Come quickly, baby

Sunday night came the dreaded "knock knock knock" on my door just a little after an hour from when I turned out my light. You know that time, when your stupid factor is at its peak, when you are unsteady from the heaviness of sleep, and you say silly things like "is it an emergency for me?", when there is basically no other reason anyone would be knocking on my door at that time of night! Well, downstairs was a man who was begging for us to go down to Bentley Bay (about a 1 mile walk) to "tend" his wife who had "taken in" around 7pm. Basically what he was saying was that his wife was in labor and they wanted my help. I said "I didn't even know she was pregnant, and I don't feel comfortable tending women I haven't seen for pre-natal care". He said "Shore she be in to see you, Miss Deirdre, many time. She jus don't leave the house wery often". A quick check of her chart revealed that yes, she had been in, but that was once…2 months ago. I asked him how many babies she's had, he had to think about it and count on his fingers, but came up with this being #9. I discussed the situation with our substitute leader, and we decided that I would go, with Dominic and our phone. So off down the path we went, arriving to their candle only lit house at 1am. She was at 6-7cm at that time, with contractions 3 min apart. She told me that "once my water breaks, the baby come fast". Mental note: remember this statement. An hour later she was at 8cm, I said she may stand or walk, letting gravity help. After a sit on the bucket to poop, she stood and her water broke. I did remember above statement, but didn't quite grasp the concept, for she lay down on the bed, and as I was putting on my gloves I heard a sound, picked up my flashlight to look, and there was a baby boy laying there, at 2:40am! When I said "my, here is your little boy already!", she said "well, I couldn't handle anymore of that!" Less than 2 minutes later came the placenta – minimal bleeding, seemingly no pushing, and not one scream of pain! His head was perfect round, since he really didn't have to spend any time in the process to speak of. I clamped and cut the cord, realizing that about all I did was that and rub her back to help. He's perfect, mom is well and healthy, and God has brought another life into our world!