Dear Gus & Magnus,
Mom and I sneaked out of the house this morning to head to the hospital. While I loaded the car, Mom checked in on her mandevilla that's she's strung up behind the porch swing. We were at the hospital by 6:30, but even though we had the "second floor" debacle last time with Gus's delivery, again we got mixed up on the second floor vs. the mezzanine floor. We entered on the first floor and went up one, which is not what we should've done. Other than that, though, things were way less traumatic with Magnus's extraction.
At Labor & Delivery check-in, I read the nametag on the woman who took us to our room and my jaw dropped when I saw that it was Olga, who was brought in four years ago when Gus gave us troubles. She was supposed to be the ringer and she tried all kinds of unorthodox strategies to get Gus out. I looked at Mom, but Mom clearly didn't appreciate that we were again in the presence of a woman who has entrenched herself into the lore of our family.
"Don't you remember Olga?" I asked.
"That wasn't Olga," she said.
"Her nametag said Olga."
"That's a different one."
"You think there's two different Olgas in Labor & Delivery?"
"I can go to your Tumblr and see the woman in the picture, and it's not that woman."
"Yeah, that's not Olga."
"It was Olga. She came into the operating room with us."
"Are you saying it's a total coincidence that we had a woman last time we were here named Olga, and now we're back and there just happens to be another woman named Olga?"
Anyway, I thought that was funny, but if ever there was a time to drop a conversation like this with your mother, it's on the day when she's giving birth. So I dropped it and we moved on.
Mom put on her gown, answered some questions, expressed some anxieties/excitement, and then this lady from anesthesia came in and asked some questions about the way things went last time we were here. There was debate about how long Mom had been pushing with Gus before she got an epidural. Naturally, I recapped the events for everyone and in the course of that recap, I said, "She had been pushing for a LONG time. They were doing everything to get Gus out -- Olga was there! Good to see her today." I thought it would get a laugh, or at least the anesthesia lady would acknowledge that indeed that sounds like something Olga would do, but instead no one laughed or acknowledged anything. So then I started doubting myself. I said, "Is there a different Olga?" But no one even responded and I bailed on it because I could tell your mother thought I was acting strangely.
Eventually they rolled Mom into the operating room. They put me in a chair right outside the operating room -- the same chair I sat in with Gus, but again, way less stressful. And then I got to go back and hold Mom's hand while they performed a C-section.
Mom felt some expected pressure, but it was a relatively easy surgery as best I could tell. And Magnus came out screaming a hearty scream just like the Viking warrior we named him to be. Mom smiled when she heard him -- she couldn't see over the draped cloth designed to keep her from seeing the surgery itself. I could see Magnus, though, and I couldn't help crying. And it was killing me to not hold him. When Gus was born, it felt like a matter of seconds from the time they pulled him from Mom's body to the time when they put him in my arms. Contrarily, it seemed like they kept Magnus over there forever, cleaning him up and measuring him and doing whatever it is they do, until finally a woman saw me trying to take pictures from across the room and she said I could come over to be with him. I felt bad about leaving your mother's side, but I had to go see the boy. I ended up alternating between the two of them until it was time to go to our room.
It turns out all the things about taking care of a newborn that I never thought I'd forget, I have already forgotten. I had to get a nurse to remind me how to swaddle him. God help us.
Magnus McKinley Choate
6 pounds, 15 ounces; 20 inches long; born at 8:46am.
Dad.
Little Rock, Arkansas. 6.8.2021 - 8.59am.
