Her grand entrance

July 24 last year, around 9:00 in the morning, I was patiently waiting at the viewing area of the hospital nursery when my wife's OB approached me and asked me the hardest and craziest question I've ever encountered so far. "Who do you want to be saved, your wife or your baby?" Good thing that was only in my imagination. My head was floating because I have neither eaten nor slept for hours as I was waiting for my wife to give birth. It's been five hours since she entered the labor room and we have not yet received any news from anybody so I was starting to freak out. It was 2AM when she started active labor, and after 2 hours she was brought into the labor room. Finally, at 9AM her OB approached me to give an update.

"Her water bag has exploded but we need to wait for her cervix to open until 8cm. We will wait until 11am."

"OK."

I wanted to ask so many things that were running in my head that time but the only word that came out from my mouth was—OK. And the long wait continued. At 11AM, a nurse came asking me to go inside the labor room. When she said that, my heart is like having its own mind and want to run away on its own. But with all the strength, calmness, and "machoness " left in me, I left my chair, put a scrub suit on, and entered the labor room.

After 7 straight hours, I finally saw my wife again. As I looked at her face, plus all the tubes and wires attached to her, I knew she was in great pain. The doctors told me that her cervix was still 7cm dilated, and that we have to wait until 11:30AM to check for progress or else they will conduct CS operation. While looking at my wife, I knew somehow she wanted the pain to end so I asked her, "Let's allow them to do CS?" And my wife said, "Our savings is enough for normal delivery only". Yes, we didn't anticipate this because we thought everything was going to be normal, from her first check up until the week of her due date. But knowing that I could not do anything to ease the pain of my wife, I need to convince her to undergo CS operation.

"Gawan ko nalang ng paraan yung kulang na pera natin, magpa-CS ka na para matapos na yan".

This is the only thing I knew how to end the excruciating pain she was going thru. That was the least that I could do. And she finally agreed. We told the OB about our decision and I was asked to sign some papers. Then she was brought to the operation room.

I came back to my seat at the viewing room and after just 30mins, a nurse opened the window of the nursery. For the first time in my life, I could not explain the happiness and joy I was feeling. A baby was looking straight at me, smiling, and waving. Our little princess has finally arrived. She didn't want to pass through "tight places" and chose the express lane. Prinsesa nga eh!

This momentous experience gave me more reasons to honor, appreciate, and admire all the mommies out there especially my wife and my mom. To all of you, I give my four thumbs up! Thank you for all the courage!

Our little princess