Dejavu! Could it happen a second time around? At 36 weeks pregnant, I said goodbye to my husband this morning for his last set of business trips before the baby comes... or will he come early like my last child?

You see, about 4 years ago, I was also 36 weeks pregnant and my husband went on his last business trip to New Orleans. We were temporarily living at my in-laws down the street as the house was under major remodel at the time. At about 10:30 p.m. I jumped off the couch, telling my mother-in-law that either I just accidently peed on her couch or my water just broke. Luckily it was the later and it was only trickling out actually. I remember standing in the shower dripping there while on the phone with my husband telling him it was time and he said the airport was closed. He and his business traveler, also a very good friend, decided to rent a car and start driving to Atlanta to hopefully pick up the earliest flight the next morning. So off I went to the hospital with my mother-in-law and a girlfriend met us there. I decided on the epideral to hopefully hold her off until her daddy arrived the next morning.

The next morning comes and we hopefully have a good chance that my darling husband can make it. My girlfriend had to go home to her family. A little later, the wife of my husband's traveling partner shows up to see how things are progressing. It's about 10 am and I just get off the phone with my husband. He said driving took longer than he was told but he's boarding a plane right now and would turn off his cell and call when the plane landed. No sooner had I hung up the phone when the nurse came to check on me. The prognosis was I was 10 centimeters and the catheter was holding the baby inside, calling the doctor quick!!!! No problem, I had my mother-in-law and a girlfriend there to help. I couldn't possibly leave a message for my husband now that he was on the plane. I didn't want to give his hopes up after all he had been through.

Within the hour, I gave birth to a healthy baby girl. My husband calls just before noon when he got off the plane. I told him his baby girl was waiting for him. He was ecstatic thinking it meant that the baby was inside me waiting for him, but I had to tell him the truth and he was devastated! He showed up at the hospital with flowers... what else could he do? We took lots of pictures with him and his baby girl. He looked the part of an expected father up all night! To this day, both girls do not know that daddy wasn't there for the birth of his second child... now that she's the middle child, the last thing we want is for siblings to say something nasty about this fact (as we all know siblings do!).

The only difference here today is that my husband picked destinations where every airport he's at this week is a 24 hour airport that he can get a flight immediately back! Pray he makes it home to his wife before her water breaks!

This is my most inspirational story for Mamanista. Kaboodle Kids has given the Leopard Rust Boys T Shirt as a shower gift and also as a prize.