A lot has happened today and I am sitting in the hospital with Karen as I write this. But lets start at the beginning. When Karen woke up this morning around 10:00 am she noticed that she had lost some blood. So she called the hospital and they asked her to come in right away. Meanwhile I was down in San Jose at work. When Karen called me on the way to the hospital I got very concerned, but she was calm so that calmed me down and she told me just to continue to work. An hour later Karen called and told me that the doctor advised to induce labor with Pitocin. That meant we were getting ready for prime time. Once you induce labor there is no turning back and they asked Karen to stay in the hospital.
So I activated my email out-of-office notice (I plan to take off until the end of the year), cleaned my desk and drove home to pick up a suitcase with some essential clothing and supplies. Then I drove over to the Lucile Packard Children Hospital on the Stanford University campus to meet Karen. When I arrived Karen was already settled in her hospital room and hooked up to various devices to measure Max’s heartbeat and contractions. She felt OK and the contraction pain was not bad. She can even smile on the picture.
