I’ve been thinking a lot in terms of lasts lately:

• This is the last beer I’ll drink for a while.
• This is probably the last time I’ll watch Show X before the baby’s here.
• This could be my last peaceful night’s sleep for a bit.
• This is the last book I’ll finish before she’s born.

They’re not all privations as I seem to have suggested above, or not all materialistic, selfish sorts of privations. There are the ones like This may be one of the last times I curl my arm around her undinal belly to feel the small hardness of the baby’s foot or the larger hardness of her butt and This may be my last night having to wait for her to be born.

And with all the lasts will come many firsts, no doubt many more firsts of significance to me than those I’ve had or can recall to date. Some examples that spring to mind:

• Her first cry
• Her first smile
• Her first giggle (I’m hoping for a guffaw, myself)
• Her first word
• Her first step
• Her first bath
• Her first recognition of me
• Her first effort to yank the beard right off my face (babies are good for that)
• Her first attempt to roll over

There are a million more that’ll happen in just her first couple of years that I haven’t even conceived of yet. She should be here within the next 48 – 50 hours, and, yes, it is a time of lasts — tomorrow will be my last childless day of work and Wednesday morning will be the last time I wake up not a father and for all I know, this will be my last entry before I have a daughter — but it’s also a very exciting time of firsts that I couldn’t be more pleased to be facing.