Lisa wasn’t due to have her baby until March 7, 2016. It was a leap year and she prayed and prayed that the baby would stay in her belly until after February 29. She wanted her son to have a birthday every year as opposed to every four years.
So, around 12:45 in the morning on March 1, the telephone rang. I didn’t have a phone in my bedroom, but I could hear it ringing from my office across the hall. I laid in bed with my eyes open, suddenly wide awake, but too afraid to move. Whenever the phone rang in the middle of the night something bad had happened. My uncle has Lifeline so my mind immediately wandered to him.
Then I heard the caller ID’s robotic female voice announce my sister’s name.
“Kris?” I whispered hoping she was awake.
She grunted.
“Why is Lisa calling?”
“I don’t know…”
“Is this it?”
“Maybe,”
We both remained in bed for a few minutes. I don’t know what was going on in Kris’s head, but I was trying to process everything. Why else would our older sister be calling in the middle of the night if the baby wasn’t on his way?
After a few moments, and realizing that the phone had stopped ringing, Kris and I both leaped out of our beds. We ran downstairs where Mom was standing the kitchen talking to Lisa. Dad stood in the hallway outside of the bathroom staring at Mom waiting.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Lisa’s in labor.” Dad said.
Kris and I smiled at each other and I remember jumping a little, but it was only about one o’clock in the morning. We were all still pretty tired and out of it.
Mom hung up the phone and grinned from ear to ear. “They’re on their way to the hospital!”
We all cheered and stood around in the kitchen for a couple minutes not knowing what to do next.
“Well, I’m going back to bed.” Dad turned around and left the kitchen.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“We’ll visit them in the morning. There’s not much we can do.” Mom had said, which made perfect. We all needed our sleep for a big day ahead.
Luckily, it just happened to work out, that I had the day off from work that day. Dad still had to go to work, but Kris and Mom called out and we all went to the hospital together.
I don’t like hospitals. I felt on edge as we drove there, telling myself that we would be in the maternity ward. It wouldn’t be that bad.
I started tearing up in the car and Mom stared at me through the rear-view mirror.
“Are you okay?” she had asked.
“I’m an aunt!” I exclaimed through blurry eyes. Mom and Kris started laughing at me because I cry at a lot of things, good or bad.
We made it to the hospital and entered Lisa’s room and I immediately burst into tears again. I didn’t like seeing her hooked up to a machine with wires and needles coming out of her, even though I knew there was nothing wrong with her or the baby. This is one of the reasons as to why I don’t like hospitals and get nervous.
We spent most of the day waiting around. Kris and I decided to go home around 1:30 in the afternoon. Mom said they’d call if anything was to happen. So, of course, as soon as we got home, we both got a text message from our brother-in-law stating that Lisa was going to start pushing soon.
I looked up at Kris. “So… Does this mean we go back?”
“We should probably be there when the baby comes, right?” She responded with a question.
“I want to be one of the first people to see our nephew, yes.” I replied.
“Alright, let’s head back out then.”
Kris and I hopped back into the car and we were on our way. She drove while I the GPS on my phone. We have never driven to the hospital on our own before and have never been to that part of the town, so we had no idea where we were going. Neither one of us paid much attention when Mom drove us back and forth earlier that day.
Kris was pretty calm behind the wheel as I freaked out in the passenger seat.
“Holy crap, we’re aunts. Kris, we have a baby. We have a nephew. There’s a baby coming. Lisa’s a mom! A mom, Kristen!”
“I know!” Kris exclaimed excitedly. “Now tell me where to turn next so we can actually be there when the kid comes.”
As I directed her from the GPS, Mom kept texting me.
“Are you guys coming?”
“Lisa is beginning to push.”
“The baby is coming!”
“Hurry!!”
With each new text message, I freaked out more and more causing Kris to freak out.
“We’re going to miss it!” I shouted.
“We’ll be fine, we’ll be fine!” Kris pulled into the parking lot. Except there were no spots. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me…” she muttered.
After three floors down in the parking garage, I pointed to a spot right by the stairs. “There! Go there!”
She pulled in and we both jumped out of the car racing through the parking garage. We were both giggling like mad as we were both nervous and too excited at the same time for our own good.
We raced up the spiral stairs in the garage. I nearly knocked into a man who had to be at least two feet taller than me as I shouted, “Auntie’s coming!”
Kris burst out laughing as I almost took out the fully grown man and we dashed through the lobby of the hospital. We ran into the elevator. As it rose to the third floor, Kris and I leaned against the wall trying to catch our breaths.
An older woman was in the elevator with us and gave us a strange look.
“Our older sister is having a baby.” Kris explained.
The woman smiled. “First one?”
“Yeah, we’re aunts now!” I grinned.
“How could you tell?” Kris said sarcastically.
The woman chuckled. “Congratulations.”
We said our thanks to her and ran out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened. We jogged down the hall only to run into Mom.
“Do we have a baby?” I asked.
“We have a baby!” Mom exclaimed.
We group hugged each other and jumped up and down in the middle of the hall.
“We don’t know anything as we’re not allowed in yet. But a nurse came out and told us that he’s here and everyone is doing great.” Mom had explained.
We waited in a small waiting room with Lisa’s mother-in-law, father-in-law, and sister-in-law. We waited for about another half hour and our friend came in the meantime. We all sat and chatted with one another as though nothing was going on. We were just trying to pass the time.
Finally, Nick, my brother-in-law, came into the room. He explained what had happened to all of us. Everyone was doing well. The baby was born at 4:49 in the afternoon, and he was 12 inches, 6 ounces.
The grandparents went in first. My poor father wasn’t able to leave work, but he visited them later that night before visiting hours ended.
I remained in the waiting room with Lisa’s sister-in-law, Kris, and our friend. The four of us chatted about random things trying to pass the time some more. We knew it wasn’t going to be too much longer since the grandparents were having their turn. The nurses just didn’t want too many people to go in right at once right away.
Before too long, however, the nurse came in giving us permission to go into Lisa’s room. There, I held my nephew for the first time of many. I fell in love with him immediately as I looked down at him through my blurry, happy tears.
I hope you enjoyed this story! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
