The 2:00 AM Wake Up Call.....

Last night, my lovely wife and I, were happily snoozing away, when the phone rang.

Usually, when the phone rings at that hour it means one of three things - a crank call, a wrong number, or something bad had happened. We were glad that this call was "none of the above".

My wife answered the phone (it's on her side of the bed....), and proceeded to ask "Who is this...?", and "Where are you...?".

She actually asked where the person was 2 or 3 times. She also told them not to worry about waking us up in the middle of the night. Finally, she hangs up, and tells me what was going on.

I figured it was our nephew, getting off of work VERY late, and needing a ride home, or even something to do with THEIR new baby. Nope, neither one of them....

It was Andy, and Amish neighbor (calling from another neighbor's house - before anyone gets excited about an Amish guy with a phone.......). It seems his wife had gone into labor. They were not expecting the baby for another two weeks, or so.

Come to find out, the neighbor (right across the road from Andy's house) could not help because the husband was at work, and they only have one vehicle. They weren't SURE of our last name, but muddled through the the phone book, until they came up with our number. Andy said he was about a minute from hopping on his horse and riding up to roust us.

They HAD contacted their midwife (she, evidently IS allowed to have a phone....), but she told them she was sick, and didn't want to risk giving them or the baby what she had, so she couldn't help. The next choice for a midwife was the one that delivered their first child. The trouble was, she lives 30 miles away.

So, off we went, through a dark - and mostly dead - night, bound for Jamesport, Missouri. As we drove through Trenton, we figured everyone else was asleep because there was ZERO traffic, not even a cop. Andy kept asking his wife if she thought she was still in labor. He said he sure would "hate to make the trip for nothing...."

She looked him straight in the eye and said "Well then, let's turn around and go home, then YOU can deliver the baby."

He figured he'd better keep quiet after that....

All went well, and I dropped them off at an unsuspecting midwife at about 4:00 am. I told Andy to call if he needed a ride home.

Then, about 9:45 I got a call from him, telling me they had a new 6lb, 5oz baby girl - Maria, born at 8:10 in the morning!

I drove back over to pick them up and, at about 11:15, we were all loaded up, and headed home with the new baby. I even got to hold her while we waited for Andy to pick up Maria's sister from his brother's house. Grandpa Joe was there, and spied me holding the little one. He saw me, and said "Oh, so you even got to hold her, huh?"

"Yep, I beat you to it!", I told him.

He just laughed and said he'd have plenty of time to hold her later. I dropped them off at home, helped them get inside, then headed back to our place.

Mom, new baby, and older sister are doing fine......

Dad is still a bit excited.......