At the very least, I need to be the hand for her to squeeze to the breaking point when the pain gets too bad.
My other job is to make sure she gets to the experts safely and quickly when Nugget decides to arrive. The staff at Women's Hospital in Greensboro are going to be the ones that we entrust with the birth, and they come highly recommended. I think that we are very fortunate to live right down the road from a hospital that is focused on this kind of thing.
With that being said, even though the hospital is just down the road, I want to make sure that I know all of the routes to get there. So yesterday afternoon when I got home from work, I busted out my map and sextant and charted a course.
Ok, so I didn't use a compass and star charts, and instead relied on good old Google Maps and my GPS to get me there. As you can see, there are two direct options to get from our house to the Women's Hospital. The first takes us down two of the busiest surface streets in Greensboro, Wendover Avenue and Battleground Avenue. This route is 2.7 miles and is estimated to take us about 7 minutes. The second route that popped up skips over Wendover and takes us directly to Battleground. It is .1 miles longer, which adds another minute to the trip.
It seems that we could also take public transportation to get there. This might be the funniest backup plan ever. "Don't worry, fellow passengers, but is there a doctor on the bus?"
I timed both driving routes, and with the stop lights and signs, both options took about the same time. There really was no difference in speed, so I had to judge the routes on other criteria. And the other criteria I chose was safety.
Wendover is a very busy road, and I have seen many near accidents while driving on it (I've also come close to being sideswiped myself a few times). Apparently, it's a road for bad drivers. "Hey, are you an asshole? Then use Wendover, it's the road for you."
Getting on to Wendover from our house is a little bit of a struggle as well. You just kind of have to get up and go, stop signs and human life be damned. Once you're on it, at least where we live, it's stops and starts with people switching lanes like they have suddenly forgotten all rules of common decency. It's a Road Warrior kind of experience some days. And I don't plan on being Mad Max on the day Nugget comes to town.
Looping around down Fisher was a far safer trip. There are a few more stop lights (the one on Elm street is usually the one that holds me up while driving to work). But once you get past that it's smooth sailing all the way to the hospital. And there aren't the assortment of homicidal maniacs that you get going the other way.
I know that it's going to be a little different on game day, when Elizabeth is breathing in short bursts and trying not to freak out (I picture myself doing the same thing actually). We'll both be nervous, and we'll both be extremely excited. I'm hoping that we catch it early enough that the contractions are not too painful or coming at a fast rate (because I don't want to deliver Nugget in my car...see my rant on "Home Birth" as to why...)
To make sure that it's all muscle memory, I'm going to start driving this route at least once a week (it's kinda sorta on my way to work anyway, so I can add it to the routine). It might be a little overkill (I'm sure a lot of what I'm doing for this blog has been overkill), but for me, it helps calm a lot of the nerves that I've been having about all of this.
It'll also keep me off of Wendover. I'd actually like to be around when Nugget gets here.
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