12 January 2008

Chapter 6: He's Here!


Dennis immediately phoned my father after I left for the hospital. My sister Angie had just walked into the shop as the call came in. Dad put the phone down, looked at her and said “it’s Cindy. Something’s wrong. Are you coming?” They got in the car and immediately left for the hospital, my dad phoning my mother from the car. She met them at the hospital.

Jeff had left the house too, and headed to the hospital, not knowing what to think. In some ways I’m sure that he was relieved I was there. He parked the car and as he walked over to the hospital he looked up at the clear blue September sky and heard a voice he will never forget: “this is the day your son is born.”

The nurses tried to reassure Jeff with words like “they will get him out fast enough”, and “there may be no damage at all”. The longer we were in surgery the less reassuring their words became. “You probably won’t notice anything, except maybe in math.” “He’ll look just like any other kid.” Nobody knew what was going on. Our child was dead. He was pulled from me not breathing, grey, and dead. In their rush to get him out they had cut his head with the scalpel. I don’t know if blood was on hand, but was told later that they had performed CPR on him for a long time before his heart began to beat again. He was given 2 units of blood before leaving the operating room.

The first words I heard were “it’s a boy. Is his name Nathan?” I nodded yes, feeling blessed that it was over and that I had a son. Nathan! He’s here. A son! My baby was a boy. How sweet is that?! Oh, thank God it is all over!

I don’t remember it, but was later told that my midwife and doctor were there with me as I came out of the operating room. She noticed there was no pain medication in my IVs and leaned over to ask me how I felt. Though I don’t remember that question, I do remember my response. Automatically I began saying how bad it hurt. It was several minutes after I started saying this before I wondered why I started saying this. But it did the trick. Immediately morphine was administered.

My doctor, midwife, and the surgeon all met back in my room where my family was assembled. My father was in a corner chair on his phone announcing to the family that Nate had arrived “Sicilian style, thank God!” and that I was going to be fine. I don’t remember seeing my husband, sister, or my mother. I remember the midwife and doctor standing next to my bed, and the surgeon who had just delivered Nathan showing them the membranes from my placenta. I heard his words before I could open my eyes. He was explaining velamentous cord insertion. I was still heavily anestatized and consequently couldn’t visually concentrate on what he was showing us but remember wondering how on earth the cord could insert into the membranes instead of the placenta. There just wasn’t any part of the membranes to attach to! How could he have grown inside of me like that? Nobody had said anything about Nathan yet. But he was here and here was this nice, interested doctor actually showing us what happened. I couldn’t wait to see my baby.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Visit http://IVPF.org to learn about vasa previa. It only takes a moment to diagnose life...