The Baby Who Cried Born

I made yet another fruitless trip out to Long Island last week after a phone call from my pregnant wife. Around 11am on Thursday, she called me to say that she's having strong contractions again and was going upstairs to get checked out. She works in the same hospital she's delivering in, so this is convenient. About two hours later, I get another phone call from her saying "They're doing to do the C-Section today." The nurses and residents all told her to call me so I wouldn't miss it. She was even examined internally by her least favorite resident, who we call Fisticuffs, due to her inclination to show the fetus her wristwatch. They were actually ordering anesthesia, so it was feeling like this was it. The contractions usually stop after a couple hundred milliliters of intravenous fluid. They had given her nearly 1000 ml and the contractions hadn't stopped. After volleying a few "You're sure? I'm sure!!" back and forth, she told me to call my mother and she would do the same. This was the pre-agreed upon strategy for the grandparents to make all the phone calls so we didn't have to. Remembering the last 5 visits to the hospital, I still wasn't 100% convinced that this was actually taking place. I even told Katrina, "Don't call your mother until I'm wearing scrubs."

I use the company car service we have at work to shuttle me out there so I don't have to deal with the Long Island Railroad. They won't mind the charge, I thought. It's a special occasion! I sat in a ton of traffic and only got about a third of the way there before I got another phone call telling me that it was called off. Apparently, once the doctor showed up on the scene, he reminded everyone of a hospital policy where they don't do c-sections more than seven days out unless it's an emergency. It would seem that no one knew this but the doctor. So he closed up shop and told Katrina to come back when she was in so much pain she couldn't carry on a conversation. The silver lining is that he put through the paperwork so that she didn't have to go back to work for the rest of her pregnancy - all 6 business days worth - citing stressful work conditions. The official extraction date is Monday, July 21st at 7am.

She was home all day on Friday and had the house to herself for the first time in 4 months. It was also the first time in a while when she had no contractions. So, as long as she doesn't move or think, she'll be just fine. However, when we were at the playground this weekend, I had to put a leash on her so she wouldn't go running after Alina. Mom habits die hard.