Saturday, May 14: Leandra had a craft fair in Jasper, Ind. She had to work so I got called into action. I've done it before so it wasn't a big deal, but this fair crosses into the Eastern time zone so I had to wake-up at 5:00 am to account for the time change.
Sunday, May 15: I woke up at a normal time, but I had to prepare for a 30-minute Group Kick demo at a health fair and then depart for a job interview in Ohio. A lot of running around followed by a seven hour drive. Again another time change to consider as I didn't get in until almost 10:00 pm that night.
Monday, May 16: I woke up at 6:00 am to prep for the interview. Not that big of a deal, except for the time change which, on my internal clock, had me waking at 5:00 am. The interview lasted most of the morning followed by seven hour drive back home.
Tuesday, May 17: I had to teach my Group Kick class at 9:00 am which shouldn't have been a big deal. For whatever reason, I wasn't able to finish the class. About halfway through, my body started feeling really heavy and I was experiencing some difficulties breathing. It's nothing I had ever dealt with before so I sake another instructor who happened to be at the gym. While I don't know for sure, I suspect that I had a combined sugar and caffeine crash from the sodas I had been downing over the last few days with the early morning and long days. (Prior to this, I had not had a soda for almost two weeks.) I rested up and was able to teach a class (as a sub) that evening.
Wednesday, May 18: I'm sure many of you know that a certain addition to the world started this day, but the series of events are not as well-known. I had dropped Leandra off at work so I could run some errands during the day. Leandra said she wasnt feeling too good, but she tends to be a trooper and just fights her way through. She compared her discomfort to menstrual cramps, which she thought was brought on from her final doctor appointment a few day earlier. We later found out that she was probably in early labor.
Fast forward to early evening. I had plans to do the Ride of Silence starting at 6:00. Upon arriving, I unloaded my bike and got set to meet the riding crew. Ten minutes before the take-off time, I got a call from Leandra asking me to pick her up at work. She was scheduled to work until 8:00, which would have given me plenty of time to get back and pick her up. Her boss decided it best that she go home early. So I packed up the bike, loaded the car and took off.
After I arrived at Opus 1, I met Leandra at the checkout desk. We walked back to her department to get her stuff. She told me she needed to make a quick trip to the restroom where she proceeded to throw up (one last time).
Before we left the store, I threw out the idea of going to the hospital. The store is much closer to the hospital than our home and I figured the worst they could say to us was that she wasn't ready. She was still uncertain so I told her to call her mom or sister who are both nurses (her sister had her second kid in January) to get a recommendation. They said to go...and we did.
Once we were checked in (around 7:30 pm), they hooked her up to the various monitors they use and told her that she was "going to have a baby today" (or at least within 24 hours). So the waiting game began as we waited for contractions to progress and the nurses to say that we were set to go.
Leandra decided that we were going to try and go completely natural. Taking any drugs was going to be a "game-time decision." Around 1:00 am, she was given the option of taking a painkiller which was supposed to take the edge off of the contractions. Shortly afterwards she decided to take them, but it was a pretty minor painkiller lasting only 30 minutes.
Around 1:30 am, we were told that the doctor could be called in to break her water. We finally made the clal at 2:00 and the doctor came in to break it at 2:30. As we were told, the contractions picked up in intensity and frequency and she went into hard labor (at least that's what i call it) 90 minutes later.
At 4:10 am, Aria ("Speedwagon") Marie Krueger was born...and sleeping will never be the same.
Quite a week you had there (although I knew most of it already. Now you can slow down and enjoy each other, this is a special time for you all.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, I'm in love. What I didn't say, Uncle Adam is over the moon! We'll talk soon, when things are not quite so crazy and all your many guests have left.