Page 107 of Unbreakable
She laughed a little. “I’ve been so fucking horny, but I’ve been afraid to do anything about it.”
“God, that’s fucking torture. For both of us.”
Her face turned sour and she pushed back.
“Let me be clear: I know why you were afraid to, and that’s totally fine. But we both want it now, right?”
She nodded.
I stood from the couch, taking her with me. “Then let’s go get naked, baby. This is the longest I’ve ever been without you and I’m not wasting another second not being inside you.”
Greyson Joseph Sorrentowas born on January 2, to two very happy, very terrified, and very prepared and simultaneously unprepared parents. Watching Jeanine labor was a beautiful thing. Grey didn’t make it easy on her, flipping sunny-side up while she was in labor and causing her a massive amount of extra pain. Her labor dragged into a second twenty-four hours. When she felt sure it was time to push, he just wasn’t budging. She pushed for one hour, then two. The doctor offered to try a vacuum-assisted birth, which would make Jeannie need more anesthesia. There were also no guarantees that it would work, resulting in a C-section anyway.
“I don’t know if I can go on,” she sobbed into my face. “I want him so bad.”
I held both of her sweaty hands in mine. “We’ll get him, baby.”
“I’m too tired,” she cried. “I think I broke my asshole pushing.”
Just then, the monitor started beeping fast, and the doctor went rigid. She mumbled something to one of the nurses, who jogged out of the room.
“What’s wrong?” Jeannie asked.
“Jeanine, you either need to push now or I think we’re going to have to do a C-section. Your baby’s heart rate is changing, and that’s usually a sign we need to intervene.”
Jeanine nodded, her lip trembling. “Do it. I can’t push anymore.”
A nurse who had been with us most of the day stepped in while the doctor went to prepare for surgery. “Things are going to move fast, and we need you to help us out, okay? We’re going to do your spinal block as soon as we get in the O.R. and as soon as it’s in effect, we’ll get your baby out.”
“Okay,” Jeanine said, then turned to me with tears in her eyes. “I don’t want to lose him, Dyl.”
“We won’t,” I said, but I really wasn’t sure. I’d never been through this before and I was just as scared. Another nurse wanted me to leave with her and get on some scrubs.
“Dyl, don’t leave me,” she cried as I was almost at the door.
The nurse gave her a reassuring squeeze as she prepped her for surgery. “He’ll be right back with you, sweetie. He’ll be waiting in the O.R.”
I rushed back to her bedside and bent to give her one last kiss. “You’re going to do great, baby. I know it. We’re going to meet our boy so soon, okay? I love you, J. I’ll see you in a minute.”
A cold sweat flashed over me, because I really am not great with gore. Blood? Sure, hockey’s full of blood. Gore, though? I was about to see my wife’s entrails? No thank you. My heart was already pounding from the rush of being in the room. Now it was getting heavier because I was afraid of what I would do when I saw the gore. I changed into the provided scrubs in the locker room, chanting under my breath.Don’t pass out. Don’t pass out.
We got in the operating room and the anesthesiologist was talking to Jeanine as they strapped her arms down. I could read the panic in her eyes, and I went into the zone. J needed me, and I was more than capable of being there.
Then I noticed the high, fast beep screaming in the room. The doctor and nurses all spoke in hushed but urgent tones. This was still serious for our little baby, and I had no time to feel squeamish. Our boy and Jeannie were too important.
I kept my hand on her shoulder as the doctor worked below a drape at Jeannie’s neck, but there was a mirror on the ceiling so she could see what was happening. My wife’s body was just open with organs all over the place, and here she was, awake and watching it all go down. The wildest thing of all was how calm the doctor and nurses were. Just another day at the office for them, whereas for me, it was the craziest medical miracle I’d ever witnessed.
“Okay, Dad, here he comes!”
It all happened so much faster than I thought it could. The doctor scooped her fingers under the squirming mass that was our son, like something out of a sci-fi movie.
And I heard the best, most reassuring noise I’ll ever hear in my life: his first wail on this earth. I looked down at Jeannie, both of us crying, relieved, elated, a painful chapter of our lives coming to a sudden and loud close.
In a well-rehearsed and second-nature move, a nurse dried him off and the other expertly wrapped him up in a blanket.
“He’s here, J. He’s perfect.”
Greyson was placed in my arms and with the most careful steps I’ve ever taken, I walked him over to where J could see him. All the tears that we’d shed to that point were gone. We had him.
