The Pregnancy
The months, days, hours, and minutes leading up to delivery were overwhelming, exciting, and full of nervousness. Overall, the pregnancy was “normal” with no complications or indicators that the pregnancy was high risk. For about seven months of the pregnancy, my wife was blessed with morning sickness nearly every day. The first time it happened were we on the phone talking. I couldn’t understand what she was doing. One minute we’re talking and the next it sounded like she was gargling water. It then dawned on me what was going on. From that point forward anytime we were talking on the phone and she became sick, it was mutually agreed upon that she should call me back when she felt better. Through all of the prenatal care, OB visits, and ultrasounds our daughter appeared to be developing and growing as was expected without any signs of what was to come.
One of the questions that expecting parents are asked over and over is, do they want a boy or girl? My wife and I were no exception to the question. We were asked numerous times that very question and our response was always the same. We wanted a child who was healthy and happy and it didn’t matter if it was a boy or girl. Thinking of that question now, it didn’t matter if our child was healthy or not. Just because she wasn’t healthy and happy, our love for our daughter didn’t change and it isn’t based on how healthy she is.
During the pregnancy, my wife and I both agree to find out the sex of our child when it was possible during one of the ultrasounds. We were excited to find out that we would be having a girl.
Approaching Delivery
As the day of the scheduled delivery arrived, October 25, 2011, my amazing wife made sure to have everything planned for. For those that don’t know my wife, she likes to plan and made sure to account for everything. Enough clothes for our newborn, plenty of diapers, wipes, and other supplies that we may need. Everything had its place and our daughter’s room was decorated completely for a newborn girl.
Both my wife and I took FMLA leave from our employers to be able to spend time at home with our newborn daughter and her older brother as we adjusted to the newest member joining our family. The day before the delivery was my last scheduled shift for almost a month.
Having worked the swing shift the night before and not getting off until 11 pm, I spent most of the night thinking about the next day and the miracle of life. Like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa, I didn’t sleep much that night in anticipation of meeting our newborn daughter. Having a scheduled cesarian section planned for months we knew that we needed to be at the hospital fairly early in the morning.
Little did we know when we woke up early that day that our family’s world was about to be rocked. Our daughter wouldn’t get to see her room or come home for months after being born.
Morning of Delivery Day
We woke up around 4 am on October 25th to get ready and head to the Birthing Center of our local hospital. Through our lack of sleep daze and excitement, we checked everything one last time and set off for the hospital. Arriving at the hospital that morning was the usual check-in, get wrist bands, sign forms, go to the room, and for my wife to change. Eventually, the nurses hooked up my wife to several monitors and IV fluids in anticipation of going into surgery later that morning.
We had been told that my wife’s delivery would be the first that morning. It wasn’t until we go to the hospital we learned that there was actually another delivery ahead of ours. One of the many details that stick out to us that morning was how cold it was. Granted it was still dark out and in late October, there was reported ice on the roadways. The low temps and ice would play a factor in the OB doctor arriving late. His late arrival meant the delivery before ours was pushed back in turn pushing our back further. It wouldn’t be until hours after we had originally thought the delivery would take place that my wife was taken into the delivery room with me by her side.