"Please Hold"

The week before our vacation was insane. Work decided that I needed a few more deadlines. And all four projects had a deadline before I was set to leave for Cape Cod. I was required to work full days, go home, be a mom, cook dinner, bathe her, put her to bed and then head back to the computer. Some people do this all of the time; I am not one of those people.

Anyway, it was insane. And Sam, thank goodness, still new at his job, could pick up some of the slack. As our childcare provider couldn't provide care for Seren due to her daughter having pneumonia, we pulled her out of care and into Grammy Care. So, things were nutty.

At 5:30, I call home to tell Sam that I'll need to work late. He says that I should stay there because our home had no electricity. They were managing just fine but I should stay at the office. I settle in.

At 7:30, I call home. I was depressed that I hadn't seen Seren (a first) and I was hours from being done my work. I ask Sam how he is feeling.

"I am not good. Oh! I am SO not good."

Alarmed, I ask him what is wrong. Seren is screaming in the background and Sam says he is bleeding uncontrollably. He asks me to call the neighbors so that they can come over and help.

I call six neighbors.

I call two more families. No one is picking up their phones- our phones are all on those damn electrical landlines. I call him back. Seren is still screaming. She is fine, just scared. So he asks me to call 911.

I call 911. The local town in NJ picks right up (I work in Jersey, my family and home are in PA). I get transferred quickly to PA. Her first words to me?

"Hi, please hold."

(!!!)

So I tell them what is going on. She says, "Oh, this is an emergency!?" (Apparently, I was transferred to some non-emergency line). The EMTs get to my husband. And I drive like a bat out of hell from Princeton. Going 80 on I-95- good times!

Meanwhile, sam has stopped the bleeding. He has had this thing on his leg for over a month- it is very close to a birthmark. Apparently, he picked the scab and since it is sitting right on a vein, it just started shooting blood up into the air. And he couldn't get it to stop. Seren, meanwhile, was having a tubby and was stark naked screaming, "DIAPER!" for over 30 minutes while Sam tried to get the bleeding to stop and find a diaper for his toddler.

I arrive home to find all of my neighbors drinking wine on the front steps of one neighbors' home. They have Seren in their arms. I look like a stressed out, pregnant freak. They told me he was fine and that Seren was fine. Seren wasn't so sure about all of this activity.

I went home to our still dark home and found a flashlight, put Seren to bed in her clothes and would have poured myself a BIG ole glass of wine, but ya know, the pregnancy thing isn't about drinking alcohol.

Sam can be very sensitive about medical issues and can exaggerate colds and cuts. So I wasn't really sure how bad the situation was. That was, until I came home.

Our bathroom looked like a small dog had been murdered! It was horrible! There were bloody footsteps down the hall. Yuck!

Amazingly, Sam arrived home quickly- our neighbor kindly picked him up. And we settled into to eating McDonalds at 10 pm.

Seren's commentary on the whole thing the next day was classic. "Momma!! Daddy had a BIG, big, boo-boo."