the thing about having a new baby is that she leaves us no time to write about her in my diary. it is that way with life in general. when life is full and exciting, there is no time to write; when life is slow, there is nothing to say. but this event demands to be put down in writing, so it will be recalled in detail. it begins wedensday evening, about 6 pm. my brother is at our home for dinner. i have beaten my dear ephelba home from work for once. i checked my cell phone for any messages. ephelba had gotten an ultrasould done earlier that day, but i hadn't heard from her regarding the results. this was not a routine ultrasound. the doctors were concerned that the baby was growing too slowly in the uterus. she is such a small baby, just over 4 pounds, less than half the size of boy when he was born. it worries us. i found the message from ephelba, i'm listening to it and to my brother who is going on about where is everybody, and then i hear "you better call into work and tell them you won't be there for the rest of the week, because they are going to induce labor tonight." apparently, the baby had not grown at all in the last week, and the doctors all agree that the best thing is to get her out quick. ephelba pulls up in the driveway just then, with boy. i was just telling my brother what ephelba's message was about when in she walks in the door. "what's all this about inducing labor," i shout. (when i get excited, i tend to shout.) ephelba told me about the baby not growing. we had known about the slow growth issue for a some time, but now it was worse. this baby was trying to worry us into an early grave, what with the bleeding, the placenta previa, and now she was simply refusing to grow. now the doctors think she will grow faster outside the uterus rather than inside. so i do call work, and tell them that we're having a baby and i won't be in. "well, you'd better get going, then" they say. but we don't. ephelba wants to eat and take a shower. (they won't feed her at the hospital until the baby is out, so they have the option of doing an emergency c-section with her vomiting and chocking on it.) i suggest that we go out to a local bar whose hamburgers i have been wanting for the last couple days now. ephelba wants to eat oatmeal. so me, my brother, and boy all go out to get a burger while ephelba stays home to shower, pack up some last minute stuf, and make oatmeal. at the bar, i order the half pound burger. its not my usual, but i figured it could be a while before i could get anything else. i strong consider having a beer, but decline this option. i consider getting seriously buzzed, but pass on that one as well. boy, brother and i talk about what it will mean having a new baby girl in the family. i make a ton of calls to family and friends. my mom, who is so geeked to be having a grandbaby (her first) that she can hardly stand it, she kind of shrieks, and then says she will be there in two days. there were caught completely by surprise, as were we all. my mom is the kind of person who likes to be packed about a week ahead of time for any trip that she takes had to just throw crap into a suitcase and leave! actually, she had to wait complete a cat scan for this mysterious pain in her side (no, not her husband) otherwise they would have left right away. i called ephelba's aunt. more shrieks. she came down the next day. called amy's best friend, loon, and her partner. they came over and watched the boy. my brother stayed until they got here. the ephelba and i went to install the car seat. thing 1: do not try to install a car seat that is bigger than your car. thing 2: do not try to install said carseat at night, while it is snowing, with one of you holding a flashlight, while you are trying to hurry because you might be late for labor induction. we did all those things, and now we know. just don't do it. so at last we leave and go to the hospital, a huge military-industrial complex of a hospital, and finally land in the labor and delivery room that will be our home for the next four and a half days. the check in was very smooth, and required no paperwork on our part. ephelba gets a progesterone suppository-like thing stuck up her hoo-hoo, and we settle in to watch 'lost' and 'invasion.' they are both reruns. nothing will happen for the next 12 hours while we wait for the progesterone to 'relax' ephelba's cervix. then comes the oxytocin. joy! to be continued...