As I was loading the dishwasher with a sink full of dirty dishes from the night before, I had another dull pain. This time it would not go away. I figured that I should lie down and rest until the next load of laundry was ready to be taken outside.
I was lying on our black leather couch, underneath a wool blanket we had bought in Mexico, when I noticed my pain would come and go every twenty minutes or so. I got up and walked into our office and picked up a pad of yellow paper and a blue ink pen. I was going to record when I had my pain and how long it lasted. Surely this wasn't the beginning of contractions, was it?.
For the next three hours, I recorded every pain I had. There didn't seem to be a pattern. This was John's first day at his new job. I knew he was out of town and that I shouldn't call him unless it was an emergency. Since I wasn't having regular contractions I figured it would be okay to wait until he came home. By 5:00 that evening, my pain transformed from a dull ache to a sharp pain. What I had feared for the past nine months finally started happening. John was suppose to work until 4:00pm so I thought it was safe to call him. I picked up our cordless phone. As my shaking fingers nervously dialed his number, I was trying to think of what I could say to not make him nervous.
"Hello?" John answered.
"I think I"m having contractions" I nervously said.
"WHAT!" John exclaimed. "I"m an hour away working still; I"ll be right home! Do you need someone to take you to the hospital?".
"No, John, I"ll be okay. I can wait for you".
"I"m on my way," John had said with more excitement than I was feeling. I knew John would freak out. The last thing I wanted to do was get him excited while he was at work. I was scared myself. For the past nine months I was excited to be pregnant and couldn't wait to see what our unborn baby girl looked like. Now as the time was here, I wanted it all to go away.