Charlotte

‘Hi little one!’ Brian looked down at the wrinkly little alien like creature that fit in the crook of his right arm, a towel swaddled loosely around her. He touched her all over, trying to convince himself that what was once a bump and a hypothetical, turned out to be an actual baby! ‘I’m your daddy!’ he said as he choked up because he used the ‘D’ word for the first time.

His hand gently caressed the top of his daughter’s head, unable to believe she had a full mop of thick black hair, goop still congealed in it from the birth, and smiled. She was only fifteen minutes old, and he couldn’t believe he nearly missed her birth by a margin of only fifteen minutes.

Brian was in Dublin desperately trying to aid his soon to be family’s financial situation with a job that took him away from the pregnant love of his life for two weeks. He was an electrician, and just as he put his screwdriver down for the last time on that particular, well-paying job, he got the phone call from Samantha, his partner, telling him her waters had just broken.

Brian frantically gathered up his tools and jumped into the car to high tail it down to Wexford, a journey that took two hours. He kept praying he wouldn’t miss the birth of his baby whilst driving the route that seemed to take forever.

As he approached Wexford, he anxiously rang Samantha over, and over again to see if she was ok. She didn’t answer which got him to frantically put more pressure on the accelerator, not caring about getting points on his license.

When he arrived at the hospital, Brian was given a gown to throw on and entered the delivery suite. Samantha was already pushing, and when he grabbed her hand, trying to wrap his head around being responsible for a brand-new human being, something he had eight and a half months to prepare for, but to see it actually about to happen, his mind started to panic. Fifteen minutes later, Charlotte, a name they both loved, came out screaming, which boded well for the fact she was two weeks premature.

Once she was cleaned up and checked over, she was handed to Samantha. Brian couldn’t understand how she was in labor for only two and a half hours. Had he known the labor with was going to be so quick, he would never have taken the job in Dublin.

Samantha was exhausted as she pushed Charlotte out naturally, an epidural not an option because, when she presented herself at the hospital, she was already nine centimeters dilated. As the doctor stitched the small tear Charlotte brought, Brian took the opportunity to hold his baby girl for the first time. She was fifteen minutes old. He was delighted he was there to see her being born. He was both petrified and relieved that he didn’t miss it!

‘You are a bit of a scamp, aren’t you?’ Brian beamed down at his little miracle, a myriad of thoughts spinning through his mind. He rested his hand on her bare tummy, her belly button clamped. The second she wrapped her little fingers around one of his and looked up at him, he broke down crying with euphoria. He knew then that he couldn’t love something as much as he loved his brand-new baby! His little Charlotte!