Baby Steps: Are we there yet?

Editor's note: Baby Steps will be on "maternity leave" for the next couple months as Kristen welcomes Baby Girl Pind to the family. Check back later to read all about her.

Nearing the end of my pregnancy is like nearing the finish line of a long marathon. I have worked my tush off getting as far as I have, and I have been so patient, and I am so close that I can see the checkered flag and the spectators cheering me on.

But then I look down and realize that I am running on a treadmill, and I am stuck. I can't go forward and I can't go back: I am just running in place. I am getting no closer to that finish line than I was eight months ago when we began this process. With four weeks left in this pregnancy, I feel like my feet are glued in place. I am exhausted and so ready for this race to be over, but it seems like it will never end.

I am counting down the days until March 6. It leers nearer and nearer, but it is crawling closer and closer at a snail's pace. The first 35 weeks went by so quickly. It felt like I got a positive test, confirmed at the doctor, and then blinked and was as big as a house. I know it's all in my head, but I can't help feeling like this baby is never going to get here!

I'm not known to be a patient person. I hate surprises, not because I don't like to be surprised, but because I just hate not knowing the secret. I have this urgent need to know everything, which is probably why journalism spoke to me in high school and college. Not being able to plan is killing me, though I am grateful not to need to have a planned C-section.

Part of the problem is that I am just so excited to begin this new chapter in our lives. I can't wait to see what our daughter is going to look like and how she Cooper will interact. I am dying to pink up the Pind house with girlie clothes and toys, and I am overjoyed to see how easily she wraps Max around her tiny finger. I am so over the thought of having to wait.

I am that horrible person who needs instant gratification. Yes, I eat the batter out of the bowl before the brownies are made, and yes, I was the child who got up at 2 a.m. Christmas morning to see what Santa brought me. That's just who I am. I am impatient and I'm not afraid to let you know.

It doesn't help the fact that our whole family is impatient too, except for Max. I think if he had his way, the gestation period would be 12 months or more instead of nine, because he always feels as if he is not ready and needs more time to prepare. Cooper is the worst after me when it comes to impatience. He asks me every day when sissy is going to be here. He wakes up in the morning and asks if sissy came in the night -- it's almost like he thinks of her like Santa.

My mother, sister and mother in-law are just as giddy with excitement. Since my mom is retired now, she is coming down a week before the due date so she doesn't have to make a 3 a.m. drive like she did with Coop. She has it all planned out and can't wait. She told everyone she would be gone until she decides to come back. My mother-in-law had the nursery done at her house months before I could even get Max to discuss ours, let alone start decorating and cleaning it. She ordered the baby bedding about two hours after we told her we're having a girl.

And it doesn't stop there! It seems like everywhere I go and everyone I know can't help but remind me that she is almost here. At church people tell me it will go by so fast and I shouldn't blink. At the grocery store little old ladies just can't keep their hands or thoughts to themselves. My friends all want to be called immediately when I go into labor because they can't wait to hold her. The problem is this just reminds me that four weeks is still four weeks, and no matter how much I wish or pray, time will not go into hyper-drive.

One thing is for sure: this pregnancy is trying to teach me patience, unlike my first. I learn patience when she kicks all night long and I can't get comfortable or sleep. I practice patience when I can no longer enjoy my favorite pepperoni pizza, and I delve into patience while waiting on her, because time slows the more excited you are.

I ask that you all have patience for me as well, because I am failing -- patience is not one of my virtues!

Kristen Pind, a native of small-town Gower, Mo., came to Southeast Missouri State University with big dreams of being the next Katie Couric or Diane Sawyer. She never thought that by age 25, she'd be married with a baby and living in Cape Girardeau. Keep up with Kristen's adventures as a first-time mom -- one who's still a girl trying to figure out how her own life fits together. Turns out, she's living a dream she never knew she had, and loving every minute of it. Kristen invites moms of all types to find her "Baby Steps" page on Facebook.