The Hospital

Our hospital was about 15 minutes away from our house. Banner Gateway is a newer hospital and is very nice. They have a great maternity ward complete with gardens, sitting areas, nice restaurant/cafeteria and cute shop. The private maternity garden even had funky labor tools/swings. Again, the tour helped explain everything, but I knew the epidural would prevent me from walking around the gardens during labor. I also wasn't going to need those swings and stretching devices because I planned to have my own little zen party right in my bed! More about the epidural later. My contractions were getting stronger and stronger all the way to the hospital. I was nervous and excited and even texted a girlfriend or two telling them I was in labor. When we parked the car and got out my water burst. I thought it had already broken at home, but that was just small leaking compared to what happened in the hospital parking lot. So, now we are walking in the hospital doors (they had to buzz us in because it was after hours) and I looked like I just peed everywhere. I wasn't too worried since it was 12:15am, but sure enough the entire waiting room/lobby was full of people (it was all of the inductions that got bumped). I was a little embarrassed, but what could I do? They checked me into triage and examined to see how dilated I was...4cm! That is when the nurse said, "you are having a baby today" and that is when Kaleb said, "Maggie Mae will be born in April instead of May," like we had planned...she was one week early.