During the long months of this pregnancy, I have been blessed with
the companionship of a few special friends. We used to see each other
only once a month, but lately we've been able to get together once or
even twice a week, and how eagerly I have looked forward to these sweet
moments of fellowship with women whose joy in motherhood outstrips even
my own!

I realized today that our time together is drawing to a close…very soon (very, very
soon, do you hear me?) it will be time to go our separate ways, and we
shall see each other only once a year or thereabouts. Ah, dear friends,
whatever will I do without you? Fortunately I happened to have my
camera in my bag at our visit today, so I was able to capture a few
treasured snapshots of these fair and tender ladies I have come to know
so well.

Here they are all together with their precious infants, the whole beautiful bunch of them. Aren't they lovely?

So serene, so gentle, so rouged.

I
have learned so much from these ladies. For example, here I am about to
give birth to my sixth child, and yet until I met Angelica would you
believe I had no idea it was proper to blow-dry one's hair to a
silky sheen, tie back a few glossy locks with a ribbon, don a ruffly
off-the-shoulder gown, and apply several coats of blusher before
sitting down to breastfeed one's baby?

This is going to make a real difference in my next post-partum
experience, let me tell you. Angelica always looks so calm and well
rested. I realize now that my customary get-up of hastily scrunchied
ponytail, spit-up-stained T-shirt, and no makeup whatsoever has been at
the root of the exhaustion I typically experience during those first
weeks with a new baby. LOOK beautiful and you'll FEEL beautiful is Angelica's motto.

Elspeth
has a similar philosophy about pregnancy. I understand now that in
banning white clothing from my wardrobe several sticky-fingered
toddlers ago, I have been depriving myself of a kind of delicate
radiance that would surely have blessed the child in my womb and all in
our presence. And that band of pink ribbon below her bosom—how
beautifully it offsets her the rosy glow of her lips. Every word that
comes out of a mouth like that is pure honey, I suspect. (I can't say
for sure, because demure Elspeth never utters a word. But you can see
just by looking at her that she is full of warm and soothing thoughts.)

As
for our ringleted chum Swoozie, I admit I worry a little about her
sometimes. Those raw bruises on her cheek…the dark rings around her
eyes…her habit of staring off into the distance, lost in thought,
bottle-feeding her infant without even looking at him…I have some
concerns about her home life. But she has never uttered a word of
complaint, so perhaps I'm mistaken. Possibly she is only thinking about
when to get her next perm.

Oh, dear friends, how grateful I am for the many times you have
entertained me while I waited for our obstetrician to amble into the
exam room! It is very good of you, all of you, to have kept such a
patient vigil with me as the long, long minutes ticked by.

You will be sorely missed.