It was a hot and humid July day 14 years ago when I strolled into the hospital with contractions.
The thing about your first baby which you don’t understand is that you’re going to come out of there a different person-changed forever.
I asked for the epidural & they quietly told me I was too far along & I would need to go ahead & have the baby using my back up plan.
For me, this was to keep the baby inside me. “I can not have a baby. I don’t know how,” I whispered to Nato like it was a secret I had been withholding.
So he did what any good man would do & called my mother in, as he also did not know how.
The doc with a handlebar mustache called in all his students with their note pads & name tags and they stood all around my bed, leaving only a small space for my dignity.
The nurse told me I had a ways to go and to rest up but within that hour I thought there might accidentally be a baby under the sheets , so I eloquently told my mom I had to push or the baby would come thru my mouth.
“You can’t go from a 1 to a 10 that quick the nurse said as she slipped on her gloves & with surprised eyes asked me if I could kindly wait until the doctor arrived.
My mom laughed and when the nurse left she whispered , “You go ahead & push if you need to.” So I did.
The students rushed in, they rolled me to a delivery room. Some of the lady students cried and there was my cone head, purple baby with gunk all over him. I was shaking so hard from the pain & they asked me if I wanted to hold him.
I said not really, that hurt pretty bad actually. They laughed and took turns stitching me up, forgetting that I hadn’t had any pain meds, “now Sara go ahead and give her a stitch & you next Joey.”
I asked my mom if I was supposed to be feeling the needle and thread and then my mother had a few choice words with the staff.
I stared at the ceiling and kindly promised the staff cheese pizza while they threaded me up. A janitor mopped by and yelled “Congratulations!” and I thought it was strange but still said Thank You because I felt like I could conquer the world.
They handed me my baby & I thought, “I think I love you but what In the hell am I supposed to do with you?”
Still wonder this today.
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