A long 24
/
We were never under the impression that coming back to the states to have this baby was the easy way to do things. There really wasn't an easy way. We talked and prayed and made our decision. The boys and I would travel home, to Grand Juntion, CO (the the GOD send last minute help of a dear friend that traveled all the way from the island to Denver with us) with the boys on the 1st and 3rd of December. Josh's parents live here and are wonderfully gracious and welcoming people who willingly opened their home to the chaos that a pregnant mama and her three little boys bring.
So, all that said - this particular post is about the bedlam of the last 24 hours.
The calm before the storm - my much loved Mother-in-law, Lyn, treated me to an evening out for a manicure last night (December 16th). I was delighted to sit and relax as my taxed legs and feet were massaged with a handful of different exfoliants and deep soothing creams. My toenails are a perfectly delightful shade of purple and my feet are softer than they've been in a long while. It was a blessing, indeed. We returned home, put boys to bed and sat around for a bit. I headed to bed around 10:15. Sparing details of the unpleasantries that often visit a pregnant body, I was certain, at approximately 10:30 that labor had started. At 37 weeks. I sat for a few moments and mulled over what needed to be done. Not having any idea what to expect in the next few hours, I tried to call Josh on Facetime, knowing that it was about 4:30 a.m. for him. I tried several times to not avail. Trying to not panic, I searched my brain for ways to get a hold of him, assuming that I would have a baby within the next 5 or 10 hours. What it came down to is posting in the Lajes Spouses Page to beg for anyone that was awake to find someone who knew the clinic "on call" phone and call him to contact me. I posted, got a response within about 4 minutes and then 10 minutes later answered the ring of my iPad to Facetime with my husband. He reassured me that I did, indeed, need to go in. That he would tell any of his patients the same. I quietly dressed, readied my purse with my Bible, devotional book, notebook, iPad and cell phone and bundled up to head out into the bitter cold. (and yes, it's been bitter cold here!). I thought over whether or not to waken my mother-in-law to let her know, but figuring she would insist on driving me in, I decided against it. They had been planning a trip for months. A trip to celebrate their 35th anniversary (Dec. 16th). They were packed and ready to leave in the morning for their rendezvous and I was NOT going to steal half her night away for a possible false alarm. I called my sister-in-law on the way to the hospital to let her know what I was up to, and said I'd be in touch. Tests were run. Exams were done. I was sent home a mere hour after arriving at the L&D floor. I was SO relieved!
I messaged my husband, who by this time was wide awake well into his morning. We praised the Lord for the false alarm and he left for work. I collapsed into bed and slept hard for the next 5 hours.
I awoke to the sound of my two olders galloping hard down the hall and chattering up a storm in the bathroom. Being 45 minutes before their allowed "up time", I rushed, puffy eyed, out of bed to quiet them before they woke up Joel, who was still fast asleep in a nearby room. I came out to the living room to quiet the questions and concern I'd left on facebook and then deleted the post. I filled Lyn in on the happenings of the night before. We laughed together about how unpredictable and strange pregnancy and labor are, for each individual pregnancy. And then the phone rang.
I was delighted to hear the sound of Josh's voice. He sounded down. "I figured I'd better give you the heads up that there's little to no chance of my getting the rotator seat on Sunday". Understanding how seat assignments on rotators works is confusing. I won't go into it. We were certain we'd taken all the necessary steps to ensure, as much as we could, that he'd secure a seat. But after going in to sign up for a seat, he was found to be 38th on the list for a plane with only 24 available seats. We KNEW this was a possibility, but had all but dismissed it. I paced, he scrambled - moving back and forth from clinic to frantic searches on his computer for plane tickets off "the rock". His tech, a dear, wonderful woman, found a commercial flight available to fly him to Boston for 400 Euros. I encouraged, with great passion, for him to just book it and work the details after. He sat on it for a bit and came back to book about an hour later. The last remaining ticket was purchased out from under him AS he was booking. The flight was full. After hours of searching the only option that seemed to remain was flying to Lisbon to head off his trip. He's spend 18 hours there. The trip would begin on Saturday morning leaving the island and he'd arrive in Colorado at 1:30 a.m. Monday. Not deal, not a pretty price tag, but he booked and we rejoiced that there was, indeed, a way for him to join us.
