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A BABY GIRL IS BORN
by denis sheehan
Tuesday
February 27, 2001. The time was around 7pm as I walked into my house after a
rather lousy commute home from work. I was hoping to grab dinner and sit down to
watch the Bruins game. However, my plans were squashed when Denny, my wife, said
to me, “We have to go to the hospital.”
My wife had been feeling strong contractions all day and was instructed
by her doctor to go to the hospital. Oh boy, this could be the time! I felt a
small knot form in my stomach. I hurriedly brushed my teeth, packed the car, and
drove the two of us to the hospital.
Upon arriving at the hospital, we checked in, completed a little paper
work (most of the paper work had been completed months ago), and “checked”
into room number 5. The room was ok as far as
hospital rooms go. Private, good size, small tv, phone, and private
bathroom. Of course, the first thing I did was to check out the tv channels. A
few network channels, a few cable channels, and some hospital channels. There
was even a channel that showed the comings and goings of visitors using the
hospital’s main entrance.
As a nurse helped Denny get situated, I watched the tv as President Bush
gave his first State of The Union address.
Just as the President started getting to the nitty gritty, the Doctor
came in and started talking. I remember being a little irked because I really
wanted to hear what the President had to say. As I looked at the Doctor while he
spoke, I tried my best to ignore him and listen to the tv.
The rest of the night was rather uneventful. Although I knew I really
didn’t make a difference, when Denny got a contraction, I tried my best to
comfort her. Denny did fall asleep for a little while after receiving some pain
medication and I also snoozed for about an hour or two. The only event really
worth mentioning is the spilling of a cup of water by the night nurse. Woman
knocked the water onto the floor, looked at it, and walked away. She must have
thought I was asleep or something and just decided to high tail it out of the
room. After about twenty minutes, I cleaned it up.
At around 6am, Denny and I were startled by two nurses rushing into the
room. They started to look at the monitors and fix the straps on Denny’s
belly. One strap monitored the baby’s heartbeat, while the other showed the
intensity and timing of her contractions. The nurses, who were stationed outside
of the room, saw on their monitor that the baby’s heart rate had dropped
significantly. Being the alert nurses they are, they investigated and figured
out that the strap wasn’t affixed properly to Denny. Although Denny and I were
a little caught off guard, everything was ok.
Denny started to feel some real pain, and she also developed a slight fever.
Although concerned, the Doctor said everything looked ok. Of course, he just had
to stick his finger into my wife’s “area” to see how dilated she was. She
was about 5 centimeters. A woman needs to be about 10 centimeters to give birth.
The Doctor also asked if Denny would like an epidural (delivering anesthesia
directly above the spine which numbs the lower half of a woman) to help relieve
the pain. Denny said ok and was
told that the anesthesiologist would be in shortly.
About 15 minutes and three strong contractions later, in walked a nurse and the
anesthesiologist. Immediately, my eyes were drawn to a huge mark right between
the anesthesiologist’s eyes. I couldn’t tell if it was a mole or a
birthmark. Nonetheless, it was dead center and really stuck out. As he spoke
with Denny and I, I tried my best not to look at it.
After about 5 minutes, the anesthesiologist asked me to leave so he could
perform the epidural. I was told it would take about 15 minutes, so I decided to
hit the cafeteria for some breakfast.
As I exited the room, I noticed that a very attractive nurse had a similar mark
like the one the anesthesiologist had and became rather perplexed. I then saw a
Priest giving some people ashes. Ahh, Ash Wednesday! Being Catholic, I should
have known that, but I had other things on my mind. The mark on the
anesthesiologist’s forehead were ashes placed there by the priest and not a
mole or birthmark at all! Oh, I felt rather silly I’ll tell you. The priest
did ask me if I was Catholic and if I wanted ashes. I declined.
After eating breakfast (cheese omelet, sausages, and Pepsi), I headed back to
the room. The epidural procedure was finished and everything went nicely. Once
again, the Doctor came in, checked Denny’s dilation, and told us it was 5. The
Doctor said it would probably be about another five hours before Denny could
give birth. I nearly died. Five more hours!?
A few hours passed and nothing happened. It was 1:30 and I decided to go home to
take a quick shower.
I arrived back at the hospital at 2:30 to find Denny and the Doctor discussing
having a cesarean (c-section) performed. Although hours had passed, Denny was
still at 5 centimeters.
