Holly went into labor this morning at 2:30AM. I won't argue with her when she says it's labor; I figure she's the better expert than I am, and she knows its different than a Braxton-Hicks. I had to get up around 4AM to answer the call of nature and she quietly told me, "I don't think you have to go to work today." It's funny how a few simple words barely whispered can shock a poor sleep-deprived man into sudden wakefulness; I couldn't go to sleep after that, and believe me, I tried.

Holly's contractions got closer together and more intense and when they hit that magic combination of five minutes apart and lasting one full minute we knew we had about an hour until we needed to make an appearance at the hospital. So I left the warm cocoon that was my rest and shoved some food down my gullet, and then tried to take a shower. I succeeded but barely, given that four hours of sleep and hot water can lead one to feel dizzy and swoon. Some great husband I was going to turn out to be; I was set to pass out before things got worthy of passing out over!

Like a sick child I crawled back into bed after I managed to get myself dressed, promising I was only lying down to make my head feel better. The next thing I know I'm running through the industrial streets of some unknown part of Salem, winding my way to my office to tell my boss we are in labor; I figure that while I'm there I can change the password on my company machine in case someone needs to use it and lo-and-behold my boss has already hired a temp! Things were looking rather frightening until Holly started dialing a phone and I woke up to overhear her talking to a nurse about her contractions.

It turns out her contractions are slowing down and spreading out. So now we wait, get some rest, and figure out if I should be working from home today or if we'll still need to head to the hospital at any minute. I've not heard any gasping while writing this, so I'm not sure if the contractions are still happening with any frequency. Emma . . . are you going to start out life already in trouble?