Redemption

Charlotte here from dosmamas posting at WTF’s request. First of all IT’S ALL GOOD. I don’t know what I am going to say…I’m still in an altered state after the birth and I am nervous to fill WTF’s writing shoes. Her wit and gritty realism are effortless. Anyhoo, she wants me to post about the birth on her behalf, so here goes, but first I must say thank you to them. I must get very mushy and tell WTF and her husband that I am blessed a million times over to have witnessed their darkest and most joyful experiences, to be their friends, and to accept their graciousness as they help us create new life for our family. OK, onto Tuesday.

Baby L is beautiful, and a whopping 6 lbs 4 oz, the biggest baby EVER in the WTF Rocket Man clan (they ARE now a clan, or a troupe, or something). We all kept expressing our disbelief at this LARGE baby. Heh. She looks just like their son, and is perfectly perfect in every way.

PTSD & THE LAST TIME

The last time I was at that hospital was to help them deliver LC (deadbaby). I experienced a bit of PTSD after that birth, so I started having flashbacks the moment I set foot in the parking lot of the hospital.

WTF in a hospital bed. The Lobby. The waiting room where I wept to my wife and my mom. Passing the nurse who helped us bathe WTF in alcohol and fan her 106 degree body. The room where she gave birth (of course without the small red rose they had taped to her door which meant “this baby will die: don’t say congratulations”).

Rocket Man and I overheard Fancy doc explain WTFs situation to the doctor who arrived to assist him in the C section. When he got to the part about WTF’s uterine infection, he said “she almost lost her life”, and I felt like I got punched in the throat. She did. She really almost died last year. Thank god it was sunny and daytime and not a stormy, rainy, scary hell night from hell. No, it was happy, lovely and entirely different. But WTF needed to hear her baby cry, before she could believe this was really going to happen.

GETTING READY

I was so excited. Rocket Man and I got to wear *scrubs*. SCRUBS! It was totally thrilling (I am easily entertained). But my excitement was soon dashed, when WTF said I looked like a LUNCH LADY. She then had a ginormous belly laugh when I exclaimed “WHY do I look like the lunch lady while Rocket Man looks like a surgeon???”. I think you had to be there, seeing us both in our weird blue paperfabric scrubs including blue paperfabric shower caps, to appreciate the hilarity. I digress.

Rocket Man and I waited for 15 minutes outside the OR, while WTF got her epidural and got sliced open. We waited in a chair similar to the chairs that Rocket Man has waited in before, twice, for their other two kids. He started getting nervous. Rocket Man is so solid, it is strange to see him vulnerable. He kinda looked like a lunch lady too, until he put on his surgical mask. I was happy he wasn’t sitting there alone.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. Suddenly the door opened (just like Rocket Man said it would), and we were SPEEDILY ushered in (just like Rocket Man said we would) and it was ON.

REDEMPTION

We were all there. Almost. The original crew from Little Charlotte’s birth, ready.

1. The fabulous nurse who helped us all emotionally and medically. Nurse Kickass, I’ll call her. She has this way of petting a forehead that just makes you feel like everything will be okay in the end. Thank the stars for her. She pulled a double shift and slept at the hospital to be there for this birth.

2. Fancy Doc. How can I describe this man? 60ish. Short. Cocky. Kind. He showed up wearing some yellow tinted sunglasses one would find on a 20 year old, and brown leather shoes you would find on a gay man. He has an accent. Where the hell is he from? Germany? I think so. Anyway he’s a character, and his scrubs were very form fitting. Oh, and he’s really THE BEST at what he does.

3. Rocket Man. Dear lord this man is calm. He has to be, to be married to WTF, but still. I have grown to love him as I witness his unending love for WTF. He was sitting to my right, and we were both next to WTF’s head, behind the sterile field fabric (you’ve seen this on medical TV show right?)

4. Me. This was the third birth I have been at. Four if you count my son’s birth. My very first C section. I was the video person. That was my job. I did an OK job, all things considered. But I was so incredibly present in the moment, and worried about holding WTF’s hand at all times, so I was not as focused on the video as I could have been.

After much cutting, tugging, pulling, yanking and more cutting, she was born. Baby L. Rocket Man and I stood up and witnessed her emergence. Unbelievable. WTF needs to post herself about what it was like for her...I can only imagine.

I will post on my site this week about how gory and fascinating it was to see WTF’s uterus lifted onto her stomach, sewn up, and put back in (and her cerclage successfully removed). What a miracle the whole thing was. For anyone who wonders if a scheduled C section is any less miraculous than a vaginal birth, let me tell you (having seen both) that IT WAS JUST AS FUCKING AMAZING.

Within reason, WTF got everything she wanted: two people present for her C section, her own music playing during the whole thing, a big private room, and finally, at last, a scream.

A live baby put right on her chest.

Redemption.