Monday, January 19, 2009

Mommy intuition

This past Friday was an non-fun-filled eventful and interesting day.

I will go on the record and say, so far, it was a most uncomfortable day of 2009 yet. Why do you ask? Well, in most part due to the fact that the day ended up with my wife and I in the hospital. Yah, that never ends up being a fun day. Who really would say…

“Wow! I had an awesome day today, I went to the hospital! Whoo hoo!”

This Friday was most annoying and I will also add that I was miserable as soon as I woke up b/c of my lack of judgment the day before. I, like any idiot who visits the sun bed in January, (yah, don’t even ask) was “sun burned” and not just sun burned, but I probably had three-degree burns on my face! I was already in unbearable pain and was ready to go home and also ready for the impending weekend.

I receive a call from my wife…

“I am a little worried…” she said.

“What’s wrong?” I replied in a hushed but very concerned voice.

“Well, I am having a lot of cramping, it hurts when I stand up, and I haven’t felt Mauldin since last night.”

Okay, Laura, my wife, does not know this, but this seriously sent me into panic mode. I already have ten thousand scenarios running through my brain. Is this for real? I don't want to dismiss her motherly intuition because, I mean lets face it, she was right about the sex of our child! Who says she isn't right about this... She is a little bit more intune with Mauldin than I am.

“Laura, I am sure everything is fine, I felt him kicking a lot last night.” I say this while trying to keep her calm.

“I need you to not get upset, because I don’t want to freak out.” She says in a ‘don’t freak-out on me’ way.

“Laura, call the doctor and see what they say…”

So, after I hang up with her my heart begins pounding in my feet, brain, hands, everywhere but where my heart is located… why can’t I feel my heart in my chest? Oh there it is…

Time passes slower than watching grass grow, paint dry or watching a high school football game… why is she not calling me back??? Does she not know I am about to lose it? (In all honesty maybe three minutes went by.)

I decided to call her and find out what the doctor suggested…

Laura says in a calm, but I’m on the verge of crying way..

“I was just about to call you.”

“Okay, “ I said, “what did they say?”

“No one is on-call or able to see me at the doctor’s office at such late notice so they want me to go to the hospital to get monitored. So, I figure we can go after my meetings this afternoon…”

I sit there and I hear the words that were just uttered out of my wife’s mouth, my wife that is 30-weeks pregnant and this is certainly a very fragile time and this is our life, this is our child, this little boy has been the center of our universe for only 30 weeks now and we cannot have something happen to him now… I won’t allow it. I am gonna pull a Janice (for those of you who do not know this reference, my mom is Janice and this is a statement used whenever you ‘really’ wanna get something done) or someone better because we will be at the hospital in less than 30 minutes or … I dunno…

“Laura, you have meetings?” I said in a firm, but ‘oh no you didn’t voice.’

“this is what you are gonna do… you are gonna call those parents and let them know you have to reschedule because something very important has come up and you have to go to the HOSPITAL.”

“Okay,” she said… “I will make arrangements.”

“Alright,” I said, “I will be there as soon as you give me the word.”

So, another excruciating three minutes pass until she calls me back to pick her up. Mind you I have already emailed my boss to let her know where I was going and why and as soon as I leave all logic disappears from my psyche. I have no idea how to get to Laura’s school. Now I start freaking out,

“Oh my God! How am I gonna do this whenever she is in labor? I am gonna end up in who knows where!”

To make a long story short, I know too late, I pick her up at 2:45pm. We arrive at the hospital a few minutes after 3:00pm and she is monitored by a couple of machines for atleast 30 minutes. Of course, Mauldin, who was probably asleep because his mommy is such an active little firecracker, decides it is time to start his exercise routines and lets the nurse know he is just fine and has a heartbeat between the range of 135-150!

So, all the panicking, all the stressing, all was fine.

Although, we did learn a valuable lesson. My dear sweet, always-on-the-go wife, has got to slow down! We have a minimum of seven weeks left to go!!! Whoa…

12 comments:

Laura said...

Glad everything is ok! :)

Anonymous said...

I'm glad everything is fine. It's better to be safe than sorry!

Anonymous said...

Ah, the panic!! Sucks doesn't it?
Our first son was so quiet in the womb that they have this little buzzer thing that they had to poke him with whenever she had an ultrasound just to get him to move around so they could get his heartbeat. I kid you not!
The US tech is sitting there like, cattle prodding my wife's belly "ZZZZZZZZZ" and each time she did it, you could see the little fella jump on the monitor. Usually, it would take four or five jolts to wake him up.
Those kids...they do love drama!

Dave Carrol said...

hi there... just stumbled past your blog and I'm really enjoying it!

Parenthood is a wild wild ride!

Dave

James (SeattleDad) said...

Wow, you had me worried there. I can only imagine how you were feeling. Glad it was just that he was a heavy sleeper! Hope the rest of the pregnancy goes smooth.

1sttimedad said...

Now that you're in the home stretch you'll find that every lack of inactivity, every cramp, every pain is escalated 1,000 times because your anticipation level is sky-high.

We went through it too, and the fact you didn't climb under your desk and rock back and forth shows that you're ready for the rest.

Glad to hear everything is OK!

Jason Roth said...

I'm happy to hear everything is good. We had a "panic" moment at 26 weeks with both of our boys. It's natural.

Anonymous said...

I am trying to remember exactly when it was that I had my panic moment, but I think it was at 28-29 weeks along and I had CONSTANT Braxton Hicks contractions. Many more than you are supposed to have in an hour and we were going on a short vacay to the mountains. I called the doctor and they told me to drink a lot of water (which is NOT fun for a road trip) and to call back if they didnt go away. Well, they subsided some, but after a weekend of relaxation I was better. Talk about freaking out though!

Whit said...

What a fright! Glad everyone is okay.

Dawn said...

I'm thrilled to hear that mommy and baby are safe and healthy! Don't feel guilty for your panic-attack. You'll soon learn that its a natural, instinctive Daddy reaction!

Captain Dumbass said...

Ugh! Pre-birth panic. Don't worry, it gets... nah, forget it. Just hold on tight.

Anonymous said...

Glad everything is alright. It's tough to keep your anticipation in check as you get closer to the due date. Deep breaths, deep breaths.