My Son's Even More Eventful Second Day.


I woke up at 6 in the morning on May 18th 1993 , after having only a hour or so of sleep. I got out of the chair that I had slept in next to Angie's bed. She was still asleep so I quietly slipped out of her room and went to check on my baby , who was not quite 24 hours old. I asked the nurse how he was doing. She told me that for a baby 9 weeks early he was doing great. He wasn't out of the woods but they were hopeful. His biggest health concern was that his lung muscles weren't fully developed. He was actually using some of his stomach muscles to help himself breath. The Nurse told me that they were pumping pure oxygen into his incubator to make it easier for him to breath. She told me she was sure he was going to be ok.
"Have you thought of a name yet", she asked.
"Not yet. We are still going over a few", I replied.
"Well you have 48 hours."
I stared at her for a few seconds trying to restrain myself from screaming ,"OR WHAT!" I eventually went back to Angie's room and sat with her for a little bit until they brought her breakfast. A little after 7 the Doctor came in and told Angie that she would be released that night after supper. He told us that our baby would have to stay a few days at the minimum. He was worried about his breathing. Still nothing to worry about , he told us.
"Does he have a name yet?"
"Not yet."
"You have another 48 hours. No hurry."
I was a millisecond away from screaming ,"Or What" , when he added ,"By the way you two get a steak dinner tonight from the hospital before we release Angie. It's part of service here. We want to welcome your new family into the world."
That was cheesy I thought , but a free steak dinner is a free steak dinner. At around 8 I realized I had a lot of work to do, to get things ready for Angie and my unnamed baby to come home. I left Angie and went to see my landlord and told them I was going to need that new apartment as soon as possible. He told me he'd have it ready in a few days. After running a few more errands I went back to the hospital to have lunch with Angie. We ran though a few more baby names. The only one we didn't immediately discard was Ethan. We still needed to get a middle name but decided to work on that over our Steak dinner.
On the way out to run some more errands ,I bumped into my brother Steve. He was standing in front of the large glass window overlooking the baby. He looked very worried.
"Steve he's going to be ok. Don't worry." I glanced back at the nurses. The looks on their faces wasn't as reassuring as they were a few hours earlier.
Steve told me he had a bad dream the night before about the baby. In it, the baby had became very sick and was near death. As Steve told me his dream he looked very upset.
"Steve it's going to be ok. He's going to be ok." We stood there a moment staring at my child. He was getting more and more agitated. There was a least 6 wires attached to various parts of his body , and the nurses were constantly pricking him on the finger or toe for a little blood to run tests on. All in all the first 24 hours of his life were not the most peaceful. I looked up at the clock. It was 12.30 now.
"I have few more things to do before Angie comes home tonight. Want to ride with me?"
"No", said Steve. I'm going to stay here for a while."
When I came back at 2 in the afternoon ,Steve was gone. Before I could go to Angie's room the head Nurse took me aside. She told me that the baby's oxygen levels were dangerously low.
"There's nothing more we can do here for him." That is the one phrase no one wants to here from a health care provider. "We've contacted St. Francis Hospital in Peoria and we're going to airlift him to their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The Lifeline helicopter is on the way."
I was stunned. I had been worried, but never thought that it would get so bad they'd have to airlift him out of here. I stood there a moment not sure what to say.
"Do you want us to tell Angie?"
"No. I'll tell her", I said.
I told Angie. We both decided to drive down to Peoria as soon as the baby was aboard the helicopter. Angie started to get dressed , and I called my family , and Angie's mother. Within 15 minutes the maternity ward was filled with nervous family members wanting to see the baby before he was airlifted away. I noticed Steve wasn't there. I asked Kathy where her husband was. She said he was out when I called. I started towards Angie's room , to see if she needed help with anything when the nurse asked me for a final time, "Do you have a name yet for the baby?"
" Look we're kinda busy right now. I just want to make sure he gets down there ok right now."
" He should really have a name so they can keep track of him there. " She gave me a little smile."We don't him to get lost down there do we?"
" Lose him ?What sort of hospital are you sending him to ?"
Before anyone could say anything else Mom burst into tears.
" He deserves a name! Whatever happens to him , he deserves a name!"
"Ok. Ok." I went into Angie's room and we sat down and discussed it. I wanted his middle name to be some sort of family name. We ran the possible candidates and finally settled on my Mom's mother's maiden name. Montgomery.
