Introducing...."The Am"

It was October 21, 2007. Carly, Isaiah and I were hanging out with my parents that night. We were preparing to go to the hospital the next day for the birth. As any well organized family should, we scheduled Amaiah's birth. We had it all planned out with the hospital, our doctor, my parents...everyone except The Am. She, apparently, was not told of the scheduled birth. So around 9:30 p.m. Carly said she thought she felt cramping. I freaked out, of course. Within....say...20 minutes, Carly was in the bathroom in tears saying how bad the cramps (contractions) were hurting. I freaked out some more, of course. Now it's time to get in the car and get to the hospital (45 minutes away). We scramble and make it in the car (barely) and I broke just about every law there was to break in a car. Carly was holding, er, squeezing my hand when the contractions hit. It hurt. Okay, okay - but it still hurt! So we make it there and they wheel Carly up to a room and I park and run up to the room. When I get to the room Carly is begging for epidural...it's too late. She's going to have to do this one "out in the field" style. No drugs. Need I say more?! She was born about 20 minutes later - right out. Well, right out to me. I'm sure Carly has a different perception of that 20 minutes. She's been great! (except for that colic thing). Now she's almost 10 months, she's walking, babbling and just getting this attitude that she had when she came into this world so fast.