If you are anything like me, when you see a movie or read a book, you like to be completely in the dark about the plot. This is why the original Star Wars trilogy could never be topped by the prequels. We all knew what was going to happen, who would live, who would die, etc. Oh I'm not going to commit blasphemy and say the prequels were bad. I did enjoy them, but there was no shock, no suspense, no "I am your father" type moments. The journey is much more fun when the ending is not known.
I recall one time I was driving from Iowa to Florida. I had bought Michael Crichton's book-on-tape, Airframe, the unabridged version, 22+ hours of audio. All I had to do was keep my hands on the wheel, my eyes on the road, and in no time, I'd leave the cold confines of Iowa and find myself basking in the warm Florida sun. I left early in the morning, found the interstate, and popped in the tape. The audio played for about 20 minutes and then I heard, "This has been a presentation of Bantam Audio Books." To my horror, I discovered I had put in the last tape, not the first. I had thought the story seemed a bit cluttered but reasoned some books start well into the plot line only to develop the back story later. This was not the case, and I had learned why the plane had crashed, the cover up, who was blamed, etc. In essence, I heard both the climax and the denoument of the story. Although a little bummed, I did listen to the whole book, and enjoyed it, but the ride would have been more fun had I not known how it all turned out.
We had a doctor's appointment yesterday morning. First, the medical terms: "Ashley is 60% effaced but still only a finger tip dilated." In layman's terms, she's moving along, but not as fast as the doctor would like. Additionally, since Ashley is a "mature first time mother" (35+ at the time of the baby's birth), her body may not be reacting to the hormones and enzymes like that of a younger first-time mom (yeah, that went over well). This is not to say there are any problems or issues. Ashley is fine, and the baby is fully developed. "Good lung maturity has been achieved," to use doc-speak again. However, since these other "things" are going slowly, the doctor thinks it best to help grease the skids (my term, not doc-speak). This isn't required, but if we wait for Ashley to go into labor, it might be after the due date. This simply is more time for the baby to get bigger, and birthing a bigger baby is no fun for Ashley (or Ender, for that matter) Thus, we are scheduled to go to the hospital Tuesday evening. Various gels will be applied to Ashley throughout the night, and hopefully Wednesday morning, things will have moved along such that the inducement of labor can begin, and sometime later that day, Ender will be born.
Of course, we are excited. But I can't help feel a little like I did when I realized I had learned the ending of Airframe. The suspense is gone. I had always envisioned being at work, the cell phone ringing, and hearing Ashley say, "Jeffy, my water broke." Or perhaps waking up in the middle of the night to contractions and rushing to the hospital. Knowing ahead of time that on Tuesday at 5:00, we are going to the hospital to begin the birthing process takes a little of the fun out of it. It feels like it's a task on my Outlook calendar, and at 4:45 on Tuesday, a little reminder will pop up and say, "15 minutes until you take Ashley to the hospital." There isn't much suspense in a scheduled birth. It seems a little too organized for me, but I suppose that really isn't a bad thing. However, there is still some hope for a surprise delivery. The Auburn-Alabama game is Saturday night. I'm secretly wishing for a very close game with a hugely drammatic ending. With only seconds remaining, I want Auburn to score a spectacular game-winning touchdown, after which Ashley will scream, cheer, shout, and go into labor. Or perhaps she might even go into labor during the game...knowing her, we will stay glued to the TV until the game ends, and only then will we grab out bags and head out. But if that doesn't happen, hopefully come Wednesday, things will have gone well and Ender will make his entrance. The suspense is kind of gone, but in all honesty, the end of the pregnancy is really just the beginning...
Pleasant Turkey Day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Jeff, I understand how some of the suspense is gone. My first daughter was born in Germany.
Since the hospital was more than 30 miles away and us not knowing what to expect, we made two premature trips.
After the second false alarm that came during the wee hours of the morning, they sent us home about 6 am with a light snowfall.
At about 2 pm the same day it was time for the real thing. By this time the light snow had become a small blizzard with near zero visibility. The journey took almost 2 hours and the whole time my wife is telling me to "hurry up, we're not going to make it"
You can only go so fast when the conditions were like they were.
Once we did arrive, they wheeled her straight into the delivery room. The nurse told my wife she had o stop pushing. My wife of course told her she couldn't. The nurse replied "You'll have to because the doctor is delivering another baby across the hall"
Had the doctor been available, Lisa would have arrived about 12 minutes sooner.
Post a Comment