Women's Work

This is a note from Shawn Turner who used to work in the press office here at the Pentagon and is now at the White House...read on.

Hey Team,

Hopefully most of you have heard by now that Monique and I are the proud parents of a new baby girl. Macy Teresa Turner came roaring into the world in a rather dramatic fashion early this morning around 6:35 a.m. It was such an unbelievable delivery that I thought I would share the highlights with you.

Monique woke up around 5:15 telling me that she thought it was time. The last time she said those words to me, I sat at the hospital for 14 hours waiting for our first daughter to be born. As a result, I was a bit skeptical this time and it's fair to say that initially, I was not in much of a hurry.

Around 5:25 I realized that I was not going to be allowed to go back to sleep, so I got up and woke up my daughter Maya. Maya and I often play a game where I get down on all fours and growl and roar as I crawl around pretending to be a lion. She tries to tame the lion by jumping on his back. When Maya saw Mommy down on all fours writhing and moaning from another contraction, she thought it was "tame the lion" time and tried to climb on mommy's back. WOW! --That did not go over well.

I grabbed Maya and said "why don't we get some milk and get dressed so we can go to daycare." Monique overheard this and let's just say the expletives began to fly. Most of it was incoherent but I was able to make out "idiot" "Sasquatch" and "in the car now"

Realizing that this may be more serious than I had previously thought, I decided to move things along. I put Maya and Monique in the car and set off for the daycare which is only a mile from our house. As we made the short trip, Monique was between contractions so I attempted to lighten the mood with a bit of witty banter. She always says she can't do anything in the morning before she has a cup of coffee, so I asked her if she thought we had time to run by the Starbucks on the corner for a couple of Caramel Macchiatos?

I chuckled, Maya yelled "I want some poppy" and Monique looked at me as I were the devil himself.

After I ran Maya into her daycare provider and got back to the car, things had changed. Monique was yelling "we're not going to make it, we're not going to make it" and based on the volume of the screams and the changing shape of her stomach, I started to think she might be right. It was about 6:15 and I drove fast, -- I drove faster than I've ever driven before.

By 6:25 we were approaching the gate at Ft. Belvior. I glanced over to the passenger seat and I could see that Macy was on her way into the world. I'm not sure what happen next but I think I screamed because I remember Monique yelling "Why are you screaming, I'm the one having the baby!"

As I approached the gate, I was honking the horn and yelling to the guards "the baby is coming out, the baby coming out". The male guard put up his hand to slow us down and check things out, the female guard told him to get the hell out of the way and started screaming "go, go, go."

By the time we pulled up in front of the emergency room, Macy was out.

In a stroke of luck, a woman in scrubs was walking by and I yelled to ask her if she was a nurse. To my surprise, she said "I'm a labor and delivery nurse". Monique and I both yelled "PERFECT!"

Mommy and Baby are well and I'm getting a new car.

Best,
Shawn