96 hours and counting

Saturday, July 2, 11am. We had another rough one last night. Anna woke up around 2am, bleeding a little heavier than usual (some leakage is normal after the membrane ruptures, kind of a pale pink mixture of blood and cervical fluid - I hope you're not eating right now). Anyway, the doctor came in, performed an exam, and said, "Are you sure this baby's breeched, because I can feel the head." Of course, the subsequent ultrasound proved him wrong. "Oh, I guess he just has a really hard butt." Yeah, thanks guy. After getting our hopes up, he then proceeded to say the same thing all the other doctors have told us: the baby is probably coming any minute, and Anna shouldn't expect to hold out much longer. He left the room, probably thinking that he'd be performing surgery before the morning. Our nurse, Nicole, helped me clean Anna up and get her settled, then explained that when the time does come, there's going to be a frenzy of activity in the room, and that it was going to be pretty scary. She left, and Anna and I talked about how we'd deal with that moment. We were glad we'd been warned, and thankful that we had some time to mentally prepare. I climbed back into my bed and waited to hear Anna's breathing turn into a comforting snore. I fell asleep waiting.

Over the next several hours, I woke up to see Nicole helping Anna out of bed, adjusting the monitors on her belly, or taking her temperature. I watched, feeling kind of useless, but glad that someone compassionate and competent was there to help. Anna seemed reassured, so I stayed in bed and let Nicole do her job. Of course, I felt more than a little guilty this morning when I awoke well-rested, and Anna complained that she'd barely slept. Still, she says she feels better today, and she's already had breakfast and lunch, worked on embroidering a potholder, and is now reading a home remodeling magazine, trying to figure out how to inexpensively redesign our kitchen. Like I said, she's pretty amazing.

I also want to thank everyone who's sent flowers. They've turned this antiseptic hospital room into a sweet-smelling home-away-from-home. I especially want to thank Suzanne and the folks from Anna's office who brought up a huge box of cookies, popcorn, bottled water, and skincare products. I've turned one of the storage cabinets into a well-stocked pantry, and along with the coolers of food Anna's mom and my folks brought up, we've just about weaned her off of hospital food (which is actually worse than you'd think, if that's even possible). Even though they keep telling us that Frankie could be here any minute, we've decided to dig in for a nice, long stay, so your gifts and warm wishes are deeply appreciated.