Elementary School Fire Drill

We've all seen the Hollywood portrayal of the expectant parents' trip to the hospital. Mom has one contraction, calmly wakes up dad, and says, "Honey, it's time." Dad is initially confused, then jumps into action, ransacking the house to pack the bags, and then driving off to the hospital, without his wife.

Rob and I have joked a lot about what we'll be like when we head to the hospital. Well, we got a partial answer on Saturday. Don't worry, there was no false alarm, just a blood pressure checking doctor's appointment at the hospital birthing center. The nurses couldn't give me a set time- instead, they had to call me, sometime between 8am and 5pm (whenever the birthing center wasn't too busy delivering other people's babies). Rob and I decided to treat that call as our practice run.

Around 11am we got the call for the appointment. "Honey, it's time," I said. Well, what happened next wasn't hysteria or confusion. Instead, our approach can best be described as the Elementary School Fire Drill Approach: absolutely no talking, stay focused, and move calmly but swiftly. Without saying a word, Rob picked up our bags while I got the extra battery for the camera and the cell phone charger. We met at the car and headed to the hospital. We didn't say a word until we reached the parking garage.

Maybe the hysteria will hit us on the actual day, who knows . . .

I do know, however, that Rob would be excellent at color commentary for unusual sports. During my appointment at the hospital I was hooked up to a baby monitor that measured my contractions and the baby's heartbeat. I couldn't see the monitor, but Rob could and the nurse gave him a crash course in reading it. For about 20 minutes he gave running commentary on what was going on inside my belly.

"Here we go, another uterine contraction [only Braxton-Hicks that I couldn't even feel] is about to begin. Ahhh, with it comes the peak in the baby's heartbeat that we [apparently, Rob now considers himself a member of the medical/ obstetrical community] want to see."

"Now we're back to the strong, stable heart beat that we love to hear."

"Okay, here comes another uterine contraction, the first several were 3 minutes apart, now they're about 6 minutes apart; that's how we know they're only Braxton-Hicks."

And so on, and so on.

Well, back to bedrest. We'll keep you posted.