Some of you who read this know Joe Chrisman who used to be in our ward before they moved up to Sidney Ohio a year or so ago. If you’re not friends with him on Facebook, you may not have seen this crazy story that he shared over there.

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(Again – reminder if you’re just skimming – this is not about me!)

Dear Family and Friends:

Wow, what a morning that I’ll never forget. It began Monday morning with Heather’s doctor appointment. She’d was dilated to a one. And she’d been dilated to a one for the past 2 weeks (i.e. no change from a previous appointment – her due date is tomorrow). Heather was beginning to worry that she might have to have a C-section since Martha had come a week early and had had a large head.

On Monday night during our family activity night together, acting on an impression I’d received during church this past weekend, we went to our neighbors across the street, to give cookies and to introduce ourselves to them and get to know them. We had a very pleasant visit with them – Vic & Kathy Stewart, long time residents of Sidney.

Knowing that Heather was due any day, Kathy suggested that, in order to speed things along, Heather could get on all fours and clean the kitchen floor. Apparently this has the effect of putting the baby in position to come out. Kathy said this worked for one of her daughters who lives out of state.

After we got home and put Martha to bed, Heather got on all fours and cleaned the kitchen floor. Later that night she was waking up periodically.

I got up at 5:30 a.m. this morning to clean our law office (as I usually do on Tuesday mornings, early). I asked Heather if I should still go. She said to go ahead, that we’d go to the hospital when she came back. By the time I got back at 7:00 a.m., little could I have guessed that in less than 1/2 hour, the baby was going to be born at our house!

I had just taken my shower and gotten dressed when my memory starts to get blurry. Heather’s emotions and urgency for what was going on received my complete attention as she started to show the signs of imminent child birth. I ran to get my neighbor, Joyce, to help. What followed I will never forget as Heather delivered the baby, standing up, in our bathroom.

I tried to catch the baby, but was unprepared since Joyce and I were, at that same moment, trying to help Heather lay down in the bathroom. I saw a flicker of motion and heard something hit the floor. I’m not sure if the baby’s head hit first or not. I then picked her up from the floor, and held her underneath Heather’s legs, careful not to pull on the umbilical cord. The baby, Alice, initially cried and intermittently fell silent. I then tried to coax her to breathe, by patting on her back to get her to cry – she was pretty slippery to handle since she was covered in fresh blood.

It was about this time that the rescue squad arrived and took over. I later found out that 2 squads had arrived – and one of the rescue workers was an old friend of mine that I’d gone to school with – Brian Lundy. The 1st squad took Alice to the hospital as soon as they got her some oxygen and wrapped.

It was around that time that Heather delivered the placenta. I also failed to catch it and had to fish it into the small tub provided by the squad. The 2nd squad put Heather on a stretcher, fixed her up with oxygen for a bit, then took her to the hospital.

After I washed my blood covered arms and changed out of my bloody clothes, I headed off to the hospital, praying incessantly that everything would be OK with baby and mommy. I arrived and found mommy and baby in the emergency room. In spite of my worries, all the medics assured me that everything was OK.

We then transferred over to the maternity ward and Heather fed baby and was stitched up. Dad arrived and was a comfort to me while the stress was still fresh. After Heather and I had eaten, and I’d made sure they were OK, I went back home to see Martha. Martha and I have since visited mommy and the baby.

Everyone seems to be doing well – baby has a little goose-egg on the back of her head which may have been from the delivery or the initial dive from the wound. Either way, the doctor told us not to worry about it.

We chose the name of Alice Rebecca, in honor of my wife’s great-grandmother.

I was told at the hospital that I might have to sign the birth certificate as the person delivering the baby! The newspaper is coming to the hospital tonight to interview us.

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Wow – crazy!