FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) - Army officials are preparing for a baby boom to hit just over nine months after the first wave of soldiers returned home from Iraq.

About 160 babies are expected to be born this December followed by another 140 in January, said Roycelyn Bowman, obstetrics director at the Army post outside Colorado Springs. More are set to follow in February and March, as some soldiers get ready to deploy again to the Middle East.

It's the largest number of pregnancies since the end of the Gulf War.

"We knew as soon as the troops came back that we were going to have a population explosion," Bowman said. "They say "He got back, and yup, now I'm pregnant!"'

Those expecting include both the wives of soldiers and female soldiers who served in Iraq, she said. The post sent 14,000 soldiers to Iraq and soldiers began returning in February with the bulk of them arriving home in March and April.

To accommodate all the expectant mothers, Fort Carson is holding group pregnancy education classes for the women instead of the normal one-on-one classes.

The post's Evans Army Community Hospital won't be able to handle all the births and has found civilian doctors to care for some of the women off-post.

At a pregnancy class last week, the expectant mothers received a diaper bag full of gifts and were assigned midwives. They were also told their due dates in private.

Staff Sgt. Moses Santana and his wife Marta, high school sweethearts from Philadelphia, are expecting their third child March 8, just before he expects to redeploy.

"This is the first one I'll be here for," Santana said.

He was in Iraq when their son Lysic was born last June and in Germany when Nyah, 4, was born.