Just the other day, I wrote about how Christmas Eve felt like the longest day of the year to a child awaiting Santa's arrival. Today we learned that to us adults, Boxing Day is the real "Longest Day".

Karley called us at around 9:00 AM, to say that she thought that she might be in labour. She had been awake on and off since 3:00 AM with what she believed might be contractions but now they were becoming more regular. She was experiencing some mild pain and had had some "leaking" but she was very calm and in no rush to go anywhere. She advised us to stay where we were and that she would call us if things progressed. By noon, she was having these pains every 5 minutes and they were lasting for about a minute and her doctor advised her to stay at home for as long as possible. We waited at our place while she and Ian waited at theirs and the day wore on. At 3:00 o'clock, she called us to say that she was going to the hospital because the pain was now becoming more intense and difficult for her to handle at home. Again, she advised us to relax, stay put, for a while or until Ian called to say things were happening fast. We watched a movie and played on our computers as the time went by. Finally at 5:15, Ian called to ask us to pick up a couple of pillows at their house on our way to the hospital and that Karley had dilated to about 5 centimetres.

We arrived at the hospital amidst a flurry of activity going on in her room and were asked by a nurse to wait down the hall. It seemed the baby's head had not moved into place and there were some concerns that the umbilical cord would present itself before the baby. The doctors needed to try to manually move the baby into place by rupturing her water and they wanted her to have an epidural. After what seemed like an eternity, we were finally able to go in and see her. Aside from the emotional tears of her ordeal, she was doing very well and was singing the praises of this wonderful pain blocker. By 9:00 PM, there was little progress, the baby's head was not facing the right direction and they administered a drug to try to speed things along. The heartbeat was strong, as were the contractions, but the dilation of the cervix was still no bigger than it was at 5:00 when Ian had called us. Finally by midnight, with no changes other than extreme pain, (the epidural had run out and the anaesthetist was busy elsewhere) the doctor determined that Karley would have to undergo a Caesarean section. Today had officially become the longest day of the year!