the Natalie diaries - part 2: the call.

It was Monday, March 22nd.

I knew this was probably "the week". Georgia (our birthmother) was going to the doctor this morning to hopefully find out what day this week she would be induced. I had planned to go to work, knowing I could very well leave after talking to her. I woke up that morning, and for some reason felt the need to stay home until after talking to her. Her appointment was at 10:30, which is 9:30 our time, so I decided to stay home until I knew what her doctor told her. I got a few things done around the house, but I was mostly relaxing. I had a lot to do before going to SC for the birth of our daughter, but I was resting a little after my nesting frenzy over the house that weekend. At about 10:45 that morning, she called me. The phone conversation went something like this:

Georgia: Well, I have good news & bad news; which do you want first? {She liked to start her updates like this ;)}

Me: Ummm...the bad news?

G: It could be up to a couple of days before I have her.

Me: Well, that's not too bad! Ok, what's the good news?

G: I'm going to the hospital right now.

Me: {can't breathe} WHAT. Right now?!?!

G: Yes, right now! I'm going to McDonald's to get a sweet tea, and then I'm going to the hospital!

Me: {pretty sure my heart stopped beating...} Uhhh...ok....{I have no idea what I said at this point, as I was in shock, even though this is the conversation I was halfway expecting.}

G: Are you packed & ready to come up here?

Me: No...I was too busy getting the nursery ready!

G: I told you to have your bags packed & ready to go! {True. She did tell me that. But I'm a procrastinator. :)}

So, after talking to Georgia for a few minutes, of course I needed to call Baron. He had about 5 minutes left in his last class of the day, so I texted him instead of calling. I made the mistake of making it seem like an emergency. I guess when you text "CALL ME ASAP!!!" then it does kinda seem like an emergency. :) He actually stepped out of class to call me, and I told him the news. Then I called my mom & got her to call the rest of our family so that I could focus {yeah right}on packing. I packed Natalie's suitcase {which, BTW, I was nearly clueless as to what I would need, so of course I overpacked}. Then I realized that we had to take a MOVIE back to BLOCKBUSTER. Of all things, the morning I'm getting ready to go out of town to adopt our daughter, I have to go to Blockbuster?! Whatever. It was New Moon, so it was worth it. ;)

The rest of that day is sort of a blur. Baron got his stuff done at school before leaving, and we finally left town about mid-afternoon. My dad was working on finding us a place to stay, and he settled on making reservations at a vacation house just 10 minutes from the hospital where Georgia would deliver. By the way, did I mention my mom & dad and Baron's mom were going with us? AWESOME help. We were so glad to have them with us!

We got to Greenville later that night, and went straight to the hospital to see Georgia. She was feeling pretty bad at that point; her head was hurting like crazy {a symptom of the preeclampsia, which is why she was being induced early} so we didn't visit long. She had been given a drug to soften her cervix {can't remember the name of the drug} to prepare to be induced on Tuesday morning, and she hadn't progressed at all that day. So we were expecting it to at least be mid-day on Tuesday before we saw any action. We left the hospital to go to the vacation house to get some rest. Little did we know what lie ahead of us that night!

{To be continued}