As the Doctor spoke, a nurse alerted us that Denny’s temperature was at 103.9
degrees. Like it was planned, the baby’s heart rate went from the normal 140
to a soaring 225 then plunged to 75. The baby was in distress and possibly
catching Denny’s fever. I
honestly don’t know what happened next, but all of a sudden there were about
15 people in the room unhooking Denny from the machines and wheeling the entire
bed out of the room. An emergency c-section was about to be performed on my
wife. I was told to stay put until a nurse could bring me some scrubs.
I stood there alone and in a state of disbelief. Now, I’m the type of person
who loves to be left alone, but this was not fun at all.
Although it seemed like 30, about 3 minutes passed. Finally, a nurse ran in with
scrubs and told me to get changed. I did and she led me to a room outside of the
operating room. It was here that I put the scrubs on over my sneakers.
The nurse told me to stay where I was until I was called.
I stood there and waited.
Know this, I am not a sensitive guy and I am barely in touch with my emotions.
I’m not trying to paint myself as a tough guy or anything like that, it’s
just how I am. But what happened next floored me.
Out of nowhere I heard my wife yelling in pain. I could feel my heart stop. I
sat down and looked at the floor. It was a sound unlike any sound I’ve ever
heard in my life. My eyes started to swell with water and I fought back the
tears. I had to be strong, if my wife saw me with tears, it would kill her. She
didn’t need that right now.
I continued to look at my feet as I heard some more screams from my wife. I
noticed that my sneakers had ripped through the scrubs.
I heard the nurse yell at me to come in and I ran my fastest.
Denny was laying down on a table with about 15 people working on her. I stood by
her head and leaned over to talk with her. She was in great pain and was crying.
Again, I fought back my emotions.
Suddenly I heard the Doctor yell, it’s a girl! I looked up and saw the Doctor
holding my daughter. I pressed the record button on my small tape recorder to
capture the first cries of our child. The love I felt for her was instantaneous.
She was covered in blood and crying. I also noticed that Denny had a huge hole
in her lower stomach and “stuff” was hanging out of her. I couldn’t
believe my eyes. It looked like a massive gunshot wound rather than a birth.
My baby made eye contact with me as the umbilical cord was cut. I was told later
that everything had to be rushed to get the baby off of Denny’s system to
avoid getting sick, therefore I was unable to cut the cord.
I saw a nurse bring our baby to a warming table to check her vitals. I wanted to
rush over to her, but I knew I had to stay with Denny. She was still in unreal
pain. I continued to rub Denny’s head and tried to comfort her by telling her
that I would move my stereo system downstairs (she has wanted me to move that
stereo for a long time because it is old, huge, and very ugly. I bought it in
1987. Very first purchase on my credit card no less). She kind of laughed and
said, “Good, because I already bought a Bose Stereo.” I stood up in shock.
Nice time to let me in on the info Den.
I looked over at the baby and listened to her cry. She kind of sounded like a
donkey, which I later confirmed after listening to the tape recording I made.
The nurse working on the baby called me over. I asked Denny if it was ok for me
to leave. She said yes. I stepped over towards my baby and reached to touch her.
It was amazing. As I reached her body, she kicked up her legs and put her little
foot on my hand. She then curled her toes and got a pretty good grip on me. She
was still crying hard as I softly touched her face. She was so beautiful.
As the nurse explained the security measure that would be enforced, I touched my
daughter and looked at her in amazement.
I’m not sure how long I stood there with my daughter, but my attention was
drawn away when I heard Denny start moaning in pain again. I looked over to her
and saw the pain in her eyes. I ran back over to Denny to help her through it.
A
nurse brought our daughter over to us and Denny kissed her on the cheek. The
baby was being brought to the nursery to be closely monitored because her
breathing was a little erratic.
I
stayed with Denny until the Doctors closed her back up. One sentence I’ll
never forget hearing is when the Doctor said, “Ok Denny, now we’re putting
your uterus back.”
After being stitched up, Denny was put into the recovery room and sedated. She
was out cold so I decided to check out my baby.
I
really do not remember what happened for the next hour or so because I was
absolutely drained. I do remember standing over my baby in the nursery and being
in awe.
I
had just witnessed the most amazing and beautiful thing in the world while being
scared to death.
Everything turned out ok. Denny and the baby are healthy. It took two days to
name the baby because Denny and I had picked two names and agreed to decide on
the name after seeing the baby. Since Denny was basically knocked out by
medication, the baby would have to wait for a name.
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