Part I Part III Part IV Part V
So then things were boring for a while. More paperwork, more writing down start times for contractions...and dang it if they didn't start getting closer together. And I thought, "Well, maybe something really is happening. I'd better get this paperwork done just in case."
Unfortunately though, the paperwork was just too involved to finish right then. It was a really long and really boring form requiring things like old addresses, people who "knew me when," alternate names for the color beige, and so on. Things I would have to dig around a bit to find. And my 'puter was forcing me offline so it could do some updates for work. Plus by now it was in the 5's, and the natives were getting hungry, and I thought, "If something really is happening I should probably feed my children." So there was that. And then there were the early-labor tasks, like making up the bed (good sheets on bottom, plastic layer, and old sheets on top), and prepping the egg-bake for the after-the-birth meal, and so on. All to say, I put away the work stuff and got down to business on home stuff.
The interesting thing to me about the next few hours--except for the fact that I was fairly convinced I was finally in labor--is how ordinary was the course of events. The Cat Daddy came home at his regular time, having not even looked at my texts until I told him about them, thereby rendering all of them moot. I gave Carol a call just before dinner to check in, and based on my descriptions she said it sounded pretty labor-ish (my words), and to call again in an hour (or sooner if it all hit the fan--my words again). Then there was dinner, and bathtime, and pulling the Littler One out of a mailbox a couple times (which wasn't nearly as bizarre as it sounds), though not in that order. Then the Cat Daddy ushered the boyz to their slumber party and ran a coupla quick errands while I called Carol back. She determined that, while it was still likely a little early in the process, she and her assistant (Marte, pronounced like Marta) would pack up their gear and head my way. For the most part I felt calm and happy and not-competitive, but there was that one part of me that went "YES!!"
**I feel the need to clarify the nature and reason behind the "YES!!" With the homebirthing, things can get hairy if two or more moms go into labor at the same time. But not that hairy--quite simply, lots of midwives work back-up for each other. So if the first-time mom's labor had progressed quickly and Carol headed over there, then the back-up midwife (a lovely and fantastic lady who was the primary midwife for a friend of mine, so I felt pretty comfortable about her even thought I'd never met her) would have come to me, and we all would have been quite content and well-cared-for. While this is a fantastic and effective system of contingency plans, I was grateful for Plan A. Hence the "YES!!" And as it turned out, the first-time mom did not go into full labor that night, so no one had to "beat" anyone to anything, which made me feel good because I like it when things turn out nice & neat that way. End digression.**
By this point it was 7:30ish and the ladies were shooting to arrive around 9ish (packing time plus a 45-min drive). Also by this point, the house was as clean as it was gonna get, so we finished the early-labor tasks. Then we were all "What do we do now?" and decided to put the office back together. See, we had painted it a couple weeks prior, and the stuff was still out in our family/play room, so we figured we might as well do what we could before things got really intense, what with a baby coming out and all. I did leave the bulk of the lifting to the Cat Daddy--my main tasks were running cables to the modem and so on so they would be nice & neat. There were contractions every few minutes in there, during which I would stop & sit & breathe thru them. After that it was 8:30, and there were some ticky-tack-type tasks to do (filing, anyone??) but I got about 5 minutes into those before deciding I didn't really want to do that anymore. I told the Cat Daddy, "I'm gonna go upstairs & hang out while I wait for Carol & Marte." He teased me about bailing on him, and I made snide remarks that were equal parts "I love you" and "Tread lightly, Buster Brown."
See? Boring...
Part I Part III Part IV Part V
No comments:
Post a Comment