Sheldon rolled over in the middle of the night and reached for Amy in his sleep. Not finding her next to him, he opened his eyes to see if she was using the restroom. Seeing the light in the master bathroom was off, he sat up in bed and called out, "Amy?" Not hearing a response, he got out of bed, thinking perhaps Max had woken up and she was with him. He could see the light in Max's bedroom was also off before making his way downstairs to continue looking for her. "There you are," he commented when he found Amy sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of tea in front of her.

"What are you doing up? Your daughter is refusing to settle down tonight, so I decided to see if chamomile tea would help," she explained while rubbing her very pregnant stomach.

"I rolled over and woke up when I realized you weren't there," he explained, taking a seat next to her while leaning close to her stomach. "Hello, Kathryn. We're very excited for you to join us in three weeks, but you've got to let your mom sleep, so if you can stop kicking her in the ribs, we'd both appreciate that." He whispered to their unborn child for a few minutes before looking at his wife's face. "Do you think she's calmed down enough for you to come back to bed?"

Nodding slightly, Amy grimaced, which did not go unnoticed by Sheldon. "Yeah. I think she's asleep now. Just needed her daddy to talk to her before she'd settle down for the night."

"Are you alright?"

"It's just Braxton-Hick's contractions. Nothing out of the ordinary at this point."

Sheldon looked at the time on the microwave. "How far apart have they been? Should we call the doctor? It's the middle of the night, we should call the hospital, right? It's too early for you to be in labor, isn't it?"

Amy was making her way towards the stairs to go back to bed. "I'm fine, Sheldon. Let's go back to bed," she suggested, knowing it was going to be a long night.


Five hours later, Sheldon awoke to the sound of his alarm and found Amy sitting up in bed next to him. "Good morning," he smiled at her. "Is Kathryn awake already?"

"I don't think those were Braxton-Hick's last night, Sheldon," she calmly answered. "They've been becoming more regular for the past few hours. They're still twelve minutes apart; we don't have to go to the hospital yet, but I think this might be it."

"It's too early for you to be in labor. We're not ready for this," Sheldon stared at Amy as she rubbed her stomach, much like she had while they were in the kitchen hours earlier. "Are you having a contraction now?" Amy nodded in response. "They said you're supposed to breathe through them. You have to keep breathing. It's supposed to make them easier for you."

Amy waited to say anything until the pain subsided. "It's not that bad, yet. It's also not too early. I know it's still three weeks until my due date, but remember, the doctor said anything after thirty-six weeks is considered full term. I'm sorry for not waking you up when I realized this might be it, but I figured you won't sleep until after she's here and if she's anything like Max, that might not be until late tonight or even tomorrow."

Checking the time on his phone, Sheldon leaned over and gave Amy a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to get Max up. Do you think I should call Raj to pick him up to take him to day camp? Or should Max stay home today?" Sheldon was slowly starting to panic again. "If he stays home, that would mean he might have to come to the hospital with us unless we leave him home alone. That was never part of our plan. What should I do?"

"Get Max up and have him come in here once he's dressed. We can decide together what he wants to do. If he stays home, Raj said he'd leave work early to stay with him or we can call my parents to come over until Raj is done at the university. Maybe he can go over to Penny and Leonard's until Raj gets out of work since Penny's home with Rory? We go right past their house on the way to the hospital."

Sheldon exited the room without replying to get Max moving for the day. The pair returned to the master bedroom a little while later. "Dad said you might be having the baby today?" the twelve-year-old asked as he sat next to Amy on the bed with Sheldon taking a seat near her feet.

"I think so," she smiled at him. "I think it's going to be a while, though. You can choose what you want to do. We can call Raj to pick you up to go to day camp today or you can stay home. I don't think Kathryn will be here before day camp is over for the day, but if she does get here quickly, Raj can pick you up from camp and bring you to the hospital right away to meet her. If you stay home, you might have to stay here alone until Raj or grandma and grandpa can get here or we can drop you off with Penny until Raj gets off work."

"Why can't I go to the hospital with you?" he asked.

Sheldon yielded this question, "We don't know how long it's going to take once we go to the hospital and don't want you to be bored sitting there all day."

The boy watched as Amy grimaced and rubbed her stomach, waiting to respond to Sheldon until she relaxed. "I think I want to stay home. I can help you if you need anything before you go to the hospital. Maybe I can help keep dad from going crazy," he glanced at Sheldon. "I think he's a little scared about you having the baby."

"Come here," Amy reached out to hug her son. "I love you so much. I don't know how we got so lucky with you."

"I'm going to call Raj to give him a head's up that it's looking like today is the day," Sheldon stood to excuse himself from the room, wanting to give Amy and Max some time alone together before the newest member of their family joined them.