Charissa Hoerner
Professor Garland
English 202
24 August 2013

Unconditional Love from the Start It was November 9, 2010 around 11pm. The Television was blaring in the living room as the sounds of war from my husband’s video game echoed through the house. My oldest daughter was peacefully asleep in her room, and I was lying in bed enjoying HGTV when the pain began. It was a sharp, tightening pain in my lower stomach, and it was coming and going in waves. I soon realized I was experiencing contractions. I tried desperately to ignore the pain, thinking maybe it would stop. How could this be? It was two days before my scheduled cesarean section, and two weeks before my actual due date. I kept telling myself they must be false contractions. As I lay there trying to ignore the obvious pain, my heart began to race. With each contraction my heart raced faster and faster. My husband is still the in other room oblivious to what is happening in our bedroom. I could still hear the rounds of gun shots ringing out on the television, and him violently cursing every time he is shot or misses a shot. He was in his own little world and I didn’t want to disturb him. Every now and then he would yell into the room asking if I’m ok, and each time I would answer, “of course baby”. As the time ticks by, the contractions begin to ease a little. This is a huge relief as I really didn’t want to go to the hospital that evening. Just when I am beginning to relax again, it happens, the pain is back. Oh no, I can’t believe this is happening, right now, at eleven thirty at night. With each passing moment I am growing more and more anxious, and my heartbeat is now blocking the gun shots from my husband’s game. I begin talking to myself, “maybe I should start timing how close these contractions are!” Okay, here it comes, it seems like it lasts forever but it soon stops. I start the stopwatch on my phone, one minute, two minutes, three minutes pass and the next contraction begins. I do this many times over the next thirty minutes, with each contraction starting a little sooner than the last. I decide that maybe my husband should know that I am in labor. I yell to him in the other room, “Hey babe, I think I’m in labor.” He responds with a typical male response, “How do you know?” I explain to him that I have been timing my contractions for about a half hour and they are getting closer and closer. We decide there is no need to panic. I continue to time my contractions over the next thirty minutes and they are not getting any closer, but they aren’t stopping either. I decide to put a call in to my doctor. He puts my mind at ease, tell me to drink a lot of water and that should help. Great, I can handle drinking water, after all, over the past nine months I have grown very fond of water considering that is about all you can drink while you are pregnant. I relax, continue watching my show, and pound a few bottles of water. It is about 12:30am now, and my contractions haven’t stopped, they have actually gotten worse and even closer together. My husband is now nervously at my side waiting on our next move. I call the doctor back and explain that my contractions are back with a vengeance, and he tells me to go to the hospital. I go into my daughter’s room to wake her and tell her that I am in labor and we are going to the hospital. She moans at first and then jumps out of bed in shock. We put in phone calls to our parents to let them know it looks like Josie-Beth doesn’t want to wait until her scheduled due date. We load up the car and head for the hospital. I-95 is quiet at this time of night, which makes the ride a smooth one. We arrive at Bethesda Memorial hospital around 1:00am. The hospital staff is expecting us, and takes us back to a room. They begin hooking me up to all kinds