A Midsummer Night's Labor (Part V of the story)

In May we moved into our new apartment. At this point we were still wondering on a week to week basis if Terence would keep his job, but I finally seemed to recover my faith and peace a little bit, enough to put my trust in the Lord that everything would be fine. We were lucky-- he still had some guys in the department that were supporting him. I guess they kept pointing out that Terence was a great potential officer, and if they let him go now, there was a good possibility they wouldn't actually get him back later. So that worked in our favor.

Still, we soon learned that though his salary had seemed like a lot of money, it wasn't quite enough for us. I had been doing sprinkler stocklisting jobs (where you take the plans for a fire sprinkler system and list all the parts and pipe needed) to bring in some extra cash, but about this time, my sister Amy got hired to do that work full-time, which drastically reduced the amount of jobs available to me. It was probably better that way, since I was now 8 months pregnant and very tired, but it did leave Terence and I scrambling to make ends meet. (Again.) However, once again, something always seemed to show up just when we needed it most, so those tithing blessings were still being showered on us.

One night in the middle of June, I had a horrible night. I was just so uncomfortable-- I didn't sleep well, and my stomach just hurt so badly. (Not so uncommon during that stressful period, but this was worse than normal.) Terence was worried about me starting to go into labor, but I reassured him that labor didn't at all feel like this and that he should just head off to work. Unfortunately, after he had only been gone for an hour, things escalated to an unbearable level. I was throwing up, and in between that my stomach hurt so bad I couldn't move and I couldn't think straight. When I called me doctor's office, the nurse told me to head into the hospital and get checked out. I was shocked. They thought I was in labor? But I wasn't! I wasn't having contractions, it was just one never-ending stretch of pain with extreme nausea.

That put me in an awkward position. I wasn't due for another three weeks so I didn't have any contingency plan for this. Terence was already at work in Phoenix-- it would take him at least an hour to get back. My parents were in New York so I couldn't call my mother to bail me out. Finally, I ended up calling my cousin Darcy, who happened to be living in Mesa temporarily. She came to stay with M. Then I called Amy, who left work and came to take me to the hospital. Poor Amy. I'm amazed she still wanted to have kids after that. I was still throwing up frequently and moaning that I was going to die. (It was the longest five minute drive ever.) At the hospital they hooked me up to the machine and the nurse cheerfully announced that I was having contractions three minutes apart.

Contractions . . . three minutes apart???? Really?

J arrived about five hours later. Miracle #8-- We had a healthy, good-sized baby boy even though he was a wee bit early. And Terence was actually able to be there, something he wouldn't have been able to do if he had never hurt his knee. (Even for childbirth you can't skip your academy classes.) Plus, he got to take sick leave to stay home with us for a week. Thank heavens for his knee injury! It had actually been a blessing in disguise.