Lydia's Arrival- Part 2

School was just about to let out, so we called a friend to pick up Eli and Evan for us.  Leaving them was one of the biggest disappointments about the possibility of Winnipeg.  I knew that they wanted to meet Baby at the first moment possible.  I didn’t know how long we’d be gone.  I knew they weren’t crazy about staying with other people overnight.  I was worried about them. 

I also wanted to go home so bad.  I just wanted 2 hours at home.  I wanted to take a nap at home and I wanted to clean up and pack my own stuff and pack things for Eli and Evan.  Thankfully, I was partially packed and had a packing list laid out just in case Kendall needed to run home for our things.  Of course they told me No, I couldn’t go home.  Kendall ran home and gathered the things on the list.  He called the boys on the way back to the hospital and reported to me that they sounded “indifferent” about the whole thing.  That was a relief and I realized that there was nothing I could do but trust God and our friends to take care of them.

The nurses came in and told me that the plane would be at the airport for me in a half an hour.  That is super fast.  I had been categorized as an “obstetrical emergency” and moved high on the list.  Before I knew it, I was dressed in billowing hospital garb and walking out to the ambulance in the garage.  They said I didn’t have to lie down in the back and said that I could sit wherever I wanted to.  So I asked if I could drive.  They said, “Sure!” but somehow I still ended up in the back.  Kendall got to ride shotgun. 

When we turned out of the hospital parking lot, the driver turned on the siren.  Right away, the EMT in the back told him to turn it off.  I heard the EMT explaining to the nurse in the back that for the extra seconds the siren buys, the sense of emergency and stress it raises for the patient isn’t worth it.  I sat in the jump seat facing the front.  As we sped down the highway, I could see cars pulling over as we passed.  I realized that the lights were on for me.  It was a weird feeling.  I don’t know that I’ve ever even been inside an ambulance on a field trip!  It was a beautiful, warm day and I remember feeling annoyed that I had missed it being inside.

At the airport, the ambulance drove out onto the tarmac where the medical evacuation plane was waiting for us.  It was such a surreal feeling as I crawled out of the ambulance and stood waiting in the warm wind and sunshine to board the plane.  On the plane, the nurse that was accompanying us wanted me to lie down.  So they strapped me to a stretcher.  I was on my side and could look out the window.  Every few minutes the nurse listened to Baby with the Doppler.  Baby did fine on the ride.  After 45 minutes or so we landed at the airport in Winnipeg.  I walked off the plane and was loaded onto another stretcher and into another ambulance.  This time we flew through the city with the sirens blaring.  By 6:30 or so we were pulling into the hospital parking lot.  I was taken right to a room in the high risk labor and delivery unit and wished luck by the EMTs and the nurse who came with us from Red Lake.