My DH is also completely impossible to get ahold of. He can be sitting at his desk and if I ring his phone he will ignore it. (Stupid caller ID.) I told him that starting tomorrow (I'll be 36 weeks) that is 100% unacceptable. I try very hard not to call him at work unless it is a pressing matter, so I expect if I call his work phone he will answer if he is at his desk from now on. Pressing matters might include stuff like "My midwife needs me to schedule this appointment and I need to know when you can be available to watch the kids" because I can't do that scheduling after he gets home from work and he doesn't put things on a calendar I have access to. (We both have google calendars, he just chooses not to use his.) If I want to chat I might send him a text asking him if he has a minute to call me, but I don't ever call to just shoot the breeze, kwim?
And I NEVER call his cell phone while he is at work unless it is an absolute emergency - heaven forbid I interrupt a meeting - so I'd expect that he'd answer that on the first ring. But, like your DH, he often can't tell it's ringing, because he always has it on vibrate and doesn't notice that it's vibrating. Sigh.
His solution was "well, just be a pest and call a bunch of times in a row, and then I'll know I need to pick up." Um, no. Not going to work for me. Your co-workers all know that you have a very pregnant wife at home. You need to just answer the phone the first time.
My back-up plan (in between calling him multiple times until he notices that I need to reach him) is to run down a list of friends who can come over and watch my kids until I find someone who's immediately available, and then depending on the level of emergency either call for an ambulance (you know, if I realize I'm already in transition or something) or keep running down the list until I find someone to drive me to the hospital. Because EVERY woman in active labor wants to be on the phone constantly trying to reach people, right?
Sarah
Mommy to:
Carolyn, 10/04
Anna, 7/08
Matthew, 8/13