She had started to dilate several weeks ago so we had been feeling that this moment could come anytime for a while. I was hoping it would happen while I was at work so I would get to leave early, but I was plenty excited when Marilyn woke me up early that morning. We headed to he hospital quickly and got checked in.
She was already dilated to a 5 when we arrived. With Claire she started at a 4 and the process lasted several hours. This time around it happened fast. Marilyn dilated an additional centimeter every hour. The problem was, she tested positive for group b strep. The doctors wanted her on an antibiotic for 4 hours before she delivered. She would have definitely delivered before that, but they held things off so she could get the drugs needed.
The 4 hours was complete at 11:30 and they broke her water. I started a camera when she started to push and it only rolled for 7 minutes. She had our baby boy out in less than 7 minutes. Crazy fast. Our baby boy was born at 11:51, and this is when I got scared.
He came out looking a little red and covered in fluid as babies often do. The doctor started cleaning him up and trying to get his first cry out but it wasn't happening. The doc called for the NICU team to come in. Seconds were passing and he still hadn't taken his first breath. He started to turn slightly blue before they finally got a squeak out of him. They got him breathing which was a huge relief but he was grunting and struggling a lot. They let Marilyn hold him for a minute before taking him into the NICU and hooking him up to a breathing machine called a CPAP. It helped his lungs expand all the way and they hoped he would only be on it for half an hour.
Meanwhile in the delivery room Marilyn was having difficulty regulating her temperature. She was shaking like a leaf and couldn't get warm. So my kid couldn't breathe and my wife was freezing to death(exaggeration) and I was trying to be tough and keep it together. I sat by our baby through his first half hour on the CPAP and Marilyn was able to warm up after about an hour. As I sat with my new baby, fighting back the tears and an emotional melt down, I felt something.
My younger brother Alex died a few months ago and since then I've felt like he was my link to life on the other side of the veil or the afterlife. I believe that the place your spirit lives before you are born and the place it goes after you die is the same place. I sat there in the NICU with my new baby, only minutes old and struggling to breathe, and I felt my brother's presence. I was still scared but it was comforting to think that maybe my baby boy and my brother spent some time together before he was born. I don't know if that is even possible but it was still a nice thought and it made me feel better.
