Getting the Show on the Road!

One year ago today, I was in labor.

Well, sorta. I was in the maternity ward, I was hooked up to a dozen monitors. I was wearing the gown. I was waiting for the baby to get moving. Per usual. And not much was happening.

We drove to the hospital at 4:40am. I joked about wanting the Tremendous Twelve from Perkins before I checked in. The Dad assured me the PB&J and Vitamin Water breakfast I had at home would sustain me. Ha. I was ready to eat the cotton out of my pillow by the time I was actually given food ... 31.5 hours later.



I don't think I will ever remind the lil' dude I was in labor with her for 31.5 hours. I mean, I won't say it to make her feel bad. (It will come up in casual conversation someday though) Because it wasn't bad. Some of it was, yeah, bad. But just a tiny portion. Teeny tiny in the grand scheme of things. I remember at 5am as I got undressed and hooked up to Pitocin my sweet nurse telling me her shift ended at 3pm and we would have a baby by then. I remember doing the travel math in my head, figuring when the grandparents would ascend upon our room, meeting their first grandchild for the very first time.



Well, that nurse came and went. She was there later when part of my water broke. She apologized when she left, an hour late even, that very little had happened on her shift. Barely anything.

"It's OK," I told her.

The Dad had sent some texts that afternoon as I slept on and off. He called the Grandma's at dinner time, apologizing for getting them all excited for nothing. "Yeah, around a 3. Not all the way to it," I heard him say.

Then, I began to feel something, finally. Wow. It is as indescribable as they say. They gave me something via the IV. It made me feel awesome. High, loopy. I couldn't have the epidural yet because I wasn't to a 4. I had been there for 13, almost 14 hours. Sigh.

Around 9pm, my 2nd (or was it 3rd?) fabulous nurse said, "close enough," and the Anesthesiologist showed up. I loved him.
So, as the clock neared midnight on December 6th, I smiled, thinking, one of these days, little baby, I will get to meet you. And I fell fast asleep.