The word is out.

So here I am, 36 years old, mother of two relatively self-sufficient children who are well beyond diapers and can easily speak in full sentences, and pregnant with number three. I think I might have lost my mind, but oddly I feel very at peace about it. Mostly, I think, because my hormones have taken over and are preventing me from dealing with the eventual reality of a full-time job and three kids.

11 weeks into this I am disappointed to discover (for the second time) how intensely focused all baby magazines, pregnancy books, blogs and web sites are on first-time mothers. There's all these dumb articles about how to divide up chores with your husband after the baby comes, what to expect at the hospital/during delivery, what your baby's first poop will look like. It makes me want to puke. But the upside is that I realize I've learned a thing or two over the last seven years of parenthood that no magazine article is ever going to tell me. As Oprah would say, these are the things I know for sure.

1. Sometime within the first month of having this baby I will want to kill Chad. I will hate him for his inability to cope with sleep loss, his half-assed cleaning up of the kitchen after dinner and his seeming refusal to notice when he should probably get up out of his chair and HELP somebody with something. This feeling of hatred in no way reflects his real and unrelentingly cheerful attitude, his absolute willingness to do homework, play basketball/t-ball/soccer/tea party, his innate ability to make even morning toothbrushing fun and his overall general willingness to do just about anything to keep things running smoothly.

2. There's no one way to skin a cat, I mean, take care of a baby. Every baby is different. So is every family. What worked with Grace absolutely did not work with Lauren and I'm sure I'll be figuring out something new yet again. But that's exactly what we'll do: Figure it out. And it will be fine.

3. I probably won't have this crushing wave of love that comes over me at the moment of delivery. Yes, of course I love this baby already. But the actual reality of love, that moment of WOW I would do anything for this child takes a few days, at least for me. That's okay. I'm not a weirdo.

4. This is the luckiest baby alive because he/she has a village of people who are excitedly awaiting his/her arrival and whose hearts are filled with love and gratitude for this gift in which they will share. That makes me a lucky mom too.