The Day My Water Broke at the Airport

Although my husband doesn’t often travel for work, I dread it when he does, especially when he flies internationally. The worrying starts immediately and sometimes I find myself checking the flying statistics before his departure. I know statics say flying is safer than driving, but that does nothing to ease my anxiety.

This one particular trip stands out in my mind when I was eight months pregnant with our second child, and he had to travel to Sweden for five days. Being at home with a 22-month old at eight months pregnant, suffering through Braxton Hicks on a daily basis, and worrying about your hubby traveling, is not a good mix.

I decided we would surprise Daddy at the airport, another excuse to get out of the house. We lived less than 30 minutes from the airport, one more hour outside the four walls with our active toddler. I even managed to put on a little make-up, throw on a nice skirt (one with a nice stretchy elastic waistband), and a pair of flat winter boots.

With his busy work schedule and the time difference, we spoke only once during his trip, and it was the night before his departure. He and his co-workers planned to enjoy some of the Swedish culture now that work was behind them. With a 6 a.m. departure time, they needed to be at the airport by 4:30a.m. to return the rental car. It sounded like they were planning on making the most of it, hoping to sleep on the 8+ hour flight home.

The flight landed on time, and we patiently (because we all know patience is something toddlers excel at) waited for him to revel in our surprise. We spotted him immediately wearing an adorable Viking hat, a new addition for our growing dress-up clothes collection. I could tell from his weary face that they had experienced Swedish culture to the fullest, and that sleeping on the plane hadn’t gone so well.

My son wiggled out of my arms, and launched himself at his Dad’s outstretched arms. As they searched the luggage carousel, I hung in the background content to have my husband back on American soil. It was at that moment, while they searched and searched, that I suddenly found myself standing in a puddle of water. One of his co-workers looked back at that moment, and I clearly remembering him saying “uh-oh” and off he went to find Joe.

My husband hurried back to my side with our not-too-happy son. He had been easily entertained with the luggage carousel, watching the luggage go round and round is cheap entertainment. He assessed the situation and asked what he could do. I nicely demanded that he grab paper towels from the bathroom to clean up the mess. My husband rushed off to the bathroom with our son in tow and then returned with two measly paper towels. I am not sure if my look of exasperation gave it away, but just to be sure I added in my best what-the-hell-were-you-thinking voice “that is not enough, go get more now!” So off he went, back to the bathroom, returning with what looked like the entire supply of towels from the men’s restroom and possibly the women’s too.

I was in tears by the time he returned. He quickly handed our son off to one of his helpful co-workers and managed to clean up the mess to my liking (don’t mess with a woman in labor, right?) His next few sentences came out as one… “how do you feel what do you want to do should we go straight to the hospital what about Joey we need to call my parents?”

I could hear the panic creeping into his voice as I tried to fit a word in somewhere. His exhausted mind and body seemed to have gone into over drive. After I assured him that I was okay, I looked into his exhausted eyes and asked “do you happen to know what today is?” It only took a few seconds for him to reply “you’ve got to be kidding me?!”

For you see readers, my husband’s return happened to fall on April 1st.

So where did the water come from you ask? I had strapped a water balloon to my leg, and popped it as he searched for his luggage. How did I manage to turn on the water works? That was easy – I had let his co-workers in on the joke while he was hording all the paper towels, and I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. Luckily, I managed to pull it together prior to his return.

The story become legendary around his office and I also managed to win two concert tickets from a local radio station after retelling the story on air. But the joke was on both of us when our second son, Elijah, decided to make his entrance into the world 2.5 weeks early.

My Easter baby hatched on April 11th, and will turn 10 this year. My original due date was April 28th, but we all know how accurate those dates can be. Lucky for me I went into labors on a weekend, because my husband had threatened to head to the bar if I called him at work while in labor.

So have you ever played an April fool’s joke on your partner?

Michelle Malach lives for her 3 children, a forgiving husband, 3 cats, 4 snakes, numerous honey bees, 8 hens and one feisty rooster. When she’s not busy volunteering at her kids’ schools, you can usually find her exercising, cleaning, baking, reading a good book, and/or home with a glass of red wine. This is her first submission to Mamapedia.