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Amin, my colleague, felt excited. His wife is going to the hospital tomorrow. It’s time for their baby to come to this world. I was feeling good for him.

I came home and told my wife “Amin’s wife has to go to the hospital tomorrow to deliver the baby. I am so happy for him”

“Do you remember the time, I was pregnant with Sarah? My wife asked.

Yes, I did. It was the second week of the US Open Tennis Tournament. The weather has started to change from summer to fall. A cool breeze blew in the evening. I loved walking in the park nearby with my pregnant wife Ashish.

On September 6th, my wife had her OBGYN’s appointment. The doctor had started calling her every week. Since it was our first baby, the doctor told her how the contractions would start and what she had to do. The due date was 3 weeks away on September 27th.

That evening after she met the doctor, we were walking in the park. She described what the doctor told her. Being a man, it takes a while to imagine the process of contractions. She knew it was all Greek for me, but she kept speaking.

That night around 3 am, I saw my wife was twisting and turning. In the last few days, she was having a problem sleeping because of the advanced stage of pregnancy.

“Noor, I think I am having contractions. “ She told me

“It’s psychological. The due date is three weeks away.” I said. I have an accounting brain, if the doctor said 27th September that is when the baby will come, it cannot be 7th September.

My wife tried to go back to sleep. It was now 8 am and she told me “Noor, I am not feeling good. I don’t know what is happening.”

I had a couple of clients coming to the office in the morning and I did not want to aggravate my boss. It was also close to the tax deadline of September 15.

My brother Salim was visiting from Kentucky and I asked him “Salim can you please take Ashish to the doctor. She is not feeling well. Let them check her. Everything should be good but I want to make sure”.

Salim agreed. The hospital was 5 miles away from my work and I could finish the meeting and be there right after. I believed that it was only mental and once she sees the doctor she will be fine. I thought if she had contractions she would be squirming in pain. I have seen enough Bollywood movies.

So I go to work and my brother Salim takes my wife to the hospital to meet the doctor. Once they reached the hospital, Salim dropped Ashish near the hospital door. He went to park the car in the parking garage and came back.

Once inside the hospital, the nurses took charge. They put Ashish on a cot and started examining her. “Contractions have started” they informed Salim. Salim standing there was now pale. One of the nurses, thinking that he was the father called him inside the examining room.

My wife, Ashish let out a scream “ He is my brother-in-law, not my husband”. Hearing that they made him stand outside the examination room. Those days cell phones were not so common. Salim rushed to the nearest phone booth. He called my office “Nuruddin, they are saying the baby will come today.”

All the blood drained out from my face, I told what happened to my boss and the client who I was sitting across. They both told me to rush to the hospital.

In a daze, I reached the hospital. “She is 7 cms dilated.” the nurse informed me.

I gave her a blank stare. “Baby will come anytime now. We have called the doctor and she will be here any minute,” she explained.

Five minutes later, Dr. Rosenberg walks in. She was in her early 50’s but looked thirty. She was also a mother of four kids which I learned later. Sipping from a Starbucks coffee cup, she informed me. “ The baby has around a couple of hours to come. I am right here in the lobby finishing my notes. Don’t worry.”

She advised my wife that she should take an epidural which would ease her pain. My wife had heard horror stories of the after-effects of epidural and wanted to avoid it. After fifteen minutes, I couldn’t see her in so much pain and pleaded with her to take epidural. She agreed.

It was now 3.30 pm. The doctor examined her again and said time to go to the delivery room. I stood outside the door. The doctor beckoned me to come in. This was all new to me. I had seen it in Hindi movies. The Father waits outside for some time, then he hears a baby crying, and then the nurse comes and says “ Mubarak ho. Ladki hui hai”

Here the doctor was telling me to come inside the room. I said fine. The doctor was telling my wife to push. The nurses were pressing her stomach. Even with the Epidural, she was in pain. I couldn’t bear to see it. Looking at her, I could feel my blood pressure drop.

Dr. Rosenberg could feel the baby’s head come out a little bit. She expertly pulled my baby out. Red soaked with blood, Sarah was sobbing.

The doctor gave me a pair of scissors and told me to cut the umbilical cord. I felt petrified. I said cutting anything was not my job, I was an accountant.

The Doctor stared at my face and made me feel I was good for nothing. Then in a flash, she cut the cord. She cleaned the baby and told me to hold her. It was the most joyous and glorious feeling to hold my first child. I couldn’t believe it. I did not even realize that she was tiny. She felt like a ball of cotton in my hand. She weighed 4 pounds and 11 ounces.

Anytime the baby is less than 5 pounds, the hospital is extra careful. Doctors and nurses monitored Sarah for the next two days. Her weight dropped by an ounce the first day and by another once the second day. She was showing slight signs of jaundice. That scared us.

They discharged Ashish from the hospital on September 9th. She was fine but they wouldn’t let Sarah go home. They told us, if the mother wants to feed the baby she has to come every 4 hours to the hospital.

I felt my old 2008 model Saturn two-door car now knew the way to the hospital. We were going there every four hours to feed Sarah. Two days passed with this routine. Sarah was doing better now.

We woke up in the morning, got dressed, and started the car to go to the hospital. I turned on the radio for the news. It was around 8.50 am. Breaking News: A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I thought it was a small single-engine plane. The pilot must have lost control and crashed into the tall building. Not understanding the seriousness, I told my wife “Now the news people will go rambling about it for days. They will now try and interview everyone connected with the pilot. His dog is also not safe.”

We reached the hospital in 10 minutes. The silence was like entering a morgue. All the doctors, nurses, and staff seemed glued to the small TV set hanging in the waiting room. Some of them were crying. “Now this looks serious,” I told myself. I started watching TV too while Ashish went inside to feed Sarah. That instant a second plane crashed into the World Trade Center. We were all very scared. Realization struck that this was terrorism and it was a coordinated plan.

Sarah’s pediatrician, a very calm doctor in normal circumstances was at a loss for words.

Stopping her tears with an effort she asked us “ Have you brought the car seat.”

“Yes,” I replied. “Should I get it?”

She nodded her head and said Your baby will be safe home. She is doing ok”

Amongst all the chaos, relieved with the thought that my Sarah is fine and I am taking her home. We put the car seat with Sarah in the back of the car. I had a little trouble, buckling the car seat with the numerous straps but got it done. Then we started to head home. I saw a policeman, near the highway putting barriers on the road. I thought construction was going on. It still did not register that they were closing all the access routes to NY City. We were in Long Island around 15 miles away from the City. Those days there was no GPS, but l knew the local route home.

I reached home with the baby. Salim was watching TV as I turned the key in the door. The World Trade Center Twin Towers had collapsed. There was dust all around the place. They were showing the footage of people jumping to death from the building to save their lives. The firefighters were directly the people towards Brooklyn Bridge. Everybody walked like zombies, their faces brown with dust and soot.

There was the happiness of bringing home your first child and then the horror of thousands of innocents dying in your city. Nobody in the world could forget 9-11-2001.

Photo Credit: Felipe Salgado