Falling For You...Over and Over Again

TEN

Alden

I look over the hospital sheet that serves as a divider, so Maine wouldn't be able to see what the doctors and nurses were doing.

Right now I see three doctors including Dr. Chin and six nurses working on my wife.

Dr. Chin hasn't wasted any time in making her incision. It's fascinating and horrifying at the same time to see her reach inside Maine's belly to pull our baby out.

He's blue and bloody and covered in the white goo.  I've read what it is but could not remember how it is medically termed. I also can see he has a lot of dark hair.

And then I heard the most amazing sound, as he starts crying loudly in protest at being yanked out into the world so abruptly, it's the most wonderful sound I've ever heard in my entire life.

He's okay.

My baby boy is okay.

Dr. Chin seems calm and is smiling at me, so I take it she hasn't found anything serious hemorrhaging.

"You have a boy, Maine," she announces, as she hands the baby over to the other doctor, who later was introduced to us as Dr. Montoya, the specialist Neonatologist, she was called when Dr. Chin found out that our baby boy is in distress.

"Check his Apgar." Dr. Chin ordered.

I watch anxiously as Dr. Montoya carries out her assessment, she checks his appearance, his pulse, his reflexes, his muscles and of course his respiratory which we already know is superb by the way he cried.

"His Apgar is an eight." She announced.

I let out a huge sigh of relief.

I know from all my research that a score of eight is pretty much a very good score and it also means our son is fine and healthy.

"Can I see him?" I heard my wife's faltering voice calls out.

Dr. Montoya smiles and nods at me as she cleans and wraps my baby boy up in a hospital sheet. He is still crying and he is so loud too. I go over to her and take our child in my arms for the first time.

As soon as I held him tightly against my chest, he stopped and started to make this tiny baby sound, more like gurgle.

He's perfect and tiny and helpless and looks shocked at his speedy entrance into the world.

My son.

Tears are starting to well up my eyes.

I feel this huge rush of overwhelming love for him sweep through me, and I know instantly that I would do anything, anything to protect him, this tiny precious human being that is now totally dependent on me and his mom.

I am so in love with him already.

I carry him over to his mother.

"I want you to meet our son, Maine." I am so choked up with all these immensely powerful feelings that I can hardly get the words out.

I carefully place him by her face. Since Dr. Chin is still working on her, she is still lying down on the operating table.

"Our son," she whispers as she stares at his face.

"He is so beautiful." Tears are streaming down her face.

"He is."

I gently kiss our beautiful boy's head beneath all that dark hair of his. He's fallen asleep now and looks perfect.