Last Friday, my brother and his wife were at home, both having had a very rough week. Becky has been sick, and there were concerns with the pregnancy (not a whole lot of movement, gestational diabetes diet making her not feel well), and Dan had worked all week plus been with her at the doctor/hospital for probably 12 hours total over four days.
Dan needed some time to recover, and had originally planned to go to a foosball tournament (yes, this is the professional world-class-foosball-playing brother), but Becky wasn't feeling well, so Dan said, "If you'd like me to stay, I'll stay." Standard reply is "No, go ahead and go," but this time it was "Oh, thank you." So a couple hours later (around 11:00), Dan admits he was expecting for her to let him go, so she does. While I wasn't party to this conversation nor its tone, it could have an effect on their states of mind as time goes on.
Around 12:15, Becky is feeling much worse, so she leaves for the hospital. Her vision is blurring a bit, she nearly gets into two accidents and almost runs off the road, but arrives at the hospital. Apparently the people at the ER could tell her blood pressure was way too high from looking at her when she walked in. Within two minutes of her arrival, she began having seizures.
Dan arrives home a little after two, finds a sticky note on the door saying Becky left for the hospital. He calls the hospital, and is basically told, "The seizures are under control, but you should get here right away." Click.
He calls my mom (who lives less than ten minutes away) and asks her to come over and pick him up. She goes over there, and walks around to the back door, as he is coming out. "You know the front door is open and the T.V. is on, right?" "It doesn't matter." He gets into the car, reclines the seat back a little and sits quietly. "Can you tell me what's going on?" "Let's just go." "You realize you haven't told me where we're going?" "The hospital." <Mom starts driving to the hospital.> "Does a seizure mean what I think it means?" <More conversation as they go.>
They arrived at the hospital, and asked about Becky. Whatever it was that Becky said when she was there ("Where's your husband?" "Out at a bar playing foosball." -?), the nurse seemed to remember, and wasn't pleased with Dan. Sort of a "Oh you finally decided to show up" attitude or something. (This info is via my mother, so it's possible she's reading into things.) Another comment made was that not only couldn't Dan go see her at the time, he wouldn't want to, because she looked bad.
It seems that Becky skipped pre-eclampsia and went straight on into eclampsia. She had an emergency C-section (this is eight weeks early), and Jacob William was born. Time frame of all this is unclear, but since the baby was born at 3:39, I assume Dan was there in time. Becky got to hold the baby briefly, then he was whisked away to Children's Hospital while Becky stayed at Sharp.
As of now, Becky is still in the hospital, but off all the I.V.s and HBP drugs she was being given, and has again held the baby (who was transferred back to Sharp hospital NICU). Jacob is breathing on his own, but will still stay at the hospital for some undetermined amount of time (a few weeks at least, we believe).
Dan is a strong man, but he became a father a couple months before he thought he needed to be prepared for it, and nearly lost his wife of seven months, so that was a pretty harsh one-two punch.
When we (Dan and Mama and I) were talking on the phone, Mama and I both noticed that Dan was referring to Jacob as "it" rather than "he." We wondered if he was concerned that Jacob wouldn't make it, and he didn't want to become attached, or if he was so unprepared for the birth that he still doesn't think of Jacob as a child yet. But since Becky and Dan had decided not to find out the sex of the child, we think it's probably just habit, as "it" has been the pronoun for so long now (though usually the baby was referred to as "the gut").
Anyway, Mooselet is pretty happy to have a new cousin. He had been saying "Maybe Baby Jacob" as the name for a while, since we knew Jacob would be the name if they had a boy. So Baby Jacob lost his first name (Maybe). And since Dan's nickname is "Horse," I thought maybe Jacob could be "Pony Boy," but my suspicion is that Dan won't think that's a very good idea.
Mama can fix any mistakes I made in the retelling. I don't know if any of you will care anyway, but I kinda needed to get it off my chest. Thanks for letting me spill.
--Pop
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
*hugs* for new baby!
*grr* at nurse for attitude at such a time.
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
Gosh, what a terrible thing to go through. I hope everything works out alright.
Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
all my best to maybe baby jacob and his parents and the rest of the Moose clan.
Posted by Glaphyra the Righteous (Member # 6995) on :
Oh, wow. Glad everyone made it through okay.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
(((all)))
I'm glad they're okay. Dan's gotta have enough guilt without the nurse throwing more at him. But I wish Becky would have called an ambulance. That drive in sounds frightening.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Congratulations, Pop! I'm sorry to hear how harrowing it was. I can only imagine how shellshocked your brother must be feeling.
My Rainbow became a cousin today. After over 36 hours of labor, my first little nephew was born at 1:15pm. I forgot to ask, but it sounds like my brother survived the process -- he was absolutely sure he was going to faint. I'm pretty sure he would have mentioned that part if it had actually happened.
My favorite of his stories of his preparation to become a daddy was from about 6 weeks ago. He and his wife were out shopping when suddenly she looked up at him with a totally serious look on her face. She said, "We have exactly one hour to get to the hospital."
He said his heart dropped into his shoes and he gasped out, "ALREADY??"
She replied, rolling her eyes, "For the hospital tour, dork."
I just love my sister-in-law. She's reportedly doing very well, though is understandably exhausted.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
Hooray for the new babies! I'm glad everything seems to have turned out well.
Posted by cochick (Member # 6167) on :
Congrats for both the cousins.
Hope Becky and Jacob are both well enough to make it home soon.
Best wishes
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Welcome to the cousins! Best wishes to the mommies and daddies.
*hugs* to all!
Yikes!
Posted by Arthur (Member # 4026) on :
Welcome baby Jacob! Hope mommy is feeling better soon.
Posted by Sopwith (Member # 4640) on :
Welcome to the world Jacob! So glad everything worked out!
Posted by Christy (Member # 4397) on :
What an ordeal! I'm sure Dan just needs some time for the shock to wear off. Especially with a complicated delivery like that. Its only normal -- emotions and tensions run high. I know little Jacob will have a lot of love, especially with the Moose family on board.
Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
Congratulations to the Moose family - I'm glad everyone came through intact.
Congratulations to jeniwren, too.
Posted by Tammy (Member # 4119) on :
quote:When we (Dan and Mama and I) were talking on the phone, Mama and I both noticed that Dan was referring to Jacob as "it" rather than "he." We wondered if he was concerned that Jacob wouldn't make it, and he didn't want to become attached, or if he was so unprepared for the birth that he still doesn't think of Jacob as a child yet. But since Becky and Dan had decided not to find out the sex of the child, we think it's probably just habit, as "it" has been the pronoun for so long now (though usually the baby was referred to as "the gut").
One of my friends husbands did that. Three years later he still calls his little boy..."It". Don't worry, I give him mucho griefo over it.
Congratulations!!
Posted by Mama Squirrel (Member # 4155) on :
ElJay, it's probably a good thing she didn't call an ambulance (although I am not sure what they have available on an ambulance). The doctor said that if Becky had arrived at the hospital even two minutes later, she probably would not have survived.
At this time, we think Dan is still more freaked out about almost losing his wife that it hasn't hit him that he has a son.
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Hope mommy is feeling better soon.
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