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I come home from work today, not to what I expected. Luke jumps out of my cruiser and heads into the house he’s so excited to tell his momma that he got a good grade on his end of the year testing that they had to do the last few days. He had rattled of the scores to me and I didn’t understand what they meant, but I was very proud of him.
I walk in the house just a few steps behind Luke, he’s frozen in the doorway to the master bedroom. Lilly is sitting on the floor. She sees me and says, “Oh, good you’re home.”
Her tone is calm, but the look on her face is pure panic. I ask her, “Is everything okay Lillybear?”
“Nope. I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” She says all serious.
“Well I can help you with that.” I reply back and reach out a hand to help her out. As she stands she doubles over and yells out in pain. “What is it babe?” I ask as I’m trying to get Luke to go to the living room.
“I think I was sitting so long that I didn’t realize I was in labor.” She responds to me.
I pull out my phone and dial nine one one. As soon as I get an operator I give her my badge number and explain that I am at my home and my wife may be in labor. The operator tells me she needs to know if Lilly is having contractions. I ask Lilly and she says she can’t tell she’s not in major pain.
The operator tells me that I’m going to have to check and see if Lilly is dilated. She also informs me that she’s dispatched an ambulance to my address. I ask the operator how to check if Lilly is dilated and she proceeds to walk me through the procedure. I follow all of her instructions and risk Lilly beating the shit outta me later on when I stick my fingers inside her to see if she’s dilated.
I tell the operator exactly what I felt and she replies, “Looks like you’re going to deliver this baby at home.”
“Oh, fuck.” This was the one contingencies I hadn’t planned for.
The operator continues to talk to me and tell me what to tell Lilly. Thankfully, she’s a semi-pro at this since she’s already had Luke. She’s doing the breathing techniques when the contractions hit so I don’t have to focus on reminding her to breathe through the contractions. I finally see the head starting to crown and the operator talks me and Lilly through pushing the head clear of her opening. Once the head is out she instructs me how to help guide the baby’s head the rest of the way out and down.
The next part that I have to deliver is the shoulders. I hear the sirens pulling into my driveway and I tell Luke to open the gate for them so that they can get the gurney in here. Then he’s to call his aunt Kathy and let her know that Lilly is in labor and he needs to be picked up from the hospital. Luke does as I’ve instructed him to do and just as I’m finishing delivering the baby the EMT’s come into the bedroom and help me to clamp and cut the umbilical cord.
The EMT’s congratulate me for maintaining my calm while delivering my son. My son. Lilly is exhausted and the EMT’s quickly get her transferred over to the gurney and wrap our son up in a warming blanket. They allow her to hold him once she’s loaded up into the ambulance. I load Luke into the cruiser with me and follow the ambulance to the hospital. When they pull into the ambulance bay I park and head up to the labor and delivery ward and wait for the EMT’s to bring Lilly and our son up to a room. My life couldn’t be any more complete. I’ve got my wife, and my two sons.