So I hope you all had great weekends. Mine, in abbreviated form, went something like this:
Friday
5:30pm: Receive phone call that my heavily pregnant wife (37 weeks) has been involved in a car accident on the way home from her last day of work before a planned eight-month maternity leave. She has been rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. I experience a moment of sheer panic, then scoop up Alistair, jump in the car and head for Lafayette, which I think is south of where I am. I figure out the directional details on the way.
6:30pm: Alistair and I arrive at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette to find Dana safe and sound, but seriously shaken up. All baby vitals, we are told, are as they should be. The wave of emotion is immense. I learn that Dana was rear-ended at high speed on I-25 and that her stomach slammed up against the steering wheel. All manner of thoughts - mainly negative - run through my mind.
Saturday
12:30am: sent home by on-duty doctor after the decision is made to keep Dana at the hospital for further observation, after being assured and reassured that the measure is purely precautionary. To bed at 2:00am.
6:00am: Get out of bed after a very restless night and get ready to start runners in the 7:00am wave of a 50k running event that has been in the works for months, and which begins and ends at my house.
7:00am: Get call from Dana that the doctor has requested that she stay under observation until 6:00pm because of a three-minute heart deceleration on the baby's chart during the night, meaning the original plan to head down to Lafayette to pick her up after starting the 8:00am runners has been ditched until further notice.
8:30: Cancel my ridiculous plan to get out and run some miles on the Chubby Cheeks course.
10:00: Head out to Arthur's trailhead with Alistair to hang out with Chris Hinds who is manning the back-of-the-pick-up aid station in high spirits. Enjoy a beautiful morning and early afternoon with Alistair and Chris, and random runners as they file through.
1:00pm: Head back to the ranch to greet runners and play host, while trying to maintain a positive attitude and demeanor.
4:30pm: Kick out the stragglers and head back down 287 to Lafayette.
6:00pm: Arrive at the hospital with Alistair to be told that everything is fine, but that Dana needs to stay in for further observation. Sent home. Drive hour back.
8:00pm: Get Alistair in bed, post some pics from the race, then get call from Dana that the doctors have decided to play it safe and induce (three weeks early) ... just as soon as I can get back to the hospital.
9:00-11:00pm. Arrange a sitter for Alistair (thanks Amy), wait for Dana's mom to get in from DIA after having just arrived from Las Vegas. Hot foot it back down to Lafayette.
Sunday
12:30am. Arrive at hospital. Dana is put on Pitocin drip to begin the process of inducing labor. Crash out on sofa and grab three hours sleep.
9:30am - Amniotic sack is broken and labor begins in earnest.
1:37pm - Dana pushes out a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Tears, hugs and kisses all around. Mother and baby are both in remarkably great shape, and I thank my lucky stars for the great fortune of having such a beautiful family survive what could have been a heart-wrenching Friday. Re-learn the old cliche that nothing in life should be taken for granted.
So this, of course, is a weekend that I will never forget. Thanks to everyone on Saturday for the positive thoughts and well wishes. I like to think that the positive energy in some way contributed to my family's immense good fortune. I could and maybe should have ducked out of going ahead with Chubby Cheeks on Saturday, and that was certainly my plan as things developed on Friday, but with the way things played out, I was somehow able to host the event as planned (if not run) and then come out the other end on Sunday with the most positive of all possible outcomes.
Destiny, Karma? Yeah, I don't know, I generally don't buy into any religious or metaphysical philosophies and tend to take most things at rational face value. I guess I subscribe mostly to the pool-ball philosophy on life, and consider our presence in this world ... universe ... space, as being massively random. If I had to believe in a god, I think mine would be a Random Number Generator.
The digits were picked in my family's favor this weekend and for that I am most assuredly thankful.
