Hey Brit, welcome again to our little forum family here! Glad you found us before sending off your package, so many often don't learn about this resource til after they've sent it off! I kinda scanned quickly through your info, so forgive me if I misread anything.
You're totally right to feel calm right now. Yes, it's a somewhat long annoying process, but being calm and confident is the best and fastest way to ride it out. Comb through your application package until you are 100% confident this is the best representation you could possibly make for your case. That way once you send it in, you know it's now out of your hands. As tedious as the process is, it's only a dot in your lifetime together and like everything else, this too shall pass. The posted "max" processing time for POS is currently 19 months, so if you go into in planning for that, then when it comes through sooner, you'll be pleasantly surprised! I'd advise against counting on 6-8 months, because if for some reason it doesn't come through within that time frame, you'll be pulling your hair out. Oh, and country of origin, citizen vs. PR or having child has no bearing on the processing time. Perhaps the only thing is that people from visa exempt countries typically go through less stringent background checks, so that might shorter their process a bit. Also, since you have a child, you are exempt from the conditional PR, but again, that's not related to processing time.
The fact that you got married and had a child after your husband was issued a departure order will unfortunately be a red flag on your application. This doesn't have to be a bad thing - it's all how you present your case. The VOs are trained to flag these things, so there's no point keeping quiet hoping they won't notice. Address it up front in your cover letter and point to the areas of your application that give further details. Your entire relationship will obviously be scrutinized, but they will pay particular attention to the period between when your husband left Canada and when you applied for his PR. You need to very clearly articulate in your relationship history pages how your relationship continued to develop after he left, how it progressed to marriage. Not sure how big/small of a wedding you had, but showing how you planned it together, how family was involved, etc. will be critical for your case. You need to show them that you both were excited leading up to your wedding and that it was a very special time for you. This will help to dispel any doubts as to his intentions marrying you after leaving the country. You also need to pay attention to the evidence to support your relationship continuing to develop post-marriage, as they will look closely at this. All of this should be very detailed in your story and point them to the areas in your application that support it. I saw you mentioned phone cards somewhere, these unfortunately do not count as evidence, as there's no proof of who you called with them. VO's have asked that people not send phone cards, as they're tossed out.
I think you asked something about straightforward cases with timelines. Ours was fairly straightforward, no interview, no additional document requests. Our stage 2 processing time was 6 months. Unfortunately, since we did meds early on in the process, my husband's med certificate expired and we were guinea pigs for the extension process, which at the time took 8 weeks, so although we got PPR after 6 months, it took 8 months to get the actual visa. Things seem to be taking a bit longer now with the strike and everything, but you just never know
Oh, and paying the fees up front definitely helps. They won't process your case faster because of it, BUT if they have to request the fees at the end, that will add at least 1 month onto your waiting time, so better to do it now.
Ok, enough of me talking, let me know if you have any specific questions ;D Good luck with everything, it'll all work out and be over before you know it!
