Memories

Three years ago today, I woke up at 3:00 a.m. with the worst stomachache I have ever had. We had gone to a church dinner at a friend’s house earlier that evening and as I was lying in bed in complete agony I kept thinking that surely I was dying of salmonella poisoning from the chicken spaghetti.

Because I am so in tune with my body, it never occurred to me, until about 2 hours later, that MAYBE I was in labor, seeing as how I was nine months pregnant. Now granted, it was two weeks until my due date but the fact that I thought I had food poisoning instead of a baby on the way was basically complete denial.

I waited until 6:30 when I heard P. start to stir, to tell him that I thought I was in labor. His first question, filled with the utmost care, was “do I have time to take a shower?” His second question was to ask what the date was because Gulley had predicted that I would have my baby on August 2nd. When I told him it was August 2nd, he said “That Gulley, how’d she know that?”

We spent the morning calling our families to let them know that we maybe, kind of thought that the baby might be on the way. P.’s mom was already planning on coming over to help me get my kitchen set up, because did I mention that we had just moved back in to our remodeled house 2 weeks before and had new countertops finally installed the previous morning? My kitchen consisted of thirty boxes that needed to be unpacked.

My mother-in-law came over and we proceeded to unpack all of the boxes and I would stop every 9-10 minutes to have a contraction. Like a crazy woman, I kept insisting that I would not even CONSIDER going to the hospital until the kitchen was finished. My logic was if it didn’t happen now, my baby would leave for college after having spent a life at home eating on dishes pulled out of boxes, which probably wasn’t that far from the truth.

Around 4 p.m., P., his mom, my sister and her husband, and Gulley basically forced me into the car so that I could deliver this child at the hospital instead of in my newly organized kitchen which would have wreaked havoc on my hardwood floors.

Caroline was born at 2:14 a.m. the next morning, so really I had PLENTY of time.

Speaking of pain, some of you know that I am currently going through the hell that is adult orthodontia. This morning was my monthly visit to my orthodontist who really should just put his foot on my chest so that he can get these things a little tighter.