Flashback

I guess we haven't really shared the details of the day with people...so to flashback and fill you in, maybe we'll answer some questions.

We had our Dr.'s appointment on Monday and Lydianne wasn't dilated at all. She was having contractions, but couldn't feel them. So Lydianne went to work on Tuesday like normal, riding in the carpool with our neighbor friend. About 10 o'clock she called me to tell me she was having some uncomfortable contractions pretty regularly. She said she would time them for the next 30 minutes and call me back. They needed to be 10 min. apart, so I figured if she had three of them, I could drive the 30 min. to Greenville and pick her up, and by then we would know how regular they were. If you know Lydianne at all, then you've probably already guessed that she never called me back. I spent the next 30 minutes scrambling around the house putting bags in the car, checking the tire pressure (?), and wishing I had time to eat.

I called at 10:30 and she said they weren't really regular, that they weren't 10 minutes apart. I asked her how often they were and she told me, "2 minutes, then 4 minutes, then 5 minutes, then three minutes..." I told her that I thought that counted as being regular. She thought they were supposed to be evenly spaced. I told her to call the doctor, and meanwhile, I would head up there.

I arrived 30 minutes later and she said the doctor had told her to come into the office to be checked. As we were driving, the doctor called back and told us just to meet her at the hospital. As we drove the 30 minutes to the hospital in the pouring rain, we discussed "false labor" and how we hadn't experienced it yet. With only 2 days to go until the planned C-section, we figured we were finally going to experience it. We assumed he wasn't coming and talked about the other important things we could get done today since she probably wouldn't be able to concentrate on work anyway.

So we arrived at the hospital and headed to the Labor & Delivery area. Once we got to the door, the nurse told us we needed to check-in. I explained that we had pre-registered, so I thought we didn't have to do that. She told me I needed to go up to the desk and activate the registration in the system, meanwhile they would take Lydianne back to an exam room. I headed up to the front desk and handed her the ID and insurance card and she told me to have a seat and that someone would be with me in a moment. I sat there for 20 minutes. 20 long, agonizing, stressful minutes. Every time a doctor or nurse would walk around the corner I would look at them expectantly and he/she would just smile and keep walking by. I started to think, "What a horrible system this was...why would they make a husband sit in a separate part of the hospital away from his nervous wife and think that was acceptable?"

Finally a nurse wandered through the lobby and asked me if I was Mr. McDonald. When I said yes she told me they thought they had lost me and that they couldn't find me...I was sitting right where the lady told me to sit!

Meanwhile, back in exam room 7...the nurse had brought the ID cards back almost as soon as I had handed them to the lady at the desk. The nurse in the room, luckily, kept asking where I was, finally telling everyone to stop and wait until the husband gets back. If not for her, I might have still been waiting in the lobby.

When I entered the room Lydianne just looked at me with this incredulous look and said "We're doing it, they want me to deliver today". I was stunned. I immediately thought of all of the important things I needed to get done today...and that was pretty much the last time I thought of any of those things. The Dr. looked at the clock, which now read 11:45, and said "I want to be cutting by 1:00. See you then." And so we were left sitting in the room alone to prepare ourselves for the rest of our lives.