It was in the 5 o'clock hour on a Tuesday morning in April. My wife and I were sleeping in our bed in our 3rd floor apartment in Dubuque, Iowa. As was often the case during the later half of her pregnancy, my wife had very little room left in her abdomen for organs like her bladder to fill to capacity, so she rose early to relieve some of that pressure. Usually she returned from those trips in the night to her side of the bed without stirring me, but this morning was different, she no longer was the "Diana Prince" I married, she had transformed into her alter-ego, "Princess Diana" aka "Wonder Woman." Wonder Woman woke me in the 5 o'clock hour that morning to inform me that her most recent trip to the bathroom had been rather unusual. I of course realized it had been unusual cause she left as one person and returned as another, but when your wife is in her ninth month of pregnancy, stating the obvious is never something a husband should do, so I asked her what she meant.
She described it like "going way too much and without having control." It seems her water had broke in the best of circumstances, as she sat on the one place in the house specifically designed to catch all that water. That is Wonder Woman for you, her water breaks and she leaves no mess, no sign of it at all. She called her doctor who asked her if she was in any pain, which she wasn't and he said he would meet us over at the maternity ward of the hospital later that morning but that we should head over asap. So my wife headed back to her bathroom to prepare and I packed up what we would need and hopped in the shower. We both emerged in the 6 o'clock hour at which time my wife informed me that she was still not in any pain, that she had even managed to shave her legs in the shower but she was still "leaking" a little so we might want to put a towel on the front car seat.
I started making a couple trips down the stairs from our 3rd floor apartment to our car to load our bags and prepare the front seat. After my second hike back up the 3 flights, I found my wife at the kitchen table, writing checks and sealing envelopes, we would need to stop on our way to the hospital it seems to pay a few bills. I was about to ask if she wanted me to run out to the 24-hour Wal-Mart and grab some paint so she could do a quick second coat on the nursery walls before we headed over to the hospital, but again, I had by then learned that my sarcasm was not well received by a pregnant woman, so I asked her if she was in pain, and she said she wasn't and we headed down the stairs. That is to say, I descended the stairs, I think she slid down the railings, but my memory is hazy as I was already exhausted from being woken early and already having climbed up our 3 flights of stairs twice.
In the 7 o'clock hour, we stopped off at the mailbox to pay our bills and headed out to the hospital. I had never parked in the parking garage there as we had always just "visited" the hospital so I ended up parking on the wrong deck and we entered the hospital on the bottom, staff only floor. We were quickly directed up an elevator to the correct floor and checked in at the desk. They got a wheel chair for Wonder Woman and made me walk, something I have always thought should have been reversed but that is hospital policy for you, and we went up another floor or two and down the hall to the maternity ward and right into the suite that would be our home for the next three days. It was finally at the hospital that she felt her first labor pain. We saw the doctor and started our process of walking the halls, massaging thru contractions, taking baths, and eventually Wonder Woman needed an epidural and she got it.
In the 7 o'clock PM hour, after twelve hours at the hospital and about 14 hours after her water broke, Wonder Woman gave birth to our first born son, Tristan. She would continue to suffer through a night of nausea and completely missed the German supper she had ordered (which still upsets her to this day), but she was Wonder Woman, and nothing could stop her.
In the five years since that day, she has never ceased being Wonder Woman. She is amazing in every way as a wife, a mother, and as a fellow worker in the kingdom. We talked about that day last night as we drifted off to sleep and how exciting it was and she still remembers that multi-tasking morning fondly. She has since also delivered our 2nd son and we continue to raise them both.
What I've realized over the years is that I had never gone to bed with Diane Prince, she had always been Wonder Woman, it just took a major event like the birth of our son to open my eyes to the fact. I am no longer blind. I love my sister, my bride as my sons also love, honor, and cherish her. We thank God every day that He has blessed us with her and we ask Him now to continue to keep her in his care. She is a wonderful woman. She is our Wonder Woman.
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