The lead-up

At 4:30pm, Tuesday, March 4, I got the call at work. Not THE call, but the call that alerts me to the fact that Andrea, who has not felt so much like donning clothes and attending big social situations, felt like going to her school's annual Board appreciation dinner and that I would need to rush home to get ready for the event. Attend we did, and Andrea's appearance was an extremely well-received surprise to those there. We both were provided much information for general baby care and given a list of many tricks (some of which we had already employed) to speed the baby's arrival. The party was fun, though Andrea was feeling a little strange physically. We arrived back home at around 9:30: Andrea went to bed to read and I went to the living room to finish disc 2 of "Les Enfants du Paradis" due back to the library the next day. At 10:30 I heard my name called out from the back of the house and when I got back to the bedroom to find Andrea, still dripping, standing in a puddle of clear liquid telling me "I think my water broke." This water breaking, the gusher kind seen in the movies, left little doubt to even the untrained such as ourselves that a water breaking had indeed occurred. Andrea told me that she was in bed when "something felt a little strange" and she headed to the bathroom. Three steps away from the bed was where she was when I found her and where the source of the strange feeling had made itself known.

In the next 20 minutes calls were made to Angela for advice (expect contractions soon---same sudden water breaking had happened to her), Belinda as a warning of the impending trip to the hospital, and various other friends and family. At 11:10 I started a journal of the contractions (science degrees pay off for something) watching as the first 30 second one was followed by a 50 second one 13 minutes later, and after that there would be no more than a 9 minute gap between any two. For the next two hours I tried to help Andrea through each contraction and spent the in between time taking care of all of the last minute tasks (collecting food and cell phone chargers, cleaning cat boxes, putting the infant seat back in the car, take a last picture of a full-term Andrea (shown to left) etc.). Luckily Andrea had packed the hospital bag on the day previous, so there wasn't too much for me to do.

By 12:15 the contractions had started at a regular 5 minute spacing. It was actually quite amazing that they would show up really close to five minute spacing on the nose. Andrea was a real champ through this time and did a great job of relaxing in between. At 1:15 she passed the required mark of one hour of five-minute-spaced 60 second contractions and I called the doctor. We were told to come in, so I called the excited Belinda and Nick who hadn't yet slept and told them that the time had come to make our way to the hospital.