At this point, the nurses on the floor began to come in one by one. I overheard them saying, “where’s dr. eads”? And one by one more nurses came in like soldiers each outranking the next one. I know just as well as anyone that most labor and delivery nurses can probably deliver a baby just as well as a doctor, so I knew if the dr. wasn’t found we would be just fine. Now I’m not sure how long things took because it all seemed to happen so fast, but before I knew it, in came not the on call doctor, but our actual doctor who had seen us throughout the whole pregnancy, dr. powers. Our ob/gyn’s office is connected to the hospital and they were able to call over there and just happened to get a hold of dr. powers, so she ran over the hospital to deliver Charlotte.
Charlotte sat down so low in Melissa, that it became hard for the monitor to pick up Charlotte’s heartbeat, so they inserted an internal monitor, which gave better success. Contractions would come and Melissa would push. Dr. powers, said, “you really need to push if you want this baby to come” so Melissa did. It became harder to find Charlotte’s heartbeat, so they opted to use a simple vacuum to attempt to aid getting Charlotte out. I always imagined something more like a shop-vac with a motor, but it turned out to be a rather simple machine. After attempts during two contractions, dr. powers told us that an emergency c-section was our only safe option.
Again, the timing is pretty blurry. All of my Bradley training taught me to be at my wife’s side through thick and thin and to encourage her with my words and presence, but it felt so out of body. At times they would let me stand close to her, then things would change and I was moved aside. Over the nurses calling between each other and the dr. directing the careful symphony, I remember just standing there feeling utterly unused. I guess they call it shock. At no point did I fear, but the whole experience was packed with rapid fire change. As planned, Melissa had taken no pain medication, had no epidural, nor took any pitocin to induce labor up to this point. Consequently, she had to undergo an emergency c-section where she would be under general anesthesia and on top of that it meant that I wouldn’t be able to see Charlotte arrive.
Before I knew it, Melissa’s bed was converted from delivery mode, to surgery mode. Machines were disconnected from the wall. Oxygen mask tubing yanked from it’s fixture and just seconds later I left standing in room #60 on the third floor of the hospital with machines still beeping.....alone.
It felt like a movie. The labor and delivery rooms are big. On our hospital tour about six months into our pregnancy a nurse giving the tour mentioned being able to hold 10-12 family members if desired. Now who would want 10-12 family members to be a part of their birth escapes me, but anyhow, just imagine how big that room feels when there’s no hospital bed and only one person standing in the middle. It was weird to say the least. I remember sitting down on the couch/bed thing by the window and taking a few minutes to pray. How do you beg the God of the Universe, the one who creates, puts, and holds all things together to let everything turn out OK. I don’t know. I just breathed and let God handle it. It’s amazing how the holy spirit can bring scripture to your mind just when you need it. And it’s amazing how God can bring friends into our lives who come along side just when we need it. That’s when my cell phone buzzed...
to be continued...