Ok...you guys are in for a long story.....
I work for a large financial corporation. In the beginning of 1998, there was an incentive program for my division that began for associates providing wonderful customer service. I was nominated for this award for 3 situations that I was recognized for. Only 100 associates (1%) were were going to be chosen for this award. And what was the prize you ask......
A weekend for all the winners and a guest to
Disneyland, including airfare and all meals paid for.
Oh...and also $1000.00!!! As soon as they announced this program...I just knew I wanted to be chosen.
I found out I was chosen one month before my due date. The trip was 2 weeks before my due date.
I talked to my doctor and he said that since the flight is less than an hour long, he did not think that I would have the baby on the plane....but that I could end up having her in California. Since I grew up in Garden Grove and was born at GG Medical Center myself (actually Palm Harbor then), and my Dad lives right down the street from Disneyland...I did not see this as a reason not to go.
Everyone else was going from Friday to Sunday. My DH and I decided that we would only go for the awards banquet Friday night, the character breakfast Sat monrning and then fly back home just to be safe. Only about 24 hours.....what could go wrong?
Well, we flew in Friday morning....checked into the PP where everyone was staying and went to the awards banquet that evening and had a wonderful time dancing.
Well, (here comes the good part) about 10:30pm that night I rolled over in bed and thought I had wet myself.
Just to be safe....I had my Dad come pick us up and take us to GGMC. They hooked me up to all the machines and after several hours...told me that my water did not break and that I was not having contractions. I told them about this funny pain that I was having and they assured me that I was NOT in labor.
It is now about 3:30am and my Dad was really upset that he was not going to get to see his first granddaughter before my Mom who lived in AZ at the time.
He took us back to the hotel and we tried to get a couple hours sleep before the character breakfast. I just HAD to go to the character breakfast!!!
After the breakfast, we went back to the room to pack up since the shuttle was coming to get us at 10am while everyone else headed to the park. I decided to time these funny pains I was having......7 minutes apart. hhhhmmmm....could it be labor???
I called the doctor back in AZ and she said that she did not think that I was in labor since the hospital in CA had done all the tests, but to keep timing the pains and if they got less than 5 minutes, not to get on the plane and go to a hospital.
Well, when we got on the plane...they were just at 5 minutes. At this point, I just wanted to get back home to AZ. These pains did not really hurt...they were just little cramps.....right??
By the time we landed, they were 2.5 minutes apart and now were starting to hurt a bit. I asked the flight attendant if there was any way that we could get off the plane first. (We were in the last row
) She said "No". I explained that I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and that my contractions were 2 minutes apart.
Then they annouced over the intercom that there is a woman in the back of the plane about to have a baby and if everyone could stay seated until we got off the plane. I was thinking they would just say "medical emergency". As we were getting of the plane, everyone was cheering and clapping and wishing us good luck. I was bawlng now from the emotions.
We went straight to the hospital from the airport and she was born 6 hours later.
On December 5th, 1998....Walt Disney's Birthday! How ironic!!
Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