I continued, throughout the morning, to fight to ignore the fact that I could be in the beginning stages of labor. My already scheduled O.B. appt at 1:40pm would help clear some things up. My sister-in-law, Amy, and I made a grocery run, wrangled boys at Chic-Fil-A for some food and playtime relief and then headed home to bed them down for naps. I was on time to my appt. where my provider reclined back and listened intently as I answered her questions about how my last week, and particularly my last 24 hours had gone. She checked the little dudes heart, the size of my belly, and if I'd dilated any since the previous night. I was relieved to hear I hadn't. She reassured me there was no indication that labor was starting. PHEW! She encouraged me to run around on the town for an hour or so. Which I did. I went to JoAnn for the 4th time since being here for two weeks, and picked up a few christmasy cookie cutters. I returned home with heavy eyes and an exhausted body. I sat for a minute with my iPad to catch up on Josh's day, hoping he would be available to chat. He was and we talked about tickets. It was 8:40pm his time and he was still at work. Scrambling to get stuff done after a day of scrambling to find a plane ticket off the island. Now it was clinic notes time. I asked him to recheck the flight he'd missed earlier and he seemed disinterested. For kicks, I checked the site. Sure enough, there it sat. ONE remaining seat. First class. Calling his name at over twice the price of the original seat he'd seen in the morning. I messaged him, he got on and purchased the ticket immediately. We rejoiced, on Face Book chat. Then it was time to figure out how to get him from Boston to Baltimore and to cancel the $2000 trip he'd booked that morning that would first take him over to mainland Portugal. We hunted, chatted, and were elated to find a cheap ticket from Boston to Baltimore that allows him to keep his original Baltimore to Grand Junction flight we'd booked over a month ago assuming he'd be getting off the rotator that afternoon. He's coming! And on time! A slightly more confusing and run around trip, but he's coming. The tickets were booked, hotel reserved, and our hearts were soothed. He stayed at work a bit longer and then headed home to pass out, cleaned of energy from a taxing and emotional day. I received a knock at the front door at dinner time and there stood a man from a mail order flower company with an incredible Christmas bouquet and a note from Joshua that made me heart sing.
A beautiful end to a very tiring 20 hours.
I'm not in labor.
My husband has a flight off the island.
We pray that God carries him to us safely.
So, all that said - this particular post is about the bedlam of the last 24 hours.
The calm before the storm - my much loved Mother-in-law, Lyn, treated me to an evening out for a manicure last night (December 16th). I was delighted to sit and relax as my taxed legs and feet were massaged with a handful of different exfoliants and deep soothing creams. My toenails are a perfectly delightful shade of purple and my feet are softer than they've been in a long while. It was a blessing, indeed. We returned home, put boys to bed and sat around for a bit. I headed to bed around 10:15. Sparing details of the unpleasantries that often visit a pregnant body, I was certain, at approximately 10:30 that labor had started. At 37 weeks. I sat for a few moments and mulled over what needed to be done. Not having any idea what to expect in the next few hours, I tried to call Josh on Facetime, knowing that it was about 4:30 a.m. for him. I tried several times to not avail. Trying to not panic, I searched my brain for ways to get a hold of him, assuming that I would have a baby within the next 5 or 10 hours. What it came down to is posting in the Lajes Spouses Page to beg for anyone that was awake to find someone who knew the clinic "on call" phone and call him to contact me. I posted, got a response within about 4 minutes and then 10 minutes later answered the ring of my iPad to Facetime with my husband. He reassured me that I did, indeed, need to go in. That he would tell any of his patients the same. I quietly dressed, readied my purse with my Bible, devotional book, notebook, iPad and cell phone and bundled up to head out into the bitter cold. (and yes, it's been bitter cold here!). I thought over whether or not to waken my mother-in-law to let her know, but figuring she would insist on driving me in, I decided against it. They had been planning a trip for months. A trip to celebrate their 35th anniversary (Dec. 16th). They were packed and ready to leave in the morning for their rendezvous and I was NOT going to steal half her night away for a possible false alarm. I called my sister-in-law on the way to the hospital to let her know what I was up to, and said I'd be in touch. Tests were run. Exams were done. I was sent home a mere hour after arriving at the L&D floor. I was SO relieved!
