Wyatt's arrival (part 1)

Lauren was crampy all day on Sunday. She was just not feeling right. She was having contractions all day but did not think they were all that bad. They got worse as the day progressed but she has a high tolerance of pain so we were not sure if she was in labor. Around 3 pm she suggested we go to the hospital. She even said, “They will probably send me home but I would rather be safe.”

We dropped Maxfield off at our neighbor’s house (thanks Ann) and headed to the hospital 15 miles away. When we approached the tolls booths I asked Lauren to act like she was in serious labor so we could see if we could get through the toll for free. She said no. I asked again as we approached the next toll booth , “Please? Act like they do in the movies. Moan and stuff. I want to see if the guy at the booth let’s us go without paying.”

“No. I am not doing that. Don’t ask again.”

We signed in at the brand new, just opened a few weeks ago, hospital at 4:40 pm and were seen by a the triage people fairly quickly. One of the funny things about being in a brand spanking (pun intended) new hospital is the fact that none of the nurses knew where anything was in the rooms. The simplest task of finding a rubber glove took several attempts of opening different drawers and cabinets. The hospital was slow that day. There were about 20 staff members with only about 4 patients.

Lauren was at 5 centimeters and the they we going to admit her. The triage nurse was excited because they finally had “someone going up.” to the delivery floor. She wheeled Lauren past the nurses station where 15 nurses stood chit chatting. One of them asked something to the effect of “You got one?” referencing how slow it was at the hospital. The Triage nurse nodded . I asked for a round of applause for Lauren because she was “going up” and the 15 nurses applauded as we headed towards the elevator.

They wheeled Lauren up to the delivery floor. The nurse wheeling us got lost in the new hospital and it took us quite a while to find the right department. The entire hospital is based on circles. There really is no left or right when turning down the hallways because you are walking in one big circle. We entered two separate areas of the hospital that were totally vacant of any person. After a few tries we finally found the birthing area and into a delivery room and settled in for the night.

Kind of.