D Day, H Hour

The time has come, we are currently located in Providence's Women and Children's Pavilion. The induction happens tomorrow, for now medication has been administered to prepare the ground for the main event. Melissa is terrified, and I certainly don't blame her. We knew this was coming, but being here is another thing entirely. For me there is still a certain lack of reality to this whole situation. I can understand where I am and what we are doing here, but the full implication of that hasn't sunk in. I don't feel nervous, but I think that's more of a function of my role here than anything else. My role is to be the calm counterpoint to Melissa's fear. The more she expresses nervousness and apprehension the more those emotions drain, leaving me empty but calm.

The room is cozy compared with other hospital rooms I've been in, but it's hardly what I would call a comfortable place to spend the night. We have WiFi, that's all I really need to feel comfy. Our poor dogs are going to be mostly on their own for the next few days, depending on how long this takes. I ran home and let them out and we've made arrangements for someone to be there every 8 hours or so but it's not our preferred arrangement by a long shot.

I brought my Fathers watch, a gold plated wind up pocket watch. I got it out of the box of keepsakes I keep it in recently because we lacked any other time piece with a second hand for timing contractions. It's an anachronism here, where digital electronic sensors record the slightest movement or spasm with perfect electronic accuracy. Still there is something reassuring about the relentless tick of the second hand, like a heartbeat driving night to day and night again.

"Cowboy Dan's a major player in the cowboy scene, he goes to the reservation drinks and gets mean. He goes to the desert fires his rifle at the sky and says, 'God if I have to die you will have to die.'" -Modest Mouse, Cowboy Dan