Welcome Melanie for another weekend post! Melanie was ready to run with a version of this post at this time last month but something happened which caused us to postpone it! Can you guess what happened?

As I sat anxiously anticipating the arrival of my firstborn child. I couldn’t help but think about how I handle highly anticipated events.

Somehow, I was calm and peaceful in the days leading up to our baby’s arrival.  Highly anticipated events cause me to slowly quiet my heart. If I think too much about them I start to get worked up, overly excited and anxious, so I deal with anticipation by accepting and looking forward to what’s coming, but not dwelling or focusing on it too much.

I often get the questions like, “How are you not more excited about this?” or “Why don’t you seem excited, I would be freaking out.” This has happened in my life more than just with the arrival of a baby.  I always respond by reassuring the person that I am in fact very excited. What I really want to explain and the truth that I have trouble describing is that I don’t think my body and mind can handle that type of excitement. It kind of “shuts down.” This might sound like a bad thing, but I don’t mean to say it shuts down and stops caring, it is more like I quietly calm myself and focus on the moment at hand.

I see some people can manage that excitement. They become bubbly and bouncy and share their excitement with those around them. Honestly, I always wonder how they don’t explode.

When I think too much about what is coming my anticipation becomes like the snowball effect where I can’t control my emotions and I go too far beyond anticipation to sheer excitement and bliss which leaves my heart racing and my mind thinking too much about every possible scenario and how I might not be ready for what is to come.

As I waited to feel contractions, head to the hospital and meet my little baby for the first time on the outside all I could focus on was the squirmy little baby in my belly. I just enjoyed those last moments of him in there so I could function in those last few days of pregnancy.

How do you handle anticipation? Do you dive right in bubbling over with excitement or are you more like me, surprisingly calm and quiet?

photo credit:  Tetsumo