Back in the Saddle
Last Wednesday I left for North Carolina to visit my good friend Judith (from college) for her baby shower. Since we never see each other I was going to come early so we’d have a few days to spend together. She took some time off from work (she’s an RN at the Duke medical center) and we were going to go to the coast where her parent’s have a house in the Outer Banks.
So, on Thursday morning we got up, made coffee (for me) and chatted for a bit before she rushed out to get to a doctor’s appointment at 9:30am. She told me she’d be back in an hour….. but she never came home! I went for a run, showered, made some breakfast and then still no word. I began to get concerned and decided to take the dog on a walk to keep myself busy and since he had been so devastated to see me leave to run without him. When I returned to the house there was message from Walter, her husband (and yes: they are named Judith & Walter, and no: they are not 75, they are in their late 20’s). Apparently they were running more tests. hmmm.
Well, the phone calls and messages went throughout the day… I slept with the dog in the warm sunshine on the porch and read the addicting novel that I bought in the Newark airport: (The Other Boleyn Girl). And then the call came that she was scheduled to have a C-section at 6:00pm. Judith’s wonderful mom and sister came to pick me up around 4 and we headed to get tiny diapers and other last minute supplies at Babies R’ Us… (wow, that was an overwhelming place). And then they took me, finally, to Whole Foods… I had eaten Judith out of pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries and was very hungry. Then we headed to the hospital.
I talked to Judith in her room right before they took her in. She was calm. She is always calm. This is perhaps one of her greatest strengths… and why we had been such great friends so quickly. She is so steady and grounding and the only person (besides Ian of course) who I think I could ever live with long term. She told me what they expected and how it would go and she was excited, in the way that Judith gets excited and she was, I could tell, under the cover of collection, a little nervous. Because this was all so new to me, it was quite surreal.
The surgery came and went very quickly and soon we were allowed to see baby Alister, all 4 lbs and 12 oz of him, through the glass of the baby area. He looked so tiny and helpless squirming in his little plastic bassinet. And how strange that just 45 minutes ago, he was inside my friend as I hugged her. It was a lot to take in and at once, I understood the commonly used phrased: “the miracle of birth.”
Though I hadn’t planned to be there and it meant less time with my friend, I was so happy to have been there for the occasion. When we left the hospital that night, her parents and sister and I celebrated at a nice dinner with a bottle of champagne and toasted the new baby boy.
I spent the next few days reading my novel, walking the dog, roaming Whole Foods, hanging out with Judith’s sister and brother and visiting the hospital. It was a long trip for 5 days. In a way it was totally exhausting and in other, it was remarkably enlightening. In any case, it was much to digest.
