Excerpt
From Chapter Twenty One:

It came as a complete surprise when the nurse stepped out from the Labor and Delivery surgical suite about five minutes after Tara went there. She found Danny in the waiting area, along with other expectant fathers. “Follow me now!” she ordered. They went into a staff lounge. She grabbed a blue scrub bottom and top from a long shelf, along with a blue tie on mask and paper shoes, “Put these on and then step out into the hallway so I can take you back. Hurry! There’s not much time.”

Danny did as ordered without question. Within minutes, he found himself inside the surgical suite. The nurse made him stand by the glass baby warmers. Tara, fully sedated, laid on a steel table, her feet in stirrups, her lower body draped by blue sheets. The sound of her breathing came through a large device. It frightened Danny as it echoed throughout the sterile environment.

The anesthesiologist sat upon a stool near her head. He nodded at the OB surgeon who waited for his signal, along with three teams of nurses, quite aware of their special patient. The surgeon took a sharp scalpel from a sterile steel tray. Danny watched as an incision slid across the bottom of her round, distended belly. When the scalpel was placed back, there was blood on it. This made Danny feel off kilter, but he squelched it by swallowing hard. Next, the surgeon’s gloved hands groped deeply into the fresh surgical wound. There was a lot of tugging and pulling. Danny winced, but somehow, out came the first baby.

“It’s a boy. Mark the time please,” The doctor requested as he suctioned out the mouth repeatedly, cut off the umbilical cord, and then handed the child off to the nurses. They wiped down his fragile body, took measurements, weight, vitals and then wrapped it in a clean blanket. His foot was pressed against a page of his own medical record. An identity band went around its tiny foot. Only then, did the nurse hold up the baby for Danny’s inspection.

The infant was small, with reddish-purple tinted skin and microscopic eyelashes. When he was held up, his small arms shook and flailed. Danny smiled. How tiny and helpless? He felt instantly protective. Within the boys’ naked skin, tiny veins coursed along its arms. Only a feint cry escaped from his tiny mouth. The nurse tucked the infant into a special monitored warmer. The respiratory and cardiac monitors were turned on. It was an exciting event to witness. Within ten to fifteen minutes, this process took place over and over again until all were born.