I didn't ask permission to tell this story, so I hope my friend doesn't mind my telling it. One of my old anchors from Montgomery came up to visit and told me this story about her sister, Nicki (sp?).
Nicki is 23, recently graduated from Auburn and just got a job as a bank teller. She called Stefanie one day and said I am having the worst menstrual cramps of my life, you've got to pick me up from work and take me to the hospital. So they head to PriMed, while Nicki pounds on the car the whole way there. The doctor asks her if she's pregnant and she says no way, I've been on birth control since who knows how long and I'm on my period right now. So he does the urine test and says I think you're pregnant and should go to the hospital right now.
In complete denial, they get in the car and head to the hospital. The staff there measures her and says 'oh boy, you've got to go up to labor and delivery.'
Let me stop here and back track. I only know Nicki from a few pictures and the stories Stef would tell me at work. She is like most average college age girls, loves to party, drink and be less responsible. I'll also add that she is pretty skinny, because I've heard these kinds of stories with heavy women, but not skinny. Stef said she did look like she had gained ten pounds maybe, but it was fairly normal because their whole family gained weight easily at the midsection, and she'd been drinking and eating unhealthy for a while in college.
So, they rush her up to labor and delivery and less than two hours later out pops a completely healthy, 6lb. 7 oz. baby, born full term at 37 weeks. Crazy story, huh? Like me, you probably have all sorts of questions going through your mind right now, and I won't even try to answer them. But there were two things that stuck in my head after hearing this story.
First, the amount of time it takes to have your life flipped upside down. Almost all the time, it's because of tragedy. You lose someone, you develop a deadly disease, a car wreck, etc. It always involves death. This was the exact opposite. That morning she probably woke up thinking what am I going to wear to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and where will I party this weekend. She went to bed thinking, I'm a mother. Her life made an astronomical 180 degree turn in TWO hours!
Secondly, Stef says although having kids was the last thing on her mind, she has become quite the natural and has the baby glued at the hip. It makes me think of how instinctual mothering is for women. Not that there isn't a learning curve, but the basic instinct comes so naturally to you moms. I really like that.
I wish I had pictures to go with the story, but she wasn't carrying around a camera at the time, just in case she had a baby. Maybe this story is less fantastical to med buffs, but Court and I are still in shock at what it must have been like to be a part of that experience, from Stef's, the new grandma's, the ex-boyfriend's and most certainly from Nicki's perspectives.
