Yesterday, I woke up at 9 am (very reluctantly) after only 4 hours of sleep and took a peep at my cellphone messages. Ralph had texted at about 7:30 that Charmaine was giving birth. I asked him where they were; he replied, “D place 2 be. Delgado :)”
My head was still reeling, of course, so I wasn’t sure about any plan of action. After establishing that Charmaine was safe and, so far, having normal labor, I decided to postpone any decisions until I felt better myself. At around 11, Ralph told me he had a ton of stuff with him and had difficulty snatching yosi breaks and he was bored. I took a short jeep ride to the hospital to lend him one of Allan’s old Alternative Press issues to read. As I got off the jeep, I encountered Ralph himself in front of Mercury Drug. Charmaine’s in-law had arrived and Ralph wanted to get a drink. We went inside the hospital and caught up a little, and he told me that Charmaine was fine generally. He was just hoping that they’d let the baby sleep with them once he was out so he could take a video of him. Ralph kept jogging back and forth to Information to take care of room arrangements. He finally was able to get a semi-private room (114-B), though he had been hoping for a private one, except that there were none available. We put his things there so he would be free to roam around and pace nervously, like all expectant fathers do. Seeing he was settled, I went back home to unsuccessfully catch more sleep.
I spent the early afternoon visiting my niece Nona with Khalil and their family. By 3 pm, I was really tired and very sleepy. Allan had called me on my cell because we were supposed to go out this afternoon, but it seemed it was too late to follow our original plan so we decided to postpone it ‘til early evening. My phone went dead then. I got back home at 5 pm and charged it; then I received Ralph’s text that Charmaine had to undergo a c-section because she was at 5 cm for three hours. I asked him if it was absolute because my sister-in-law had the same problem, only Khalil was born naturally at the last minute. Ralph said it was inevitable because Thor was an LGA baby, too, and the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around his neck. Yikes. Ralph said he went home first because Charmaine was scheduled to come out of the recovery room at 9 pm this evening. I told him I’d pray for a successful operation. It was also about this time that Ayn texted asking if we wanted to visit them later that night. Thinking that Charmaine would be tired and visiting hours would be over, I told her that I was going to go the next day after work.
I slept one blessed hour, which felt unbelievably short. Then Allan called me and asked me to come with him to buy a DVD at SM City. On the way, Ralph called him up and told Allan he would be back at the hospital by 8 and that visiting hours would in fact be over by 10 pm. Allan then decided we should pass by the hospital before then, and we tried calling Ayn, but she, because I had told her we weren’t going to visit that night, had already fallen asleep. When we arrived at the hospital, Ralph was pacing around in the driveway, so the two guys smoked outside for a while. Ralph told us Charmaine was ok and was in the recovery room, which relieved us greatly. It was only 15 minutes into the conversation that he informed us nonchalantly that Thor had been born at around 3:30 pm. Ralph!!!
Ralph showed us the video he took right after Thor was brought out. He is a big baby, 8 lbs. heavy, and he has a mop of black hair. On the video, his mouth was open wiiiide and his chest was heaving in great gulps of air. He was crying very loudly; we could hear him well through the tiny speakers of Ralph’s videocam. It was great to see him like that. We couldn’t help feeling proud, too. Allan said, “Ralph--- AMA KA NA!”
After a half hour more, we decided to go home and call it a night.
Congratulations, Ralph and Charmaine, on the birth of your baby boy, Eniamrahc Thor. :)
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