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Mia gave me another sip of water, and I caved. “I wanna try. I wanna pray.” I vaguely remembered learning “Our Father,” but I had no recollection of how that worked. Between my sobs, Danny and I repeated after Mia. I wasn’t sure if it was the prayer, if it was knowing that despite everything going so freakishly wrong I wasn’t alone, or if I was losing my strength. All I knew was that something within me relaxed, and I felt ready for what I was supposed to do.
Satisfied, she nodded in reassurance and stared at Danny. “Tomorrow, we rest.”
“Tomorrow, we rest,” he agreed. Whatever that meant.
Danny smiled down at me, and I trusted him with my baby and my life. He inserted his fingers again, and I cringed at the pressure.
“It’s showtime.”
Involuntarily, I pushed, groaning and panting the whole time, as Danny encouraged me.
After a few more instinctive pushes, he claimed, “I can feel him.” I was about to smile when I saw his frown. His gaze landed on me. “Everything will be fine. It’s just...it’s not his head.”
“What?” I screeched.
“It’s his bottom. He’s turned around.”
“Oh, God. The doctor said...no. No, no, no, no, no. I can’t lose my baby. You need to do something.” I freaked out. Full-on panic moved me. “You need to save my baby. Please, do something. Oh, my God.” I sobbed beyond my pain. Overwhelmed. Terrified.
“We won’t lose our Little Bean,” Mia promised me. How could she be so sure?
“We can bypass that. The same thing happened when Sofia was born,” he assured me with his soft eyes. “Cariño, whatever you do, it’s important you don’t push anymore. I’ll talk you through it so you don’t feel in the dark. I’m gonna insert my hand and position the baby with his legs astride my arms.”
I should’ve been self-conscious. One of my man’s best friends had his hand deep inside me, while another friend watched. But I was way too exhausted and had too much pain coursing through me to care.
After a little while, he announced, “I’ve got it. See, it’s working out. Now, I’m carefully holding his little face. I’m using my thumb and index finger to bring it close to his sternum.” The pressure was insurmountable. “Now it’s time to pull.”
As Danny started to pull my baby from between my trembling legs, I screamed even louder than before. They chanted soft words, but I couldn’t comprehend them. Then our salvation came.
From up the road, we could hear shouts. Whoever was up there seemed to be calling for someone.
“Aaron!” Danny responded just as loudly. “Down here,” he shouted, not once taking his eyes from me. “It’s almost done,cariño. Hang tight.”
A man approached the car and cursed under his breath before laying out orders. “We need medical assistance.Now.” He ran to the passenger’s side, standing by my side. “What can I do?”
Before anyone could respond, I felt an intense decompression in my abdomen, which was concentrated all on my pelvis. Letting out an ear-shattering roar, I felt something—rather someone—leave me. Then I heard it. His sharp scream. My baby was announcing his arrival. Unable to move my head, I shifted my gaze to Mia, who had tears running down her face, framing her awed smile.
Danny was holding my screaming baby with his thumb and index finger surrounding the back of his neck and the other one holding his legs. He was dirty and covered in blood and other fluids. His little scrunched face was red from his exertion. I’d never seen anything more beautiful.
I sobbed in relief. “I want my baby, let me hold him.”
Danny looked relieved, and Mia seemed exhausted. His knees rested on the edge of my seat between my legs. Her tiredness, the accident, and being cramped inside a battered car seemed to be catching up to her. To us.
She cleaned her face with the back of her hand. “We need something to cover him first. There must be some residual glass on this blankie. And we need to cut this.” She pointed to the umbilical cord.
Right on cue, the paramedics the Aaron guy was calling ran down to us. It was hard to understand what was going on, since I wasn’t able to move freely to see. I was mostly picturing everything in my head, based on what I heard.
Another man came to us, cut the cord, and encased my baby in a thermal blanket. I was grateful for that, because I was starting to feel the cold myself.
He was about to take away my boy when Danny, Mia, and I yelled in unison, “Wait!”
“Let her meet her boy first,” Danny said.
“He needs medical assistance,” one of the paramedics warned.
“She’s his mother. Just let her feel him for a bit. They both need this,” Danny pleaded my case, and the man conceded.
He picked up my boy from the guy and carefully placed him on my chest, both him and Mia holding him, since I wasn’t as steady. As my Little Bean rubbed his little head over my chin, seemingly looking for me, I burst out crying. I shifted my head as much as I could to kiss his sticky hair. I was filled to the brim with the overwhelming love I felt for that little person.
