Post-script to the Timeline

One detail that was not left out of the Timeline was breakfast for Kathy. All the pregnancy book make big highlighted chapters about - Be sure to eat everything you can before you go to the hospital! Since you won't/can't eat anything once you're there and get admitted. We left the house in a bit of a rush that morning, fully expecting (in Kathy's mind) to be sent home and told that the "cramps" were false labor or something. She got ready like she normally would in the morning. People are already commenting to me about how perfect her makeup was, etc. Well, she thought the hospital visit would be maybe and hour or two, we'd be sent off, then maybe have lunch around there and then go to her regularly-scheduled doctor's appointment - directly across the street from Arlington Memorial.
So, as we are told that we will be admitted, we looked at each other with wide eyes. Mine said - "we're having the baby today!" ... hers said "Oh shit - I'm starving!".
Fine dining for the mother in labor is a combination of two selections - crushed ice or popsicles. During one of our many long walks around the hospital to see if the baby would drop more and Kathy would dilate more, I bought an orange Fanta and asked Kathy if she wanted a sip. She took one then asked if that was allowed. I said - Oh, don't be nuts - it's liquid! We then asked a passing nurse if she could have it, who said - Oh, absolutely not! No carbonated drinks of any kind!
With that, I submit to you that Kathy was on a 24-hour fast when she went through this incredible 22-hour journey of labor. This is a woman who normally can't go 4 hours without eating before feeling light-headed. Her diet in the weeks before labor was rich with protein, vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables, and lots and lots of brownies and brownie fudge sundaes. But at 2:30am, after 22 hours of labor with all the nourishment from 3 popsicles over the previous 30-hours-plus, she found the strength to keep pushing and deliver.
Yes, babies and the birth process are a miracle; but I think that Kathy's effort this past Tuesday and Wednesday reached miraculous proportions.