Thud?

I was there when Sara entered the world. Sara came early. 25 weeks. She just would not stay put. Kind of like her dad, i guess. I had been sitting in the rocking chair in the birthing room at Carolina's Medical Center in Charlotte, waiting for her to get here. She was not expected as soon as she came that day. The bed was set up with a little shelf below. A sheet covered the whole end of the bed. I was sitting there waiting and jotting notes in a big green journal I had been keeping about her birth process.

Sitting there, I heard a soft thud. I stood immediately and walked over to the bed, and lifted the sheet. and there was Sara. My movement, must have attracted the attention of the nursing staff, for they were there instantly. Sara was gently scooped up and placed in a warming bed. She was so small to see, but I did not care. I was a father.

The nurses worked quickly to stabilize her. They placed an airway for her and started providing artificial respiration. Sara was cleaned up and wrapped up in the cutest simplist blanket I had seen. Prayers that I can't recall the words to, ran throught my mind and lips. I could not take my eyes off of her. A huge sense of protectionism surfaced in me. I had to watch every move to know what they did to MY LITTLE GIRL. I followed them as they wheeled the bed to the elevator at the end of the hall. The elevator took them up one floor to the NICU.