The journey began 'round 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. I had just returned home from work and my wife begins to go into labor. As a trained husband does, I keep expert time of each ensuing contraction. As 6:30 in the evening rolls around we decide to go the hospital as the contractions have been between three and a half to five and a half minutes apart, with each contraction increasing in strength. It must be time!
At the hospital Erin, my wife, is hooked up to several monitors. I have come to realize that these machines are designed for the entertaining of the husbands, and to keep us from annoying the woman in labor. I intently watch the lines and numbers on the screens, giving an infallible analysis of what is happening each second with my wife and our baby. In the meantime my wife is on the bed fighting triumphantly through each contraction. Soon after arriving in the hospital, after being in labor for over 2 hours, labor suddenly seems to stop. The excitement of having our baby that night turned to sadness at the thought of yet even more waiting. After some more monitoring the determination was made by the doctors to send us home. Yep, I guess we were just going to have wait. Although I knew we would have this baby when the time was right.
Well, I help my wife into our vehicle ready for the drive home. Apparently our little girl likes to play some funny jokes on us because as soon as we started home Erin started immediately again into labor. The contractions we hard and quick, BUT since we were just sent away from the hospital we decided to stick with the doctors orders and go home. It was here that Erin went through most of her labor. Maybe, just maybe we might have this baby tonight after all.
At 11:30 p.m. Wednesday night, after being home for just two hours, Erin decides it is time to get back to the hospital and deliver our baby. And thank goodness she made that decision when she did.
Since my wife is in such pain with her contractions, I drop her off at the emergency room entry so someone can wheel her up to delivery. As I join up with her from parking the car they are getting just getting her situated in her delivery room. I take a quick glance at my watch, 11:56 p.m., not much of a chance of having our baby tonight. The nurse who sent us home is still there and checks our status with disbelief. My wife is dialated to a 9! This baby is ready to be delivered, right now! She hurriedly gets the doctor on the phone to get there immediately. As the doctor walks in the door I take another quick glance at my watch, 12:09 a.m. She takes a couple of minutes getting her gear on and then says it is okay to push. It didn't take long! Within minutes the doctor was asking me to inform my wife if we had given birth to a boy or a girl. With tears of joy and with great amounts of pride I shouted, "It's a GIRL!" I took one last look at my watch, 12:16 a.m. Perfect timing!
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