33 years ago today

I chiseled out my own hole for ice fishing on Pearl Lake. I was pregnant with Jamie but according to the doctor I had months to go before she was due. My water broke the following morning at 2 am after I had gone to the bathroom and returned to bed.

I poked Dan & said, "Dan, my water broke, we have to go to the hospital" to which he replied "ugh, blah, sigh " and proceeded to roll over ( away from the wet spot) and fall back asleep.

Adrenalin set in. I called the hospital, explained that I was early but that my water had broken. The nurses said, "Yes, you need to get your things ready and come to the hospital now". But wait, I thought, after I had hung up. I don't have ANYTHING ready!!!

While Dan lay blissfully sleeping and I let him because I knew I would need his support while having what I thought might be a premature baby, I frantically proceeded to rummage through every cubbard, closet, door, trunk, pie safe, dresser that we had , emptying each of its contents across the floor of the top story of a small house we rented on Pearl Lake. I was in a frenzie doing God knows what trying to make an assemblage of a kit to take to the hospital I guess. And in between I would stop, try to get in touch with my body & count contractions. I don't think I ever really got through a whole set, I was too damn restless.

Finally at about 5 am I woke Dan up and said, "Dan, we need to go to the hospital. My water broke". He near jumped out of his skin this time. There was no hesitation, just a wipe his eyes, scramble to the garage and get in the car and lets get going.

When we got to the hospital, the nurses on that shift were waiting and quite relieved to see us. They were about to go off shift I think and remember, I had called at 2 am. It was about 5:30 now. There was no such thing as caller ID so they had no way of seeing what was happening ( crazy woman dumping contents of all storage areas on floor).

When I told them that my doctor had said that my due date was April 1st, they went to get a different nurse. When she came in she took one look at me, measured my belly from pubic bone to breast & said, "this looks like a full term baby to me!!". Dan breathed a sigh of relief & so did I, but in reality I think that I knew all along that I was pregnant. Sure, there were two false urine tests early on but especially toward the end of my pregnancy I was convinced I had been pregnant all along. When I went off the pill in April and got pregnant, I weighed all of a whopping 115 pounds. When Jamie was born she was 6 pounds 13 ounces. There wasn't much more room left, man.

More later on her birth, the doctor, the reaction of the nurses to this doctor & the elation of having a brand spanking knew baby girl all to ourselves for a few hours.

Flash!