Greg, 36 - 1st time Dad
I flew out to a conference in Chicago two weeks before my wife's due date. The night before the conference was to begin, I sat in the hotel restaurant with some other people talking about the upcoming birth of my son. One of the women I was dining with began encouraging me to go home. She kept saying, "What if it happens while you are gone?" The more she said this, the more anxious I became. I began to feel this sense of immense distance between Chicago and Atlanta -- if my wife went into labor, it was possible I wouldn't get back in time. I pictured myself waiting for a plane to board while my wife was in another city delivering my first child. I called my wife, but she had just seen the doctor, and he said it wouldn't happen anytime soon.
When I woke up the next morning, though, I was so tense and full of anxiety that I raced to the airport instead of going to the conference. It was a long day getting back to Atlanta, with flight delays and other hassles. I was out of touch with my wife the whole day, and she didn't know I was coming back. I was so uptight by the time I was off the plane that I almost ran to my car in the airport parking lot. I called my wife on my cell phone. When she answered the phone, she seemed very baffled to learn I was back in Atlanta. "Why'd you do that?" she asked.
I was just relieved to be back in the general vicinity. No way was I going to miss the birth of my first born! I didn't care if it was a month away--I wasn't going out of town again until it happened.
I got home about 7pm, and went to sleep about 10pm. My wife woke me up an hour later and said her water had broken. We left for the hospital that night, and our son was born the next day.
This just goes to show that there's no way to tell for certain when it is going to happen.
You will get through it. The end result is worth all of it. Take each step one step at a time. Go with you gut instincts, it is your body!