Parent Moments: Planning for the Big Day
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When it came to my second baby, the plan -- of course -- was to have a perfect pregnancy with my husband by my side and my mother-in-law taking care of our daughter Sabrina. The U.S. Navy had other plans, though. I was several months into pregnancy No. 2 when my husband's ship deployed. When we said good-bye on the pier, we knew the ship wouldn't return until our baby was 3 months old.
So it was on to Plan B. This entailed rounding up all the friends and neighbors I knew and creating a list of emergency contacts, which I then carried with me everywhere I went. Master planner that I was, I wrote the names in descending order of how comfortable Sabrina felt with each person. I set up the bassinette, stocked up on baby essentials, and prepared Sabrina as best I could for her new role as big sister.
But somehow, we caught a lucky break. Rich received the good news that he would be sent home three months early to attend a Navy engineering school. This meant he'd get home right around the time of my due date.
Our next plan was to have my mother-in-law come to stay about two weeks before my due date, just in case the baby came early. If the baby waited for my husband to get home, then my mother-in-law would just take care of Sabrina for us. If the baby didn't wait, then she would be there to drive me to the hospital and take care of Sabrina. And if the baby arrived while my husband was traveling from halfway around the world, my mother-in-law would drive me to the hospital, take care of Sabrina, and pick Rich up at the airport. For those keeping score at home, those were plans C, D, and E.
Then, a month before my due date, I fell down and tore the tendons in my elbow, making it hard to drive, cook, or do housework -- not to mention take care of my active daughter. Thankfully, my wonderful mother-in-law was up for Plan F. She dropped everything in her own life and came to stay with me. She cooked, cleaned, babysat, and even mowed my half-acre lawn.
The weeks quickly whittled away. After my husband called one afternoon to give his mom his flight information, we grew even more hopeful he'd make it back in time. Two days after my due date, the day before we expected Rich to return, we were just leaving the doctor's office when the cell phone rang.
"Where are you?" my husband's voice said.
"I'm just leaving the doctor's office," I replied.
"Is everything ok?"
"Just a check-up -- no baby yet."
"Were you going to come and pick me up at the airport?" my husband asked. I realized he sounded a little irritated.
"Of course! We'll be there tomorrow."
"Can you make that today? Because I'm here now."
Leaving Rich stranded at the airport -- well, it wasn't exactly the homecoming I'd planned for. To this day, our family still can't agree on what went wrong. Did Rich tell his mom the wrong day or date? Did she jot down the wrong details? Or was it the International Date Line that confused us all?
Whatever the cause, it all worked out in the end. And I realized it didn't matter if we were following Plan A, B, C, or Q -- the important things were that my husband was home safely, my daughter was well taken care of, and our son was born healthy -- three days after his due date and one day after his dad came home.
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