When I was 30, I experienced the most terrifying moments of my life. I was at the hospital in labor with my second son. We arrived there shortly after 7 a.m. and I was anticipating a long day of waiting for the birth of my baby. The nurses situated me with all of the usual monitors and my husband and oldest son went to the cafeteria to get something to eat.
All of a sudden, the monitors started beeping. I didn't think too much of it at first because sometimes they slipped and that happened. A nurse came in to check it and tried re-positioning it several times. She ended up calling more nurses in and then I knew something was wrong. They could not find my baby's heartbeat. After more failed attempts, the nurses had the doctor paged.
Within a minute of the doctor assessing the situation, she turned to me and said that I was going to have an emergency c-section. It really hit me then that my precious baby which had been a part of me for so long, might not make it. I said the same urgent prayer over and over again as they wheeled me quickly into the operating room. I continued to ask God to let my baby be okay until my lights went out as I went under the anesthesia.
The first words I heard as I started to come to were "The baby is in the nursery". I have never experienced such a flood of joy and relief. I truly was in a euphoric state for weeks after my son was born because I was so very grateful to have him. The experience really changed me and helped me to appreciate all I have even more than before.
This brings me around to a song. Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying" had just come out around this time. The song was written about Tim's father who had died of cancer and learned to live life to its fullest once he realized it was about to be taken away. Although my situation was quite different, this song will always take me back to the time where something very precious was almost taken from me....... and thank God that it was not.
Here is Live Like You Were Dying. It means so much to me, what does it mean to you?
6 comments:
Wow!
That will leave a lump in your throat
Thanks guys for your thoughts. It is nice to be able to say that something so scary turned into one of my greatest joys! Anytime I hear that song, it brings back the joy, not the fear.
With our first child, my wife was in labor for 22 hours but wasn't progressing. The doctors and nurses kept scratching her head and seeing what the heartrate was doing in addition to what happened during contraction. At about 1:30am, one nurse was in the room. She ran out. Then there were two nurses in the room. One left then there were three. They whispered. I just barely heard, "the baby isn't responding, where's the doctor?" "he's eating" "Go get him" Then there was two nurses. More whispering. Then there was one. Five minutes later later we had nurses, doctors and others. My wife went straight to c-section but luckily everything turned out all right. The only music in my head was my screaming. I had to keep it in my head because I had to keep calm for my wife.
I haven't heard this song before but now that I have I like it and I can see why it's significant to you.
It's good to know you are back from your vacation safe and sound. I'll be doing a post featuring this blog before the week is out.
Best wishes
@The cup is half full of something I don't like:
I am so relieved to hear that you and your family had a happy ending too :)
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