Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
I looked around me.
Shirt.
Shirt.
Shirt.
Cradling the baby, I grabbed one of Nina’s tops from the pile and did as Bonnie instructed. “Okay.”
“Now, wrap the baby in another clean shirt. Make sure the head is covered. This is to prevent hypothermia. Whatever you do, do not pull on the cord.”
“Alright.”
I carefully wrapped our daughter in one of my flannel button downs.
“Make sure your wife is warm.”
“Baby, are you okay?”
Nina groaned and nodded her head.
“Listen carefully, Mr. Green. Can your wife hold the baby? Have her place the baby on her stomach.”
Nina reached out her hands, and I slowly transferred the baby onto her stomach.
“Mr. Green? You’re doing great. The afterbirth will probably deliver soon.”
“The after what? It’s not over?”
“No. Have her hold the baby against her skin and place something over them both. This will help keep everyone calm until they can get you out of there.”
I grabbed my coat and draped it over them.
“You’ll stay on the phone with us?”
“Of course. You may want to grab a bag if you have one from your suitcase to put the placenta in. The baby will still be attached to it until the paramedics get there. So, you’ll put it inside a bag somewhere close to Nina.”
Nina muttered, “We have large Ziploc bags that the toiletries are in. Grab one of those.”
“Ziplocs! Thank God for small miracles.”
We spent the next ten minutes or so huddled together, cradling our baby before Nina said, “I’m feeling like I have to push again.”
I hopped up. “She has to push again.”
Bonnie immediately responded, “Okay, that’s the placenta. Have her move into an upright position.”
After a few pushes, the placenta came out.
Holding what looked like a piece of raw meat, I asked, “What do I do again?”
“Just put it in the bag and keep it next to you.”
A pool of red surrounded the area underneath Nina.
“There’s blood everywhere.”
“That’s normal.”
“This doesn’t look normal.”
“The paramedics are almost there. I’m told the fire department is on site working with hotel maintenance right now. They should have you out of there shortly. Try to remain calm.”
An indeterminate amount of time passed. Nina was starting to sound disoriented. “Jake, I don’t feel good. Something’s really wrong. You need to take the baby.”
My daughter’s legs and arms flailed through the plaid flannel shirt wrapped around her tiny body as Nina handed her to me. I felt like I was about to have a heart attack.
Panic-stricken, I yelled into the phone, “She’s still bleeding. She’s losing a lot of fucking blood. You need to tell them to hurry! Please!”
“Does it look like more than a pint? Listen, Mr. Green, you need to massage her lower abdomen immediately.”
Suddenly, her head slumped over.
“No! Nina!” I cried.
Holding our baby in one arm, I repeatedly tapped Nina’s cheeks with my other hand. “Baby, please. Stay with me. Nina. Please.”
“What’s happening, sir?”
“She’s passed out. She’s unconscious.” My vision was blinded by the tears in my eyes. My lips were trembling as I spoke, unable to catch my breath, “Nina, wake up. Wake up. Please!”
It felt like the middle of a nightmare, my baby’s deafening cry a reminder that this was very real and not something I was going to wake up from. Bonnie’s voice became jumbled in the midst of my panic.
Then, came a jolt followed by sudden and steady movement downward.
As Nina continued to remain unconscious, looking like she was bleeding to death, the descent felt more like a downward spiral into the depths of hell.
The doors slid open, and even though light streamed in, darkness surrounded me.
The darkness of men rushing in.
The darkness of someone taking my crying infant away.
The darkness of Nina being put onto a stretcher with an oxygen mask over her face.
The darkness of their voices. “She’s hemorrhaging.”
It was all happening at lightning speed, the fate of everything that mattered to me hanging in the balance in the hands of total strangers.
Nina’s words from years past haunted me.
There is nothing that could make me leave you.
You brought me back to life.
Yet, I was helpless to save her now.
How I’d gotten from the hotel into that ambulance and to the hospital was a mystery to me. Those twenty or so minutes were a blurry montage of terrifying sounds, voices and flashing lights as Nina lay semi-conscious and bleeding while paramedics tended to her and the baby.
Once at Saint Andrews, I tried to barge my way into the operating room, but they wouldn’t let me inside. Medical staff in masks pushed me away from everything that mattered to me. Too afraid to take any focus off of the job they needed to do, I backed down and stayed in the waiting room as they instructed.
Now, as I sat with my head in my hands, I didn’t know if she was dead or alive. They’d taken our daughter to the nursery, but my shock paralyzed me, making me unable to move from my spot long enough to go visit her.