The Big Day

Well, you knew it was coming didn't you? I can't share our photos of Samantha without telling you how she arrived, right? Ok, here goes:

It was a dark and stormy night.

Lord, I crack myself up. Ok, really...here.

*snerk*

Sammy's arrival story starts a few days before she was born. She was almost born on Daddy's birthday. Traditionally we all go out to dinner on birthdays in our family. Daddy picked going to Melting Pot because, well, he wanted to pig out. Last year his birthday sucked as he was in the hospital (don't ask). Anyway, he wanted to make up for the prior year. The six and a half of us went out. Mommy didn't feel well, but not bad enough to stay home. Well, she probably did but she's a trooper. Knowing Daddy was in the hospital the year before, she wanted to make his day as nice as possible, you know, being 11 1/2 months pregnant and all. She didn't eat much at dinner; Daddy took care of that. It was a nice evening and we all went home. We told her if she didn't start feeling better or worse, start having contractions, to call us. We didn't recieve a call that night. Ah, dodged a bullet then we thought.

Daddy did call us the next day telling us that, why, yes indeedy he was in the hospital again for the second year in a row on his birthday because Mommy felt like dog turds during the night. They monitered her, gave her a saline drip and sent her home with encouraging words like, "Almost, honey. Hold on." "See you in a few days" " No labor yet...no dialation" They took it easy the next day. On Monday, Daddy took Mommy back yet again, because poor Mommy couldn't keep anything down and started to feel even worse. Yes! Worse than dog turds! Again, they hooked her up, no labor pains, just stomach pains. Probably from hunger we thought. Good thing we're not in the medical field, eh? While I was there during my lunch break, they took some blood because Mommy's temp was slightly elevated. Mommy didn't know squat that day because she was trying to catch up on all the sleep she missed over the weekend. She nodded to them, sure take my blood and while you're at it? Please deliver this baby, too, ok? I'm really tired, and would, like, you know, try to sleep on my stomach again? Please? She fell back asleep and I went back to work. By the time I set my purse down at work, Daddy called and said get right back here! Mommy is having an emergency c-section at 3pm! Grumpa and I raced to the hospital, calling Auntie Kenna and telling her to get there also. Daddy said that something showed up in the blood test that was bad (and here you thought I would get technical and all Grey's Anatomy on you, right?)* and they needed to deliver that baby ASAP. We went to the closest waiting room next to the maternity ward, just the three of us, Grumpa, Auntie, and I. Waiting for Daddy to come out and tell us the news. Praying for Mommy's and Sammy's safety and healthy delivery. Just praying. We were the only ones in the waiting room trying to make small talk knowing that Daddy couldn't be in the delivery room due to the 'emergency' nature of delivery. He was waiting with his nose pressed to the doorway glass, tapping his fingers..."open, open, open".......At quarter after 3pm, Daddy walked into our waiting room and suddenly, Grumpa's and my world shrank to a square of 3 feet by 3 feet. All four of us silently drew together and hugged as Daddy said, "Mommy's fine and Sammy is beautiful! I have a baby girl!" The family that Grumpa and I started so many years ago came together as a single unit again enveloped in such love that now grew to include this brand new person. I marveled at my son, now a father and the enormity of experiences he would have.

It would take a few minutes before Sammy would arrive in the nursery so we watched the nurses, smiling and nodding at them. "Oh, yeah, our Sammy will be here soon and THEN the show would begin!" I have no words to explain how my heart felt when I took this, the earliest time stamped photo of my son and his daughter for the first time as he was getting instructions from the nurse:

This was at 3:58 pm...approximately 45 minutes after her birth. And the following picture is the first time Daddy held his daughter:

Mommy was still out of it and would be for a few days as all the heroin and cocaine and crystal meth they used on her found its way out of her system. She was drugged! And in a fair amount of pain, too. This is the earliest photo of Mommy and Sammy and it was taken at 6:57 pm. Mommy could have been holding a used tire, she was so OUT OF IT.

So there you have it. Yes, I teared up writing this, reliving those precious moments that will live in my heart forever. I'm sure that Nana and Grampa Ed get a lump too thinking of the day their little girl gave them a new little girl to love.

*HELLP syndrome. HELLP — which stands for hemolysis (the destruction of red blood cells), elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count — syndrome can rapidly become life-threatening for both mother and baby. Symptoms of HELLP syndrome include nausea and vomiting, headache and upper right abdominal pain. HELLP syndrome is particularly dangerous because it can occur before signs or symptoms of preeclampsia appear.