The pregnant (and laboring) brewer

On November 10, we headed to the hospital in the middle of the night.  Scott was reluctant to go (Have you ever tried to convince an engineer that you are in labor and need to go to the hospital in the middle of the night?!?!?  It's not easy.)  but between the doctor telling us to go and Grandma Becky telling him she was a nurse but doesn't deliver babies, he started grabbing his bags.

When we arrived, I was hooked up to monitors in triage and, after walking around the hospital for a few hours in the middle of the night, they sent us home with the following advice:  "You are dilated but not dilated enough.  You are having real contractions but they are not strong enough.  Come back when it really hurts."

I nearly cried.

Actually, I think I did.  It takes a brave person to utter those words to a woman who is 38-weeks pregnant with a baby that is measuring in the 97th percentile.  I know for sure that I pouted on my way out the door and all the way back out to the car and we rode home in complete silence.  I waited for the "told you so" to come but thankfully, it never did.

I began my unofficial maternity leave from work the next day and began walking around the neighborhood trying (desperately) to get the baby train rolling.  After all, I already had my babysitters in town ready and waiting to help out with the kids and new baby.  For the next week or so, I had contractions on and off and on and off but nothing happened.

November 15: a few days after being sent home.

The following Monday I had another doctor appointment.  Yup, still dilated.  Yup, baby is still big and healthy.  The doc predicted baby would arrive in 24-48 hours. I think I heard angels singing in the background on my way out the door.

Scott got home from work on Wednesday evening and suggests that we bottle the beer that was brewed nearly a month prior.  The beer is an amber.  It's based on the same recipe I use to brew the Poore Pumpkin Amber but without any of the pumpkin or spices. I had never brewed it before but figured if the pumpkin version I modified came out good then the unmodified version should be a solid amber.

So we begin to bottle our brew around 9pm.

Meanwhile, I had been having contractions that are 7-minutes apart for over an hour.  But are they enough to go back to the hospital?!?!  I decide they are probably not.

By the time we are done bottling, my contractions have intensified a bit and are now 5-minutes apart.  Everyone goes to bed except Scott who is awake at the computer.  I texted him every 4 minutes until I couldn't take it anymore.  We called the doctors and they said yes (again), so we packed it up and snuck out of the house around 1am and headed to the hospital.

Eloise Ann was born at 10:20 am.

What about the beer?  We named it the Eloise Annber.