December 11, 2008

One year ago today, Hayden's due date, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning with the first contraction that got my attention.

That morning, I freaked my boss out by timing contractions during a meeting. Totally ruined his concentration.

I had lunch at Captain D's with my friend Tonya; we had fried pickles as I timed contractions. Later Chris would ask me what the heck those neon green things were... (gross, yes, I know, but one of my lasting memories from that night). It was the last time I had pickles for awhile.

That afternoon, I realized this thing was for real and began cleaning up my desk and packing my stuff. As I trudged out about an hour early, I heard a booming voice from the conference room ordering me back to my cube - they wanted to squeeze every last hour out of me! It was the president, joking he thought, about me sneaking off early. I told him I'd be happy to go back to my desk if he didn't mind helping me with a little project I was working on... I quickly got the green light to head on home!

That evening, packing my stuff between contractions, and using hypnosis during each one, as they became increasingly longer and stronger, I watched my husband turn whiter and whiter as the clock ticked on. He dutifully recorded the time and length of each contraction, lay in bed next to me, sweating as we waited through contractions. I stayed home as long as I dared; I was seriously worried my driver would faint if I waited any longer, and off we headed on the wildest ride I've ever taken (due to my circumstances, not his driving) to go have our baby girl.

I scared the hell out of some security desk clerks with a scene nearly out of a movie - me waddling in demanding them to take me where "I go to have this taken care of" and begging the other one to figure out where my husband needed to park (they of course totally tore up the entrance to the Women's center the week before. SIGNS, people. HUGE, CLEAR SIGNS. You're dealing with people in LABOR. We're not rational at this point. "BABIES - THIS WAY" would be fine. Just something).

I further freaked out the security guard by refusing a wheelchair, and threatening some very bad things if he tried to put me in one, then making him pause with each contraction as I doubled over and went into hypnosis. Scared the hell out of some moms and dads to be as well, I think. Ahhh, good times.

We checked into a room just before midnight, and then the fun really began.

As I look back today, it is impossible for my mind to grasp that it has already been a year. As Chris said last night, at first, after we had her, time stood still. The whole earth halted on its axis for three months, at least, then catapulted us into warp speed, and we haven't slowed down since.

Happy Birthday Eve, my wee miracle. Thank you for forever changing me.