Date:         Tue, 27 Nov 2001 23:47:58 -0700
Reply-To:     John Andrew <johna@TELLURIDECOLORADO.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Andrew <johna@TELLURIDECOLORADO.NET>
Subject:      Almost a Vanagon baby!!
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

Hi,

Some of you may remember a few months ago when I mentioned we were having a baby and lived three hours from the hospital. 

We were planning on staying nearer to the hospital as the day approached, but things happened a few days sooner than we had expected.  At midnight, of course, her water breaks.  We call the midwife and she says to make our way in as a precaution,
as she is still not having contractions.  Us, figuring that this is our first child and things would not be moving along too fast, we take our time gathering things together.  It is a nice clear night with no snow on the road (not normally so in Colorado in November) so we decide to take the Westy so she can lay down in the back to relax and get comfortable.

So off down the road we go about 2 AM.  Soon after we leave some mild contractions start.  Still they are pretty far apart and she is laying down in the back reading a book.  Lots of elk on the road so I do not really push it.  About two hours into the drive, the contractions start getting a bit more intense and closer together.  She still seems to be holding it together and in not too much pain so she says keep going.  As we approach the outskirts of  Grand Junction, where the hospital is located,  she finally admits that she is ready for the pain medication.  So I fly through the pre-dawn city to the hospital.  Pull up to emergency at 5 AM.  Grab a wheel chair but she wants to walk.  Up in the maternity ward at 5:10 AM, they tell her she is fully dilated with no time for the pain medication.  At 5:30 AM our son Carter James Andrew is born!

So he came within a half hour of being a Vanagon baby!  Would have had to have come up with a Vanagon related name if that were the case!  

So once out in the world, he got his first ride home in a Vanagon.  And of course it had snowed two feet at home since we left so the trip home took four hours.  

It is good that the weather conditions were not reversed or the Westfalia Mobile Birthing Center may have had to have been put into use!

John Andrew 1984 "Westiico"





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