Abbey is Twelve!

It hardly seems like twelve years ago that Annette and I watched Abbey come into the world. Annette had a scheduled C-section to deliver Abbey so on the scheduled morning we drove Michael (who at the time was not even one and a half) over to Papa's house and left him there, then we headed to Christian Northwest hospital in St. Louis County. We were in the operating/delivery rom and I was sitting there beside Annette as the doctors tugged on her, getting ready for the birth. Just like with Michael, someone finally said, "stand up dad," so I abruptly stood up, looking over the curtain that prevented Annette from seeing what they were doing to her mid-section. Among all the unpleasantness of surgery was my little Abbey's head in the hands of a doctor. When I stood up, they pulled her out and she was born.

It only took a few seconds for me to sense something was wrong. They cleaned her up but I noticed the look in one of the nurse's eyes. She nervously looked back to one of the doctors and they quickly whisked Abbey away to another area. Annette knew nothing of all this so I departed from her side to follow Abbey. They laid her down on a table and placed an oxygen mask on her face and said things like, "come on, come on" while they whacked her little rear end. She was turning blue. I was anxiously watching this unfold hoping that any second things would turn better. I asked, "What's wrong?" The doctor did what so many do, that is, they try not to alarm the family even though they might be concerned. The answer I got back was, "She's just having a little trouble breathing." Her blue face and body began to show it. The words of the medical staff were calming but their actions weren't.

Then, about as quickly as the situation developed, the blueness dissipated and a pink color took over very quickly. "There we go" the docs said, much to my relief. After confirming that all was now fine, I returned to Annette's side as they put her back together. She knew nothing of it and I didn't tell her for some time.

The whole thing went down in just a couple minutes but it made me as nervous as I have ever been as a parent. And now she is 12. We sure love our Abbey Hope.