Miracles from Chaos

Well, it's been a little while since my last blog, but as you can see, I have good reason. I tried something a little different with this comic, because it felt right to try this one from a "first-person" perspective. So you're reading the entire comic from the perspective of the Allan character (or me) if you will. I hope the "black-out" effects in frames 4 and 5 translate well, if not, now you know what's going on there. And for more explanation, here's the story:

5:30 AM on 1/13, my alarm goes off to get up for work, and Jill heads into the bathroom after noticing a trickle coming down her leg. No sooner does she sit down, when I hear a splooshing sound, followed by her exclamation of "Oh, dear lord!" Meanwhile, I'm asking what's wrong, and if I should get ready to go to the hospital. She tells me to get a shower, so I hurry into the other bathroom, and start to use it. Suddenly I hear another sploosh followed by another loud exclamation, at which point she tells me to "Skip the shower!"

Now the scramble is on! We're both throwing ourselves together and calling the neighbors so that they can come over and take care of Lilly. Somewhere in the back of my head, the Benny Hill music is playing. Anyway, the neighbors come over and we get out the door.

On the way to the hospital, I miss the turn into Bayview. Not realizing there's another entrance further up the street, I try to jockey across the lanes to get turned around. Unfortunately, I missed the car in my blind spot, and we end up having a minor fender-bender. We exchanged information while Jill's water continued to leak.

Once in the hospital, things slowed down a bit. There was a little concern about Willow's heartbeat, but that seemed to be remedied by positioning Jill on her side, and at some point hooking her up to oxygen. Otherwise, things went pretty smoothly, and after Noon when the nurse finally came in from another procedure, I asked if I had enough time to run to the cafeteria and get some lunch. She checked Jill's vitals, and assured me that everything looked normal, and not quite ready to go.

So I ran off to the cafeteria and come back to find out things have changed in the 5 minutes I was out. I'm ushered back into the room to see everything set up and ready to go, so I toss my lunch in the chair in the corner, and take my position at bedside.

Things started to blur from there. Jill was doing a great job, and all of a sudden they had a complication with a stuck shoulder. That said, the team was awesome. One of the women smoothly took my position, and I instinctively moved away to let them work. They got Willow out without injury. However, I think she might have had her cord wrapped around her neck, and she wasn't breathing when they first pulled her out.

The peds team took over, and had her breathing in just over 3 minutes, and her heart was beating the whole time, so there shouldn't be any permanent damage from what they tell us. Once we heard her crying, I think Jill and I both finally remembered to breath. Jill was crying, but I asked her if she was OK, and she said she was, to which I replied, "Good, because I'm going to pass out now."

Fortunately, I didn't, but it did take me a few minutes to regain my composure and calm down. Once I righted myself, they let me hold Willow, which is always a great feeling! Mommy and baby are doing great, although Willow needs to figure out that she should sleep when it's dark. Currently she's nocturnal.

For those wondering, here are the stats: Willow Elizabeth Grimm was born 1/13/10 @ 12:40 PM. She was 9 pounds 1 ounce, and 20.25 inches long.

I'm back to work tomorrow, so hopefully things will start to normalize a bit, and I'll get these out a little more regularly.