We went to an admissions exam room. A midwife with a strong sort of Jamaican accent told Riko she wasn't in labor and considered sending us back home.

Well, I wasn't about to pay for another taxi ride without a baby to show for it. So we stayed.



The upper line in the graph is the baby's heart rate. The lower line is EMG data for her contractions. The text at the top says "Not in labor." This was not of much comfort to Riko, who was feeling the pain.


Then they moved us to "Unit 3," where we were to wait until she started really being in labor. This was not comfortable, and about 2 feet to the right of this photo was another couple.

The other woman just sat and bounced on a Yoga ball the whole time. She didn't appear to be in much pain. I don't know how long they'd been there, but Riko sure wasn't fooling around. We were out of there in about 2 hours.

We got up and walked around a bit while still in Unit 3.

Right out the window where Riko has her head down there was a tall narrow window with a view between buildings. I caught this image of the moon and a star on this very clear, cold morning.