Aspen Carson Griffin Worssam

I do have an explanation for why I’ve dropped off the grid in the last month.

August 4 was the last normal day that I woke up. It proceeded along quite nicely and in a boring fashion. I played with the kids, did a little work at the college, and finally succumbed to the pleas of my kids and took them to the McDonald’s play land.

The chicken nuggets and hamburgers were finished and the girls were screaming happily in the upper tunnels of the play land (which, by the way, I’m certain is covered with germs. Covered. Maggie will put her hands on that mesh siding and then lick it and my stomach rolls). I got the phone call from my Mom and Dad.

“Looks like Sami is going into labor. She felt something around 6 am and now they’re on their way to the hospital!”

I was terribly excited and I knew that I wanted to be out there. We kicked into high gear. It was about 4:45 p.m.

I tracked Isaiah down and we had a DISCUSSION. I was ready to drive back to Arizona but I figured that the 17 hour drive would end up with me missing everything (little did I know) and exhausted on the other end. The soonest flight from Tulsa to Phoenix was at 7:41 p.m. It takes 45 minutes to get to Tulsa from Bartlesville.

Always up for the challenge, Isaiah and I flew home and I started to pack. The plan was for Mia to stay home with Isaiah and Maggie to fly with me because she can still fly on my lap for free. I was flying around the house like a dust devil, packing diapers, clothing, underwear and toothpaste.

Mia wanted to go.

Isaiah tried to explain to her that she was going to stay with him while we went to Arizona. This did not suit her. She began to cry and beg and plead to “please let her go see the baby, she wanted to see her baby cousin be born!” I let Isaiah be the one to crush her little dreams.

But it got serious when she showed up with her giraffe backpack loaded and announced that she was packed and she promised that she would be good if I would only let her go. I said that she couldn’t and she cried and we loaded everyone into the car seats and were away. Time? 5:45.

I called my parents on the road and asked how it was going and if the baby was there yet. They said that my sister was missing in action. They’d been waiting at the hospital for quite awhile and she never arrived.

Turns out she was hungry. And so she and her husband Geoffrey and mother-in-law Nancy decided to go get pizza.

Following the pizza Sami felt that the labor wasn’t progressing quickly and she didn’t want to get sent home, so they decided to follow some advice they’d been given and change altitudes to bring on the labor.

So they drove to the ski area north of Flagstaff. And got on the ski lift. All wearing flip flops. In labor.

Now, just to be clear, they started the labor process in Sedona at 4500 ft. Drove to Flagstaff at about 7500 ft. This not being a significant enough altitude change, they continued their pilgrimage to the Snowbowl and sailed through the air – for about an hour – up to 11,000 ft.

I hear that at one point in the leisurely, hour-long ride to the top of the mountain Nancy looked at her son and daughter-in-law and said, “I think this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever been a part of.”

Back at the hospital my parents were not laughing. My dad was actually coming up with different travel plans that would include changes of altitude and lack of medical facilities. He is a bit of a worst case scenario person on occasion.

While all of this was going on I was in the car, driving to Tulsa, listening to Mia beg and trying to talk to airline representatives. After I talked to my parents and they said that they would drive me back (they were coming out to be with us during training/opening for school, anyway). I called the airline to cancel Maggie & my return flight and see if we could add one more seat for Mia.

We could. And if you ask her today what was so fun about going to see the baby, she’ll crow, “They have one more seat! For me!”

We screeched to halt at the airport, checked the car seat and bustled through security. Waved at Daddy and blew kisses, then went straight on to the plane. Where they served NO SNACKS. And did I pack any? Nope. And was it dinnertime for my two toddlers? Yep.

Fortunately the third person we were sitting with was a recent college graduate who was also the oldest of 10 siblings. She was quite nice.

Leg two of the plane flight from Denver to Phoenix involved sitting next to a man who started yelling at the flight attendant that he did not want to sit next to one child, let alone two babies! He was moved, we got an extra seat and I’m pleased to say that my kids fell asleep promptly and made not a peep on the whole flight. Ha, grumpy man!

My parents had decided to leave the hospital to pick me up, against my recommendations. But, I was grateful to see them. We ended up in bed in the little 5^th Wheel Trailer they have in Flagstaff at 4 a.m. (6 a.m. Oklahoma time).

Now, you might think that this is enough adventure and I should stop writing. But you are wrong! The adventure just continues…

My parent’s little dog, Sophie, woke us up at 6 a.m. This was the little dog I found for my parents in Wyandotte after Munchkin died, so I’m in fact, responsible for her existence in our lives. She’s obnoxious. And wakes up early.

We got ready for the hospital and seeing Sami. She was still in labor. On the way over to the hospital my mom asked Mia what she had packed in her suitcase. I hadn’t checked. All I knew is that I had left the house with clothing for Maggie only and Mia was in what she’d been wearing, including the pair of underwear with skid marks. Poor thing.

In her giraffe backpack? A pair of sunglasses and her little computer. That’s all she thought she needed for a trip to Arizona to see her baby cousin be born.

We had a great time visiting with Sami and Geoffrey and Nancy in the cafeteria. I say cafeteria because children weren’t allowed out of the cafeteria or lobby at the hospital.

By 11:30 p.m. we were all a bit tired. Sami was having some hard contractions about every 7-10 minutes and was ready to go, but her water hadn’t broken. She wanted to do everything naturally, so she was resistant to any interference at all.

After one particularly bad labor pain she asked the nurse if she could take some Tylenol for the pain.

My parents were downstairs with the girls in the lobby and I was headed up to the room to let her know that we were going to the trailer for the night when Sami decided to let them break the water. We decided to wait because that would bring the baby on quickly.

That was close to midnight. At 12:40 Sami began to push in earnest. She never cussed once. It was remarkable to me – she had no pain medication and was still unbelievably polite. When the doctor asked her if she wanted to touch the head as it was crowning she said, “No, thank you, please.”

At 1:56 a.m, after serious pushing for over an hour and about 44 hours of labor in general, my niece was born. She was cute, pink and possessed a very fine set of lungs.

I would tell you her name, but at that point she didn’t have one.

She didn’t have a name the next day when we snuck Mia & Maggie up to the patio to look at her through the window. Or the next day when we met my in-laws at Coco’s for a meal.

In fact, she left the hospital with the moniker, “Not Named Worssam.”

The hospital told my sister and brother-in-law that they had until Tuesday to name the child before they had to fight with the state. And they named her Aspen Carson Griffin Worssam at about 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon!

Our drive back to Oklahoma and what’s been going on in the time until now is a story for another day. This one has been long enough. Suffice to say that it was a miraculous, cool, hilarious experience to witness! I have a huge amount of respect for my sister, who managed the whole ordeal completely naturally and pleasantly. It was amazing.