Wednesday, November 05, 2003

 

It is late night on November 5th, 2003, as I type this and 30 years ago today, earlier this morning, I was witness to the greatest show on earth!
Yes, apologies to P. T. Barnum, but he was wrong, he did NOT have the greatest show on Earth. I know. I was there and I witnessed it firsthand. I was 25, and my wife went into labor with our son. She did not tell me when it started since she was not sure exactly what it was at the time. Contractions started sometime after I went to bed. I was due to go out to sea in the morning on a submarine on "weekly ops" as they were called, and I was supposed to be on board by 7 AM to get underway at 10:30 AM. She woke me at about 4 AM to tell me about the contractions and she thought something was going on which was not ordinary. I called the doctor and he said it might be nothing, but to time things and if the contractions got to about 10 minutes apart that it might be the real thing and to make arrangenments to go to the hospital at Travis Air Force Base. At 6 AM, I was sure this was the real thing, not a false labor, and I called the boat to tell them I needed to stay in. They had a choice, get me a replacement or mark me as UA (unauthorized absentee) from the boat for "missing movement" when the boat got underway. I then called a guy who was supposed to stay in, Rick Larson, and asked if he could go out instead of me for the week. He was scheduled to stay in for the weekly op. He said he probably could go, and I pleaded with him to make the effort. His girl friend was not happy with me asking this of him. I called the boat again and told them Rick could maybe fill in for me but the timing would be tight on him getting to the boat before it sailed and again, told them they could put me on leave or mark me as UA as I was going to be at Travis AFB with my wife who was in labor. They were going to leave without me, regardless. We left for Travis at about 7 and that was that, I was committed to missing going out to sea. This was important, my child was on the way, and going out on a weekly op was 2nd place to that event. We left home in Vallejo, and arrived at travis a half hour later. We were admitted and my wife was taken upstairs while I filled out the paperwork. When I finally arrived upstairs, the doctor there told me that this was indeed the real thing, the baby was coming, and she was dialated to 3 cm already. By 10 AM, my wife was fully dialated to 10 cm and it was time to go to delivery. I got dressed into a surgical gown and in we went. She had a minimal onload of drugs and there was a lot of pain, but she was doing OK and they let things happen naturally. It turned out she finally did get additional drugs deemed necessary by the doctor in charge, and then it all happened, my son came into the world. I did not see it actually as I was out of the line of sight, but I saw the doctor "catch" the baby, and announce it was a boy and then put him up on her stomach, tie off the cord and cut it. Then came the big part for me, he handed my son to a nurse who had a warmed blanket ready who then did a little bit of cleanup, and then handed him to me, and I carried him over to one side where they weighed him and measured how big he was, 7 pounds and 21 inches as I recall. I am not sure these are the actual numbers, but I remember 7 and 21 and thinking a good multiple of 3. Of course, the first thing I did was check his fingers and toes. What new parent does not check these two things? I felt good. I had just witnessed the greatest show on Earth, and my wife was the key player. What a trooper, as they say. The doctor took care of the delivery of the placenta, did what he needed to do to stitch up the cut he made during the delivery, and then we both got a chance to hold our son, who we then named Christopher Walter Getsla. Christopher, since there was no Christopher in either family, and Walter after my father. I have to give a lot of credit to my son's mother in this. She was afraid, and apprehensive being a first time mother, but she pulled it all together and during the delivery, she cursed me for making this all happen to her, but I forgive her for this being the heat of the moment. What mother does not curse the father when the child is born, at some time during labor? So, there it is, the greatest show on Earth, from the view of a new father, 30 years after the fact... Think about it... Just think about it for a bit...

Posted by: Rowlfe - at: 11/05/2003 11:00:00 PM

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