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home delivery
sometimes you have no choice. sometimes things just happen. on saturday, september 11th 2004, our second daughter adriana decided to give up her warm hideaway and face the reality of life.
unfortunately for us she decided to d o so in the middle of the night.
emma felt the need to visit the toilet shortly after 5am that morning and
woke me some ten minutes later asking me to help her clean the urine off the floor that had escaped her (very pregnant women do not bend easily). so i did and found out that there was more to come. much more. a few minutes later my wife was screaming in pain and all i could do was to wake my mother-in-law (who had luckily arrived the day before) and call an ambulance. running downstairs to open all doors for the emergency people i heard emma scream all the way down…
coming back up emma was in bed, in the middle of all towels that we could find and the top of adrianas head was already visible. the mother-in-law who had never witnessed a birth from that perspective (she was put to sleep with her two children) helped me in calming emma down. the ambulance was not arriving and a call to the emergency center only revealed that they were on their way.
meanwhile adriana was coming. and coming on fast. emma put her legs against my shoulders, her mother cooling her head and talking to her. all i could do was wait and tell emma to push.
and cristina – the older one – still asleep in the room next door.
some more screams, curses – where are the damn medics ????? cristina now waking up from the screaming and asking for her “chupete” (sucker). the mother-in-law going there. emma pressing and myself feeling useless and waiting.
the head is out but only the head. emma, keep pushing – push, damn it ! the shoulder, still to come. brutal, bloody, impressive. the shoulder is out, i take it and pull a bit under the little arms – the rest of the body slips
out. more blood and liquid but also a sigh of relief from emma, her mother
and myself. cristina asleep again. so it seems.
i look at the watch, 5:30 where is the ambulance ? i turn adriana a bit, she vomits liquid, starts screaming a bit. not enough. put her onto my left shoulder. she vomits some more and screams a bit more. she’s okay. put her on emmas chest. wow.
adriana is still blueish (normal color just after birth for those that have
never seen it before) but quickly starts getting pinkish as more oxygen
enters her blood (the lungs start working).
we enjoy a moment of rest. i take a few fotos, cristina says “mama plora”
(mama cries) and then the babyphone is quiet again. asleep or just shocked ?
asleep i hope.
i run down to receive the now approaching ambulance – hectic comes back. the greek medic checks emma, the swiss midwife adriana. the german ambulance crew watches. i try to add my two cents by throwing clean towels and t-shirts into the tumbler to warm them for adriana. placenta is removed, umbilical cord cut, emma put on a stretcher and moved – together with adriana to the ambulance. they drive off.
the bed is bloody and ruined. i look at the watch. it’s almost 6am.
emmas mother is now with cristina – changing her. it seems she crapped
herself (of fear because mommy was screaming and no one there with her
????). i kiss cristina, tell her i love her, kiss my in-law and run to the
car to follow emma.
hey adriana – hope that you will read this one day. quite a night we had.
really.
quite a night.
love you
papi