two years ago, pt. 1

two years ago, i awoke suddenly with the feeling that i had peed in my pajama pants, which are a pair of fuzzy, lime green drawstring sweatpants. that feeling took me back in time to a place in my life filled with the smell of apple juice and graham crackers, when i was a little over two years old and had the occasional potty accident. just like i did then, i felt embarrassed and confused and wet. i got out of bed in the two-in-the-morning darkness and clumsily found my way to the bathroom. then, sitting on the toilet, it dawned on me: my water had broken. the time had come (two weeks early?!). OH MY GOD.

i woke panzón up, by calling out from the bathroom, and told him what had happened. i was expecting him to freak out, yet he calmly asked me what color my waters were, so i parted my legs and squinted into the toilet bowl, but could not make anything out, since i was not wearing my glasses. he brought them to me, informed me that pinkish was good and instructed me to take a nice, relaxing shower while he called my mom, who was staying half a block away from where we lived. after hanging up, he thoughtfully packed my bag, helped me out of the shower and had me stand sideways in my underwear to take the last picture of my belly.

i was pretty uncomfortable and anxious, feeling the amniotic fluid drip drip dripping out of me, so when my mom arrived, we immediately left to the hospital, even though we knew we could wait until the contractions started. we walked to the car, which was parked in a public parking structure a couple of blocks away, past a bar overflowing with english hooligans from that night's football match, and over tiny rivulets of drunken urine that converged in the drains of our pedestrian street.

after a quick check-in/check-up at the hospital, we were informed that there were no signs of cervix dilation or effacement. they would have sent me back home, but let me spend the rest of the night in a dilating room, since it was so late. my mom went back to her hotel in a taxi and panzón stayed with me in the room that i shared with a south american woman, who snored very loudly during those last hours of the night and whose contractions started at dawn and rose with the sun. the snores behind the dividing curtain were replaced by "¡ay, mamá!" and "¡ay, mamita!" and "¡AY, AY, AY, AY, AAAAYYYYY!".

meanwhile, i was painless, but ¡AY!ing on the inside.