You Have All Of His Life To Make It Up To Him

My mother had a very long labor with my brother. It had started in the early morning, and it was now well past noon, but absolutely nothing was happening.

Mom: “Honey, you must be starving. Go grab some lunch from the cafeteria.”

Dad: “What? But what if I miss it?”

Nurse: “It’s okay. She’s not going to deliver in the half-hour or so that you’ll be in the cafeteria.”

Dad: “But what if she does?!”

It took almost ten minutes for my mother and the nurse to convince my father that everyone would be fine, he should go get lunch, and there was nothing to worry about, but he eventually let himself be convinced to go eat in the hospital cafeteria.

Not long after he left, the doctor came in to check on my mother and brother. During the check, they discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped around my brother’s neck and his heartbeat was growing irregular. My mother was put under almost immediately for an emergency C-section. The nurses moving her were running, and she didn’t lose consciousness until they were almost to the operating room. Not long after, my brother was safely delivered with no injuries or further complications.

After being reassured that everything was fine and he wouldn’t miss anything while getting food, my father returned to discover that his wife was being stitched up and he had a new son.

We still joke about how he missed my brother’s birth because he went to get lunch.