An eye-opening evening

Thursday afternoon- I was able to leave work while the sun was still up. I had grand plans to come home and photograph our gorgeous Japanese Maple in the mid-day sunlight. The tree glows with an awesome red blaze- like neon fire. Even now, under an overcast sky, its leaves light up our dreary computer room. Well, my plan never came to fruition. While looking for our camera upstairs, I took a nasty tumble down our stair case- more than 2/3 of the did I opt to travel on my ribs and forearms as opposed to using my perfectly healthy feet. Everything happened so quickly- but I did have enough time to let loose some choice profanity. Once I reached the ground floor, the waterworks erupted. I haven't cried like since the last time I watched _Terms of Endearment_. I was able to call Jesse, my parents, and have my OB paged. Our doc called back very quickly and advised me to take a trip to the ER. Jesse arrived shortly after and took all 3 of us to our future birth site- just 4 months too early.
While in the waiting room, we saw an elderly woman leaving the ER with, I assume, her son. They were both crying. Actually, she was sobbing, and he was quietly crying and supporting his mother. She kept calling out, "He's gone. He's gone." They were quickly met by a group of friends/ family, and entered into broken-hearted embraces. At this point, my eyes well up, and my hand sought out Jesse's hand. He gave my palm a knowing squeeze. It was like watching our future in fast forward...I can't imagine not having him here to comfort and console me. Just then, a nurse from the maternity ward called for us.
We took an elevator to the 3rd floor maternity ward. On our ride in the massive metal box, we were accompanied by a young teen and her mother. This girl was in some heavy labor- but she never made a single sound. I was still whimpering from my fall and felt like a total wuss next to this stone-cold maiden facing some serious contractions. She never said a word on our way to the ward. Later, a nurse told me she delivered within the hour of arriving. I asked the nurse if the girl had remained quite through the whole ordeal. No, emphatically no, was the answer. Apparently, the girl was too far along to receive her planned epidural. At this point, the Stoicism melted way to pure hysterics. Can't blame her.
We spent 2 hours hooked up to a monitor that reads my contraction rate and Miles' heart beat. The great news is that everything thing is fine. My arms look a bit gross- like a lost a fight to a drunk kangaroo, but our little man had no harm done to him. He probably slept through the whole experience. And me, I have no developed a healthy phobia of stairs. I am contacting Water Country USA to find out if the have any retired slides for sale.