Merry Christmas to All!!! Up early this Morning by myself. All's quiet.....so far. Was thinking back over the last year and counting my blessings and thought I'd share my best Christmas story.

12-24-99. About 8:20 am. 20 degrees and snowing. Working the ER when a young man comes in the back entrance and calmly say's he needs a wheelchair for his wife who is going to have a baby.

Not an unusual request. I grab a chair and out the door we go. Parked at the curb on the street is shiny red '98 Mustang GT w/ a young woman in the passenger seat. The husband says her water broke about an 1/2 hour ago. I ask if she's having contractions and he said he didn't think so. We're chatting calmly as we walk to the car.

I've been doing this for awhile and as I approached the car I noticed Mom has "THE LOOK". About the time I see "The Look", she screams "The babie's coming"!!! I've heard this a lot from young Moms before, but I started moving faster anyway.

When I reached the car I saw this pretty, young woman was in real distress. She had her left foot up on the console and her right foot on the dash. She was sweating and grunting.

After a quick "Oh *$%$t!!! I sent Dad running back for help. She screamed again that the baby was coming. My "Pucker Factor" hit 10 about then and I was scared. I asked her "you mean the babies coming NOW"? I think she "Yes, You Dumb A**"!!

She had a pair of loose, thin, white cotten pants on. Obviously wet in front. I took a deep breath and looked down the front. And saw the back of an infants head!! Yikes!!!

I prayed hard and fast that this would be ok. I knew we weren't going inside for this, so I yanked her pants down as far as I could. I didn't know how that child was going to get out of there w/ Mom all bent in the middle in that bucket seat. I'm wondering the whole time to myself "how long has this kid been in this position? Is the cord compressed? Is the child even alive?"

I was looking frantically for the seat release to lay it back. Hoping it had one the whole time. After what seemed an eternity, I found the release......And WHAM!!! She was braced w/ her legs and when the seat released it went flying back w/ a thump! And the baby came poppin' out all the way to the waist, all at the same time!! Mom gave another quick grunt, and out it came!!! I made a beautiful one handed grab and caught it in mid flight!

Remember, it was cold and snowy and I'm holding this steaming little bundle. The child was very purple in color. I was scared. I started rubbing the heck out it. I held it face down w/ the head tilted down to facillitate the drainage of anything out of it's mouth. After a few seconds the baby shuddered and let out a big cry. Mom and I both began to breath again too. All of this had taken about 30 seconds at the most.

Dad showed up again about that time. I made him give me his "Greatful Dead" tee shirt and that became the "swadling clothes".

The Doc (not one of my favorites) finally came out the door and slowly sauntered over to us. He asked me for a bulb syringe so he could suction out the secretions from baby's mouth. Now here I am holding this baby in my bare hands w/ all kinds of FUNK dripping thru my fingers, and he asks ME for a bulb syringe!! Needless to say, my response to him was very similar to what Mom had said to me earlier.

They got the cord clamped and the baby off to the warmth pretty quick. This left Mom, Dad and Me out on the curb w/ moms pants around her ankles. Someone had brought a cart, so Dad and I hauled Mom out of the car and on to the cart (w/ her posterior hanging out in the wind)and moved towards the door.

Mom asked me then "What was it, a boy or a girl"? I hadn't a clue!! I had never turned the child over to look!! As we came thru the doors I saw the OB people had a warmer coming down the hall and could hear the baby crying.

I parked Mom and peeked in the next room. It was a girl. She had pinked up and was moving vigorusly. Crying like crazy. I asked mom how long had she been in labor when she got to the hospital? She said she'd only had 2 contractions, both after they had parked!

Mom and Baby did great. Little Jamie had her birthday yesterday. That was the highlight of my year. Just wanted to share this w/ you all. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and remember that "Jesus is the reason for the season"! John

-- John in S. IN (jsmengel@hotmail.com), December 25, 2000

Answers

John! Thanks so much for that story!!!You really made me smile. God Bless and let's all remember the real gift we have received~Jesus Christ~, the only gift that lasts forever!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), December 25, 2000.

Thanks John for the wonderful story. I have a similar one but am sure not the story teller your are!!! The joys of E.R. nursing!!! Merry Christmas to you. diane in michigan

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 25, 2000.

Thanks for the story!!!!! You'd a thought that they woulda run a blannket out to the Mom, or SUMPTHIN"!!!! I'm glad you were there to catch it! Doesn't Mom have a story to tell!

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), December 25, 2000.

Great story. I'm glad you were there for Mom and baby. I'm a former southern Indiana girl myself.

Saw your response on PawPaw tree. My grandfather had a beautiful PawPaw tree, must have been old as it had very few fruit. Hope to plant one or two one of these days.

-- (phyllis.warman@twcable.com), December 29, 2000.