It also had the added bonus of being the first name of Mr. Burns .
Angie and I came out to the hallway filled with family and told everyone the baby's name.
"Ethan Montgomery Hernandez."
My Mom broke down to even more tears. Angie started crying with her. Everyone said it was a fine name. The nurses were now happy because they could now fill out Ethan's birth certificate.
As we waited for the helicopter to arrive my Dad came up to me.
" Do you have enough for gas , and something to eat?"
"Yeah. We'll be ok."
Dad pulled out his billfold. "Here's $40. Just in case."
"Thanks Dad."
The nurses called me and Angie over to check out the birth certificate they had just printed out. Angie still crying a little looked at it.
"It's fine", she said. "Except Tom was born in Iowa and not Indonesia." Angie started laughing now. The nurses looked very embarrassed.
"we'll fix that."
Dad came up to me.
" Do you have enough for gas and something to eat?"
Didn't we already have the conversation?
"Yeah Dad. You already..."
" Here's $50. Just in case."
I looked at the $50. I couldn't take it, I thought. It would be wrong to take advantage of my Dad, who was obviously so worried he didn't know what he was doing. I put my hand on Dad's shoulder.
"Thanks Dad."
Outside the helicopter arrived. A nurse and another man jumped out of the helicopter and ran into the hospital. Soon they were at Ethan's side , getting his incubator ready for transport. We followed them outside as they put my son securely inside.
Before the helicopter took off Dad came up to me.
"Do you have enough money for a motel room and something to eat?"
I looked at Dad."Nope."
Dad gave me a check for $100.
"Here. Just in case."
" Thanks Dad."
The helicopter's blades began to rotate faster and soon I couldn't hear anyone over the roar. It lifted off , taking my son with it. I turned to everyone."Ok we're going. We'll call you when we get there."
Angie and I ran to our car and sped off . Other then stopping to get gas we went straight to Peoria. I was doing around 70 the entire way there. At one point Angie told me I should slow down.
"Honey if there's any reason to speed this is it. No cop in the world would give us a ticket."
We made great time driving there getting to Peoria in around 40 minutes. We parked at the emergency entrance of St Francis Hospital. There was someone waiting for us and he took us straight up to the 3rd floor Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. As soon as we got up there the nurse told us it be a few minutes before we could go in to see Ethan.
"Let's call home and let them know we made safely", I suggested. We went to a pay phone across the hall . Before I could call,I was shocked to see my brother Steve come running in to the room looking like a deranged Kramer from Sienfield
"Jesus Steve, where'd you come from?"
It took a while to piece Steve's story together
After we left for Peoria, Kathy drove my parents home. She then drove back to her house. Steve was working on one of his cars when she pulled up. She told Steve what had happened . Steve remembering his dream ran into the house and took a quick shower. Afterwards he dressed and ran out to his car and took off after us, a good 10 to 15 minutes after we had left. Steve traveling at something close to warp speed actually beat us to the hospital . He parked in front of the hospital by a sign that clearly said ," DO NOT PARK." The only reason we got to the unit before Steve did is we had an escort take us directly there. Steve not knowing where we were and too panicked to ask anyone ran though each floor until he found us.
I looked at Steve incredibly touched by what he did.
After that things calmed down considerably. Steve stayed with us for a few hours occasionally looking out the window to make sure that his car was still there, and not being towed away. ( I can only assume that when they saw Steve run into the hospital in such a panic, that they assumed it was a dire emergency.) Angie and I stayed over night until they told us it looked like Ethan was going to be ok. Our landlord was as good as his word and the new apartment was ready for us within a week.
Ethan stayed in the hospital almost 2 weeks , coming home on Saturday May 30th. Ethan was hooked up to a baby monitor that would beep every time his heartbeat or breathing would drop below a certain point. Being first time parents we were very nervous about Ethan's first night home. I told Angie I would stay up with him that first night.
I laid on the floor with Ethan next to me. Together we watched Star Wars. ( I know he liked it. He didn't need a diaper change once though the entire movie.) After the movie he fell fast asleep on my chest. I lightly touched is head. Everything became very clear to me that night. The past 5 years had not been the easiest for me. But I realized if I had done anything different in my life , he wouldn't exist. Suddenly my whole life made sense.
All that first night I kept looking at him and repeating very softly, "Oh Father. Oh Father."

The Hospital still owes me a steak dinner.