Page 143 of Power Move

“He’s doing well. They are getting him ready to transfer. Not every baby cries.”

Eva nodded. “But he’s okay?”

A doctor called, “I promise he’s doing well. We’ll let you get a good look at him soon enough.”

Eva nodded bravely.

“We need to flip this baby. It may be uncomfortable with lots of pressure,” another doctor said. “But it will be quick.”

Eva had been so brave to this point, but the feeling of them rolling the baby around in a belly that just pushedonebaby out seemed brutish. She gripped my hand for dear life. I watched the doctor grimace as an alarm sounded.

“What is happening?” I asked, nervously.

“We need to do an emergency c-section,” the doctor said, as if it were simple.

“What? Why?” I panicked.

“Baby’s heart rate is dipping. We will get him out,” a nurse said.

Eva shut down. I waited for them to open her up right there. I was rushed into the hall while they put her under. I left the three people I cared most about in a room. Feeling like a coward, I paced, unable to come down.

“Sir,” the nurse said. “It’s okay. These things rarely occur—but they happen. Some babies don’t handle the version well. The doctors are going to get him out quickly.”

“I’m going to miss his cries. What if he cries?” I found myself in tears for the second time this day.

“There will be millions of cries in your future,” she assured. “As soon as they settle the babies in the NICU, I will come getyou. The doctor will be out as soon as he can. Is there anyone nearby who can help Eva when she is in recovery?”

I knew I’d have to go with the babies. Eva and I discussed this to death, but we assumed it would be because she’d be having a big dinner weaning off an epidural if the babies needed NICU care and would be along soon after. We’d made rational choices about rational things, but nothing about this felt rational.

I looked at my phone. “It’s midnight. Her parents live in Indiana and won’t make it.”

“Any friends? Family that would work for now?”

I groaned. “My mother. She’s leaving for Michigan in the morning, but she’s still around.”

Eva

Everything happened so fast. Before I knew it, I’d gone from worried to pleasantly asleep. When I woke, I heard chatter—but no one I expected. I opened my eyes slowly and found myself in a new room—a smaller than where I’d labored. I turned towards the voices and saw a nurse and Lady Danna.

“Oh, there she is,” Davey’s mother said sweetly. “You’re back with us, Eva.”

“Lady Danna… what are you doing here?” I asked.

“Danna, darling. Please. Davey rang me when they swooped you off to surgery. He’s with the boys. They are doing beautifully,” Danna said, proudly.

I smiled. “Good. Both of them?”

“Both of them. Big, strong, healthy thirty-four weekers,” the nurse said. “Both of them are on oxygen, but neither needed a vent. Since they are both over four pounds, their prognosis is as good as can be.”

That was good news. “I feel so dizzy.”

“That is the magnesium,” the nurse said. “It will be okay.”

“I feel so out of sorts.”

“You will—even if the birth was textbook,” Danna said. “I did this six times. It is always challenging and different every time.”

“I’m good for now,” I said. “Considering I failed to do things the way they ‘should’ be the first time.”