Friend A has just announced her pregnancy. I'm delighted for her; she'll make a wonderful parent and so will her DH. Friend B is also pregnant (announced last month, and is a few weeks ahead). I have a 6 month old DS.
A and I are very close friends as are our DHs. A and B are also close friends, as are their DHs. B and I know each other through A, but are not very close (though I like her and we may be in time, but we don't live near each other and haven't spent much time together). A and Mr A are moving home shortly too, which will be further away from us and closer to B and Mr B - right around the corner. They will get to be preggo buddies and spend their ML together doing baby activities and discovering the joys and milestones of their children for the first time. And I am delighted for them both, but a little envious because when I was pregnant I had no close friends to share the emotions with, and didn't really know anyone with babies to see regularly. I felt like I was going it alone but that my friends would join me in the parent club soon, and we would do things together! And now they will have each other close by, and it will be more difficult for me DH and DS to see A and Mr A as they won't be popping by as much any more, and neither will we - the distance means visits to each other will probably require an overnight stay once they move. Which obviously also requires more of a formal invitation and structure when each family has an infant to look after as well, so I don't expect this to be either a casual or frequent arrangement.
I do think that close friendship relationships are usually significantly helped along by proximity and convenience, since you build on time spent together. And I'm overjoyed and excited by the news from both wonderful ladies, but I'm finding tonight to my dismay that I'm secretly mourning my friendship with A a little already, because I don't think we will figure as much in their lives, and I don't want to lose them from mine. We have grown apart from our other closest pre-baby couple friends due to their stratospheric careers which mean they don't have much time to spend with us any more, and though it is a bit playground-y I want to hang onto the As!
Fully prepared to be told IABU and to suck it up and be happy for them! I may just be hormonal myself, as AF arrived this morning for the first time since Jan and even though it would be terrible timing DH and I were talking about how we would cope with another and we were both a little disappointed to find out it wasn't to be.