, especially when I was by myself.

Time was running out, and although I was sick of pregnancy, I didn't want to forget the feeling of having her with me all the time. She and I had formed such a great bond. And part of me was going to miss being pregnant.

"Speaking of touch choices," I said. "We're still trying to pick her name."

"Still going with one-syllable?"

"At least for her nickname," I replied. "Nicknames are great, don't you think?"

"Sometimes, yes," Mom began. "But when I was younger, people would shorten Rioko to Ricky from time to time. I absolutely hated it because it sounded like a boy's name. And so common."

"I'll keep that in mind," I said. "I'm not exactly crazy about boy-ish nicknames, either."

"Janine, honey," Mom said. "I need to go start dinner. Before I go, are you feeling okay? Anything different?"

"Pretty much the same discomforts I've had for the past couple of weeks," I said. "Those Braxton Hicks contractions are almost painful sometimes, and I'm not exactly sure how I will know when I really am in labor. The doctor says I'll know. My hips and my back are really sore right now, and I'm about to go take a warm bath or something."

"Hang in there," was her response. (The seventh time I'd heard that today!) "Here's Claudia; she wants to say hello."

"Helloooo!" Claud chirped into the receiver. "Hurry up and have that baby!"

"Two weeks," I reminded her. Then we said goodbye, and I went to soak in the bath tub for awhile. I decided I would wash my hair, too.

After a good twenty minutes of letting my muscles and joints relax in the hot, steamy water, I finally managed to force myself out of the tub. Not long after I had dried off and dressed in my sweat pants and a t-shirt, James returned home with my favorite fast food from Taco Bueno. We sprawled out in the living room in front of the television to eat it.

"I talked to Zach today," James mentioned. "He and Haley are an official couple now. They went to see another movie Saturday night, and he bought her dinner, too. I asked him how he got the money to pay for the date, and he said he got it baby-sitting!"

"No!" I laughed. "Who would have guessed? Your little brother, a member of the New Baby-sitters Club. The club that my little sister used to be in."

"I'm sure Zach enjoys making money," James laughed, too. "But I would be willing to bet that what he really enjoys is sitting in a room with five girls three times a week. Especially since the meetings are held in Haley Braddock's room."

Here's the story behind Zach and Haley: On his first day of school, Zach met Haley Braddock in art class and was instantly drawn to her. (Art class? Drawn. Get it? Nevermind, I'm not exactly known for my joke-telling abilities.) His original reason for becoming interested in Haley was merely the fact that she strongly resembled Sarah.

(How do I know about Haley Braddock? Claudia babysat for her. Small world.)

James and I witnessed this firsthand; we went to a party that Haley and the other club members held to formally induct Zach into the club. James and I immediately saw the resemblance between Sarah and Haley. Afterwards, James had a talk with Zach.

Zach admitted to James that, at first, his motives weren't exactly honest for being interested in Haley. But he assured James that now he had good intentions for dating Haley, other than merely her resemblance to Sarah.

"Haley's not the only girl in the club after Zach," I added. "It seemed like Vanessa Pike was interested in him, too. Remember her? She took the sitting job at my baby shower along with Zach, and she was falling for him, too. You could tell."

"What am I going to do with him?" James mumbled. But he was smiling.

"My shower... that was four weeks ago," I commented. Oddly enough, I got tired of talking about my pregnancy and the baby sometimes, but at other times, it was all I could think about. (I guess it was hard NOT to think about, seeing as I was huge.)

"Time flies," I went on.

"Seems like we just found out you were pregnant," he added.

"Ah, I don't know about that."

"And now, look at you. It's almost over." He kissed me.

"Two weeks," I reminded him with a yawn.

"Can't be," he replied. "I can't wait two more weeks."

At this, I burst out laughing. "YOU CAN'T?"

He smiled. "Hang in there, Janey."

"I'm trying," I found myself getting teary-eyed, even though I had been laughing just a second ago. These days were such an emotional rollercoaster for me. I could barely contain myself during the day. With mixed emotions of fear and excitement, I anticipated her arrival.

Above all else, I felt blessed. And for the first time, I did not feel blessed merely by the circumstances. After our trip to Sea City, I no longer believed in circumstances. I believed that God had blessed me. Now that I acknowledged and accepted this fact, I felt at peace with the directions in which my life was headed. And I finally knew the meaning of the word joy.




A/N: Thank you for the reviews! The ones I got for chapter 17 were so great that I immediately started to write this chapter. If anyone would like to read about Janine's baby shower or the party for Zach, check out my other story "BSC: The New Class- Krista's Mini-Series." You know, the one I never update. I assume it is still on the second page. I originally was going to include actual chapters about those events, but from the way "Janine's Story" ended up going, well, it did not seem to fit into the flow of things anymore. Chapter 19, coming soon!