Monday, November 19, 2012

Oh What a Skype


I worked all weekend wrapping up loose ends.  Everything was laundered and put away, the nursery projects were complete, and now we waited.

My bestest friend and I planned on talking Monday night once her kids were in bed.  While we were on the phone, Chris came down our stairs into the living room where I was, and he had his phone up to his ear too. "Are our husbands talking to each other too?'  Her husband was helping Chris get Skype set up on our computer.  We knew we would need it soon with grandparents wanting to see the little one.  It was up and running fairly quickly, and soon the four of us were talking "face to face."

I couldn't have planned any better what happened next.  To this day, the four of us can't believe it happened while we were all together, looking at one another's faces.

My phone rings.

"Guys, it's a text from Leslie."

My heart was racing, and our friends thought we were kidding.  "Oh yeah right, Manda."

I started reading the text, and everyone realized it was no joke.  I don't have record of the exact words, but here is the jist of what was going on.  Abby told Leslie she was having some cramping.  Leslie asked what the cramping was like.  Abby said, "Oh it comes and goes."  Leslie wisely asked, "When did the cramping start?  How often is it coming and going?"  Abby said she had them all afternoon, and they were now about 5 minutes apart.  Leslie asked me what she thought she should do.

I read everything to the group.  All four of our jaws dropped.  We busted out laughing at how ridiculous we all looked and couldn't believe what was happening.  "She is in labor, right?"  I said.  I quickly texted that to Leslie and encouraged her to take Abby to the hospital to be examined.  We exchanged what felt like another hundred texts and decided Chris and I would start making our way to the hospital.  It was a 2 hour drive for us.  Even if it was a false alarm, we didn't want to risk not being there.

We were freaking out.  Our friends were freaking out.  "Amanda, your baby might be born tonight."  We hung up with them and began what felt like the scene from a movie.  In less than an hour we washed dishes, showered, packed, and hit the road.  Dishes?  I didn't want nasty dishes sitting in my sink for who knows how long.  And I didn't know when I would shower again.  That turned out to be a smart move.

Once we were in the car we called our family and told them we would keep them posted.  It was around 9pm when we left town.  I tried my best to sleep on the ride there.  Yeah right!  That didn't happen.  Leslie kept us posted with texts.  Abby was 4cm dilated and was getting checked into the hospital.  We arrived at 11pm, and she had her own room by then.  We stayed in the waiting room near the nursery, and Leslie would update us periodically.  Abby came to see us and we were able to chit chat, asking how she was feeling and encouraged her to keep up the good work.  She was having consistent contractions, but you would have never guessed.  The gal had a high pain tolerance and was walking laps around the maternity ward.

Looks like we're in for a long night.

More to come,
Amanda

2 comments:

  1. It was like YOU were the one in labor :) You totally did the things I did when I went into labor... I was super irrational... took a shower, did the dishes (I was so worried about having a ton of dishes stacked up when I came back with a newborn from the hospital... and this was back in the days of no running water in the apartments which made it worse), tried to sleep but couldn't. :) Glad you're posting the rest of the story!

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  2. I love "living" this story with you by reading about it! I wish I had our adoption stories written out in this much detail. I love it!!

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