Almost Perfect

It seemed like a whirlwind of a night, they went into the ER at 3 a.m., she was being prepped for surgery at 3:30 a.m. and by 4:30 a.m. Stacy and Adam were hearing the sounds of their baby crying.

“It’s a girl!” Dr. Jamison announced as she held up the small baby for Stacy and Adam to see.

Adam and Stacy looked at each other, both of them had tears in their eyes, he leaned down to kiss her lips, relishing in the moment that their baby had just been born and she was crying, she was okay.

“I love you so much, you were amazing!” Adam told his girlfriend.

Stacy couldn’t even speak; she was too caught up in the emotion of it all. She watched as the nurses took their daughter and started drying her off and suctioning out her mouth and nose. Their little one was still crying and moving all of her extremities as the nurses poked and prodded her, trying to get the first set of vital signs and doing blood glucose checks.

“Your baby weighs 5 pounds, 3 ounces.” A nurse informed them.

Stacy looked at Adam with teary eyes, “She’s so small!”

Adam nodded, also watching the nurses work with his daughter. “Is she going to be okay?” He asked, no one had told them if she was healthy or not yet.

“Being that she was born prematurely we will want to keep her here for a few extra days to monitor her. Her lungs are immature so we want to give her a dose of surfactant and hopefully that will aid her in breathing so she gets enough oxygen. Otherwise we may have to provide O2 through nasal cannula if her saturations drop too low,” Adam didn’t quite understand everything the nurse said but when he looked down at Stacy he was relieved to see that she was nodding in understanding.

“I think she’s going to be okay,” Stacy smiled at her boyfriend. Adam let out a large breath.

“Would you like to hold your little girl?” The nurse asked Adam, the surgical team was currently stitching Stacy back up so she was not able to hold her at that time. Adam looked down at her to make sure it was okay and she nodded.

He held out his arms and the nurse placed the very tiny pink bundle into his arms, the feeling took his breath away. He was looking down at the beautiful life they created in his hands and he felt himself start to smile. She was absolutely beautiful; she had a small head of dark brown hair already and long dark eyelashes. She had perfect pink lips and a little button nose, he could already tell that she looked more like Stacy than like himself.

“She’s stunning,” He whispered to Stacy, looking down at his girlfriend. Stacy was looking at the two of them with tears in her eyes. She loved how smitten he was with their daughter instantly; he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He moved closer to Stacy so she could see her as well, kneeling down a bit so she could see her face.

“She’s so beautiful,” Stacy gushed, “Look at all her hair!”

At that moment it was like all the other people in the room had disappeared and it was just their little family.

“Say hi Momma,” Adam carefully waved her little hand at Stacy, causing her to grin.

“Do you have a name picked out?” The nurse asked.

Stacy and Adam exchanged glances. They had talked about names a few different times and had actually agreed on one rather quickly.

“Evelyn Viola Levine,” Adam said, smiling. They had decided to name her after Stacy’s grandma, someone who meant so much to both of them.

“What a beautiful name,” The nurse said, writing it down on the birth certificate.

“It’s absolutely perf-,” Stacy’s words trailed off and her eyes rolled back into her head and her body went limp.

All of the sudden the machine’s connected to her began to beep wildly, causing Adam to become alarmed. “What’s happening? What’s going on?”

“Sir please calm down, we are going to do the best we can here.” One of the nurses called out.

“She’s hemorrhaging!” Another called out, “Order 2 cc of blood STAT!”

The nurses began to move frantically throughout the room. One of them came to take the baby from him, the other was assuring him that they would take good care of his girlfriend but he needed to leave the room so they could work.

They practically shoved him out the door and all he could do was look over his shoulder as they began to work on Stacy.

Adam stood out in the hallway, running his hands through is hair. His eyes were filling with tears, what had just happened? They were having this amazing moment with their daughter and then all of the sudden it was taken from them in the blink of an eye. He leaned against the hospital wall and slid down to the floor, dropping his head into his hands, Adam allowed himself to cry.