Birthing 101.... the Hubby Didn't Get The Memo On Labor

Here's our first story sent in by an email contributor, Cheri:

I was reading the post on “It’s Hereditary” and it brought me back to the birth of our first child.
We were living in NC at the time, far from family and friends. It was a couple nights before my due date when we went to Pizza Hut for dinner and I was invited to a make-up party, the girls there were kidding me that they were getting me all “dolled up“ for the hospital... Well little did everyone know that that wasn’t a joke. We got home around 11:00 PM and before going to bed hubby asks me if I think we will be going to the hospital tonight because if I thought we were, he wasn’t going to go to sleep. How the heck do I know... I hadn’t had any contractions... so I told him to go to sleep. Well about 1:00 AM they started coming fast and furious. I couldn’t tell when one ended and the next one started. Woke up hubby to start timing and because we couldn’t tell when one started and ended (they just seem to run into one another) he decided to go back to sleep. Who does this??? This is our FIRST child. After a bit I woke him again and we called the Dr., Dr. asked “why are you calling me, get to the hospital.” So in my nightgown, bed raggled hair I grab my suitcase and go to the front door and hubby hollars to me, “Do I have time to take a shower?” Sure, honey I’ll just wait by the front door for ya... Are you kidding me! He took that literally and went to take a shower (I guess he wanted to be the best smelling new daddy at the hospital... like anyone cares). The hospital was only about 4 miles from our house (thank God), we parked and as we were walking to the ER I had several contractions, had to stop in the parking lot because I could not take another step, did he get me a wheel chair... Ahh ... No. Gradually we did make it. I was put in the wheel chair, wheeled up to Delivery and was told that I was so far dilated by the time we arrived at the hospital that they couldn’t give me anything and I would have to do natural child birth... All I can say is my hubby was darn lucky that that was our plan (natural child birth) or he might have been in the bed next to me with his own injuries. Fours after my first pang our daughter was born.

Now it doesn’t stop there...

We had two more children and baby number 2 hubby had to stop when he saw one of his line men working and chat about whatever while on our way to the hospital, does the man not learn? Two hours later daughter #2 was born and the Dr. had warned us that because baby #1 came within 4 hours that each pregnancy would probably be faster.

He finally learned at baby number 3 but that was only because I had a Dr. appt., went into labor on the exam table and the hospital was right next door; if it wasn’t, I am sure hubby would have found someone to talk to on our way to the hospital. And yes, daughter #3 was born in 2 hours.
Our girls were good to me with easy labor and delivery... Unlike hubby who apparently wasn’t feeling any sympathy pains for me.

Thirty one years later and I am still married to the man