The digital watch returns. Like my aloha shirts, Baleen banished it years ago, permitting its appearance only on certain runs or hiking trips. Gone was the overwhelming usefullness of alarm clocks and timing the fastest route to Whole Foods on foot, all in favor of fashion. She aided its hibernation, as any goal-oriented person would, by providing a wonderful alternative, a basic, black waterproof Marathon watch with a little bit of a story. The Doughboys wore it back in the war, she said. Actually, she said, US soliders wore it in WWII, but when I remember it, it's Doughboys. I love that watch.
Yet in our preparedness mode, like the packed bags by our door, the digital watch is back. It's ready to do its part in bringing fkaBaxter into the world.
It's first task: time 1 x 5 x 1. That's a sixty second contraction, followed by five minutes of idle chatting about Greece or Lady Mary, then another sixty second contraction. When that 1 x 5 x1 repeats a few times, it's hello hospital. Once we're there there's more measurement, sometimes for posterity, like beginning of labor to the end, but again the contractions. At sixteen hours, according to our doctor (and Timex), if we're not deep into active labor, the epidural enters. But don't worry you sympathizers of mine who think the Timex's moment in time will be brief, limited only to the weeks before fkaBaxter's arrival. There's a whole bunch more to measure in the first few months, like the length of each feeding (right and left), nap time, and that other thing that Baleen and I won't measure, how little sleep we're getting. We'll just tell you about it.
Yet in our preparedness mode, like the packed bags by our door, the digital watch is back. It's ready to do its part in bringing fkaBaxter into the world.
It's first task: time 1 x 5 x 1. That's a sixty second contraction, followed by five minutes of idle chatting about Greece or Lady Mary, then another sixty second contraction. When that 1 x 5 x1 repeats a few times, it's hello hospital. Once we're there there's more measurement, sometimes for posterity, like beginning of labor to the end, but again the contractions. At sixteen hours, according to our doctor (and Timex), if we're not deep into active labor, the epidural enters. But don't worry you sympathizers of mine who think the Timex's moment in time will be brief, limited only to the weeks before fkaBaxter's arrival. There's a whole bunch more to measure in the first few months, like the length of each feeding (right and left), nap time, and that other thing that Baleen and I won't measure, how little sleep we're getting. We'll just tell you about it.
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