Baby Watch 2009: We ain't got nooooo babies

10 p.m. Saturday and all is ... non-baby.
We're on pins and needles. This pregnancy has been rough.
Feeling tired all the time. Slightly nauseous. Not quite right. Dragging. Bumping into things. Headaches. And, a few times, the shakes.
But that's what happens when you go cold turkey on a Diet Coke addiction.
Matt had a problem. A real bad problem. He was addicted to the sweet, sweet taste of Diet Coke. When the brown stuff touched his lips, he was in a beautiful, highly caffeinated world. Sweet, sweet bliss.
But there was a dark side. The late nights. The hyperactive typing. Five, six 20 ouncers, just to get out of bed. Bottle after bottle filling up the recycling bin.
Matt knew it couldn't last. But he couldn't bring himself to quit. He needed some motivation.
The pregnancy did it.
Since Lynne couldn't have soda, Matt wouldn't have soda. A show of solidarity. Lynne couldn't take a day off from being pregnant, so Matt couldn't - in good conscience - take a day off from the soda strike. So, from the day he found out he has been soda free.
It wasn't easy. The first days had some serious withdrawal. (Seriously.) Matt actually had to apologize to Lynne since she was in real pain, for a legitimate reason. But he felt awful. Still, he trudged on.
Many said he wouldn't make it. Many said he's falter.
And he did. Once. Accidentally. For some reason, Matt convinced himself that Red Bull was not a soda. It was energy drink. So one morning when he was really dragging, he chugged a Red Bull. It failed to give him wings. It did makes his eyes open twice as wide as normal. Matt looked at the contents: sugar and caffeine. That sure sounded like a soda. Matt blames his caffeine withdrawal-addled brain for the fall.
But other than that one slip up, Matt's been soda less since Super Bowl Sunday. Not too shabby. Even when it turned out that Lynne could have soda - and she did - Matt held out.
So, as you can imagine, Matt's eager for the baby to be born. Oh sure, for the life affirming joy, for the beauty of new life and for the incomparable blessing of starting a new family.
And also for that first sweet sip of Diet Coke. Just a sip.