Judge Not...

I'll have to remember the next time I need a pick me up to post a picture of my hair. Wow, you guys are too nice and generous with your compliments. Thank you!

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Every once in awhile, I'll read a story in the newspaper that just makes me shake my head and wonder. What are people thinking? Then I decide that they quite simply must not be thinking. They must be ... lacking in intelligence, in judgement, in some basic functioning.

Soooo, a friend of mine had a baby a couple weeks ago. He was due July 20, but he came early. In fact, two days before he was born, his mom was at my house for playgroup, and we were talking about how she wasn't looking forward to the birth. All her children had been born late and with painful labors, including three plus hours of pushing for each of her two previous children.

Then, I got the call.

On that Thursday, she started having contractions, but they weren't too painful, and they were pretty far apart. She calle her doctor to ask if she should come in, and her doctor told her to go to the hospital if she felt they were a concern, but that from what she was describing, it sounded like nothing serious at the time. It was up to her. She stayed home, figuring that it was Braxton-Hicks.

At a little after 9pm, the contractions changed. They were suddenly quite painful and three minutes apart without warning. She and her husband decided to go to the hospital, since it was a good forty minutes or so away.

The got into his car, backed out the driveway, turned right out of their cul de sac, turned left onto the next street, and then right onto the main road.

That's when she screamed at him. "WE'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT. CALL 911 NOW."

As he started to dial and she continued to panic, they spotted a fire station. He quickly pulled into the parking lot and ran to the door. We now know that after hours, fire stations lock their doors, but fortunately, they have doorbells.

He yelled into the intercom that his wife was having a baby and that they didn't have time to get to a hospital. One firefighter ran out, in his stocking feet, and sprinted to the car.

He managed to catch the baby just before it hit the floor of the car. He shouted to those following him to get the OB kit because he needed to suction. Umm, yikes!

Baby safely born, they loaded her into the ambulance and took her to the closer hospital - ironically this is the one we as her friends preferred but her doctor doesn't deliver there.

Mom and baby were completely fine, thank God. Her husband's car? Not so much. He took it the next morning to be detailed. I haven't had the courage to ask how that went.

We joke with her now about her three hours of pushing, but at the same time I understand the parents who have babies in their cars a little more now. This is an experienced mom. She's been through labor twice before and knows what it feels like. She knows when contractions begin for real. For her, there truly wasn't time to get to the hospital. From the time those contractions started for real until the time her son came into this world, just over twenty minutes passed.

While I would be grateful for such a short and effective labor, this isn't really what I'm going for (and NO I'm not having any more children -- this is hypothetical). The next time I read a story about this though? I'm just going to heave a sigh of relief that everyone's ok. I certainly won't be wondering what those people were thinking.