#diARyofaGoOgleDad- #2 (The Welcome!)

This is my third attempt at writing a second installment. I did try to write last on a flight back to Lagos last week but there were just too many distractions. 

So in my previous post i mentioned that you could never be fully prepared for bringing a child into the world not even if you had all the money in the world saved. I recall a conversation i had with IK sometime last year in his car about children, paying, school fees and bills, and how much sense it made to start saving in anticipation of having babies after marriage. That conversation would have made much more sense sense if Nigeria were not so much a peculiar country.

So here we were after 9months of adapting to the psychological and physical changes my wife was experiencing we were almost there. Between visits to a very outspoken Indian Gynecologist and an Elderly Mischievous Nigerian Gynecologist, my wife had no short supply of physical observations to tender, chief of which were her weakening pelvic bones (we had since found out from the internet that it was totally normal). we eventually made it to the 24th of June, at which point my wife was a little over 9months. We had developed a private joke where i called her a 'kidnapper' for holding my son hostage in the oven and not letting him out...lol. 

So that morning we visited the Doctor to get a final verdict, this was only after we had been earlier advised to wait 2weeks for the process to begin naturally. There was still no sign, no broken water, nothing. I was beginning to get worried so while at the Drs. i flipped out my phone and clicked on the HealthTap app on my iPhone to double check some of the medical mumbo jumbo this Dr. was 'spewing'. After that day's consultation we were advised to go get her stuff (which we had already been driving around with for months) and come back later in the evening for her labour to be induced. Little did i know this was me being ushered into a new realm of fear and uncertainty i had never ever experienced.

Don't get me wrong, over the years i seem to have developed a thick skin, call it intentional stubbornness, the things that tend to terrify people hardly ever makes a dent in my Armour of courage but mehn i had no idea. So that evening we went back to the hospital and i felt like my anxiety switch had been flipped on prematurely. 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm nothing then shortly after the nurses walked in and put in some lines and then more waiting till late at night. 

At about 2am i was called that it was time and my wife had to be wheeled to the delivery room so we went down the elevator, I changed into a surgical robe and went in then the mathematical Drs and their crude Dilation calculation techniques came in..lol (wasn't particularly easy for me to watch them measure..). I had seen too many women freak out during labour in movies, and husbands pass out, ever so brave i refused to be any of those men but deep down i had died maybe like 432 times already..lol. That morning of the 25th of June was the day i realized how strong my wife was. I knew she was hard, being a former karate student but this was different. In the next delivery room a woman also in labour constantly screamed and made prophetic declarations to her unborn child to come out, my wife was almost calm ..well she was every 3mins after each contraction but all through it was more moans than screams. I began to worry that the other screaming woman would transmit fear to my wife through the walls. 

My wife had one basic rule in that delivery room. DON'T TOUCH ME! (especially during contractions). 2 of the 3 doctors who checked up on her learned that rule the hard way. I went in to that room initially half expecting to be yelled at and insulted by her during the pain, but na lie o she was even too happy to see me there through the pain when she could actually see...lol.

So for over 14hrs my wife remained in Labour, and i was up by her side all through it all, i was pretty much emotionally destroyed by the 10th hour. For someone like me who had witnessed the gore of spilled brain matter and intestines after cult clashes as a student, i thought that maybe prepared me for this but i was so wrong. After prolonged labour the lead doctor made a decision for a Cesarean to be done at that point i just wanted my Wife and Child out of this situation alive. My wife was immediately wheeled into the theatre  and the medical personnel fearing that i couldn't stand the procedure refused to let me in.

Unfortunately for them i was too emotionally vested to not have eyes on them, so once i observed they were all in the Theater I found a vantage position between one of the doors and began to peek through partly 'cos i was very paranoid and refused to give room for any negligence from them. That was the first part of this ordeal.. 

in my next post i will detail how God saved us from a certain negligent maniac in the theatre and how i found the strength to stay on the Pediatrician after my son was brought out. 

I hope you keep reading and the most important lesson of this post is:

"Never leave anything to chance, during Pregnancy/childbirth. Research everything you hear from the Drs. and know the whys and the Hows and Women ensure you have a loved one around through all this cos as i learned, these Drs. will cover for each other and the hospital to the detriment of the patient. 

I would like to know your thoughts on this post in the comments box below. Thank you for reading.

- @gozzim