The Whole Story...

For those of you who haven't already heard the story, I thought I would share it because I think it is pretty amusing.

The day was a regular one. Nothing special. I babysat Alli and we ran errands with Grant most of the day. Once Mindy picked up Alli, we went to Moe's (as usual) for dinner. Ran into an old friend, told him I was due "any minute now", even though I was two weeks early and nothing was "going on" at my doctors appointment the day before. Well, we went home and I felt a little nauseous so I told Tim I was going to take a shower and go to bed. This was unusual because I had been feeling great up until that point. So, after my shower as I was heading to our bedroom, I felt (I swear you could hear it) a pretty powerful "POP". I'm sure that is self explanatory. After running back into the bathroom, I calmly informed Tim that my water had broken. He proceeded to stare at me and ask repeatedly if I was sure while Grant stood there telling me I had forgot to pull my underwear down before sitting on the pot! We decided to call Dr. Singh (who was at the movies with his son), in the meantime I had been timing my contractions which had picked up considerably since my water had broken. They seemed to be about six minutes apart, but what did I know. I had to get out 'What To Expect When You're Expecting' to figure out how to time contractions! We had planned on waiting for my aunt to come stay with Grant but I made the executive decision to haul "you know what" to the hospital and have her meet us there. Poor Tim had to run around the house getting our stuff together and layering the car seat with towels because I was busy trying to remember how to breathe, and reassuring Grant that I felt great at the same time. For those of you who have, or have had, an eight year old, they are pretty astute. I did a pretty good acting job if I do say so myself! By the time we actually got out the door, because all of you know we have a very hard time being on time anywhere we go, my contractions were four minutes apart. As we sped (and I do mean sped!) toward Wyandotte, with Grant informing Tim that he was going "pretty fast", and trying to call from memory all the people we had promised we would call, my contractions came one after another. I even had to hang up on my mom in the middle of one! After that, I envisioned her leaping into their car and flying like the wind all the way from Virginia! Well in my opinion, this is when things really got interesting. We pulled up to the emergency entrance and I attempted to get out of the car in the middle of a contraction. A kindly soul who was waiting to be seen in emergency saw my plight, and that Tim was trying to hold me up and console Grant at the same time, and brought us a wheelchair! Tim ran me through the doors and declared to one and all, "My wife is in labor!!!!" The emergency room attendant, who had probably seen many hysterical fathers-to-be, proceeded to ignore us while finishing reading his magazine article. Then in a VERY bored voice asked if he could help us. I told him my water had broken, I was 38 weeks pregnant, and as of the time that I left home, my contractions were four minutes apart. Well, we finally had his full attention! He ran around the desk, all the while yelling he was headed up to the maternity ward and telling Tim to hurry, park the car and meet us up stairs! I seriously felt like we were in a movie, as he whisked me down the hallway to the elevators, and upstairs to triage. I truly believe that he was terrified that I was going to deliver right then and there! He was so glad to ditch me, all I saw was his back as he hauled back down the hallway to safety! Things started jumpin' once the nurses confirmed that I was almost dilated to 7 cm.! By that point, my aunt and uncle were ready to take Grant home, but he was too worried to leave me. So, we had to time his visit between my contractions which were about two minutes apart by now. The nurse hustled him in to my room, I hugged him, smiled a lot, told him everything was O.K., gave him a smooch, and before the next one started, she hustled him back out!!! A very coordinated effort on our part if I do say so myself! Once he was safely on his way, I felt able to concentrate on the matter at hand! Then one thing led to another, and Mason was born at 2:24 a.m., July 26th. The cord was wrapped around his neck three times, so we had a small scare, until...man can he scream! (and he hasn't stopped since :) I can't believe he is finally here, healthy, and a part of our little Kowalski clan! We are so blessed!!!