…from a reader
It was a rainy dark morning, and I was up at 4:30 am getting my hubby ready for work. I was also 9 months pregnant and ready to pop. At my last check up however, the doctor told me I had about a week or so left to go before our beautiful daughter would be brought into the world.
Anyway, it was raining and I was horribly tired and ready to go back to bed. I kissed my husband goodbye, called my Mom to tell her to drive safe to work later that day in the pouring rain and laid down with the dog to get some much needed rest.
My head no more than hit the pillow when the flood gates open, I was soaked! My water had broke! Oh No! This was pre-cell phone era an my husband had a 45 minute drive to work. I waddled the best I could to the living room to call my Mom back, but just as I reached the hallway a clap of thunder roared and the power went out!
I was standing blindly in my hallway searching for the phone to call my Mom! Running my hands up and down the counters looking for my cordless phone I found everything but. Finally I found the phone, hit redial and my Mom answered the phone! Thank God! I told her I was in labor and she said she was on her way.
As I waited I tried to remain calm, but this was my first child and I had no clue what to expect in all reality. Classes are nice, and fun but in no way did I feel prepared to bring a child into this world in the dark all alone while the storm raged on outside! What is a normal 15 minute car drive took my Mom over an hour to get to me as most roads by our home which is down a dirt road were flooded, mud filled and she just couldn’t get down them!
Finally she arrived, loaded me and the luggage I had time to pack while waiting into her car and we were on our way. Once we arrived at the hospital, all seemed to be back under control. My Mom checked me in while the nurses whisked me away in a wheelchair!
After things calmed down, they had me breathing and my Mom was coaching me things seemed to be going well. About 2 hours of what I like to simply refer to as pain they said I was ready to go, and my baby girl was ready to welcome the world. I all of a sudden let out a scream “Where in the heck is my husband!?”
Shouldn’t he be here by now? I knew the roads were bad, but this had been literally hours! My Mom asked me what time I called and notified him…that’s when I realized, I had not called and told him. He was at work thinking I was at home sleeping and had no clue I was ready to bring our daughter into this world!
My Mom hurried to the lobby payphone called my husband and he was on his way. He did make it in time to see our beauty being born, but he literally only made it with 8 minutes to spare! Whew!
To this day he still tells people I wanted all the credit and was a tough cookie and thought I could do it all myself! It surely was a rainy, dark, and odd day. We named our Daughter Neveah (Heaven spelled backwards) Rayne (rain). No pun intended.