I messaged my husband, who by this time was wide awake well into his morning. We praised the Lord for the false alarm and he left for work. I collapsed into bed and slept hard for the next 5 hours.
I awoke to the sound of my two olders galloping hard down the hall and chattering up a storm in the bathroom. Being 45 minutes before their allowed "up time", I rushed, puffy eyed, out of bed to quiet them before they woke up Joel, who was still fast asleep in a nearby room. I came out to the living room to quiet the questions and concern I'd left on facebook and then deleted the post. I filled Lyn in on the happenings of the night before. We laughed together about how unpredictable and strange pregnancy and labor are, for each individual pregnancy. And then the phone rang.
I was delighted to hear the sound of Josh's voice. He sounded down. "I figured I'd better give you the heads up that there's little to no chance of my getting the rotator seat on Sunday". Understanding how seat assignments on rotators works is confusing. I won't go into it. We were certain we'd taken all the necessary steps to ensure, as much as we could, that he'd secure a seat. But after going in to sign up for a seat, he was found to be 38th on the list for a plane with only 24 available seats. We KNEW this was a possibility, but had all but dismissed it. I paced, he scrambled - moving back and forth from clinic to frantic searches on his computer for plane tickets off "the rock". His tech, a dear, wonderful woman, found a commercial flight available to fly him to Boston for 400 Euros. I encouraged, with great passion, for him to just book it and work the details after. He sat on it for a bit and came back to book about an hour later. The last remaining ticket was purchased out from under him AS he was booking. The flight was full. After hours of searching the only option that seemed to remain was flying to Lisbon to head off his trip. He's spend 18 hours there. The trip would begin on Saturday morning leaving the island and he'd arrive in Colorado at 1:30 a.m. Monday. Not deal, not a pretty price tag, but he booked and we rejoiced that there was, indeed, a way for him to join us.
I continued, throughout the morning, to fight to ignore the fact that I could be in the beginning stages of labor. My already scheduled O.B. appt at 1:40pm would help clear some things up. My sister-in-law, Amy, and I made a grocery run, wrangled boys at Chic-Fil-A for some food and playtime relief and then headed home to bed them down for naps. I was on time to my appt. where my provider reclined back and listened intently as I answered her questions about how my last week, and particularly my last 24 hours had gone. She checked the little dudes heart, the size of my belly, and if I'd dilated any since the previous night. I was relieved to hear I hadn't. She reassured me there was no indication that labor was starting. PHEW! She encouraged me to run around on the town for an hour or so. Which I did. I went to JoAnn for the 4th time since being here for two weeks, and picked up a few christmasy cookie cutters. I returned home with heavy eyes and an exhausted body. I sat for a minute with my iPad to catch up on Josh's day, hoping he would be available to chat. He was and we talked about tickets. It was 8:40pm his time and he was still at work. Scrambling to get stuff done after a day of scrambling to find a plane ticket off the island. Now it was clinic notes time. I asked him to recheck the flight he'd missed earlier and he seemed disinterested. For kicks, I checked the site. Sure enough, there it sat. ONE remaining seat. First class. Calling his name at over twice the price of the original seat he'd seen in the morning. I messaged him, he got on and purchased the ticket immediately. We rejoiced, on Face Book chat. Then it was time to figure out how to get him from Boston to Baltimore and to cancel the $2000 trip he'd booked that morning that would first take him over to mainland Portugal. We hunted, chatted, and were elated to find a cheap ticket from Boston to Baltimore that allows him to keep his original Baltimore to Grand Junction flight we'd booked over a month ago assuming he'd be getting off the rotator that afternoon. He's coming! And on time! A slightly more confusing and run around trip, but he's coming. The tickets were booked, hotel reserved, and our hearts were soothed. He stayed at work a bit longer and then headed home to pass out, cleaned of energy from a taxing and emotional day. I received a knock at the front door at dinner time and there stood a man from a mail order flower company with an incredible Christmas bouquet and a note from Joshua that made me heart sing.
A beautiful end to a very tiring 20 hours.
I'm not in labor.
My husband has a flight off the island.
We pray that God carries him to us safely.