My uterus feels... empty

As Grayer is quick to point out, I am the one around here feeling the pressure to settle down and reproduce. I don't deny this fact. I admit it: I have the babyache. Some of you may know what I'm talking about, but for those of you who don't, it's a little something like this: Every time you see a baby or a young child, you get this achy (empty) feeling in your uterus. And in some cases, if the baby or young child in question does something particularly adorable, you may start to get choked up, or actual tears may come to your eyes. My friends joke about it, but it pretty much sucks.

So why the sudden baby aches? Are my ovaries really drying up? (By the way, that joke gets less and less funny every time...) I still have a few years to go before I hit 30, and women are having children much later these days, so I don't really think that has to do with it. If I had to, I would pin it to one incident in particular that happened just over a year ago.

I was volunteering in South America, and on the weekends, I would volunteer at a local orphanage. The girls were adorable, and it broke my heart every time I went to leave and they got upset or asked me not to go (because everyone in their life has left them at some point). One afternoon, I was sitting on a swing with one of the younger girls in my lap. The swing functioned as a rocking chair, and she ended up falling asleep. And with that, the baby aches began.

I try to keep that to myself as much as possible though, since letting potential mates know that my uterus feels empty and my ovaries are drying up isn't much of a turn on...