Five stories of knowing the time had come

A time to give birth, and a time to die.
A time to plant, and a time to uproot.
A time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh.

A Time to Be Born

Today! Or tomorrow! Baby! B’ezras Hashem!

Chava Glick

“Y

ou look familiar.” The resident, whose name card reads “Resident Physician Dr. Ali,” eyes me uncertainly as he flips through my chart.

It’s 7 a.m., and I’m here for a scheduled induction of my baby, who will be born after long years of waiting.

“Were you ever here before?” Dr. Ali asks.

I think.

“I was here a couple of months ago, when I wasn’t sure if I felt the baby moving. Did I see you then?” As I ask the question, I know that’s not it. I remember the resident who checked me then. She was rather colorful in her hair and her piercings, and this tall, striking, Middle-Eastern gentleman is certainly not her.

Dr. Ali shakes his head. “I wasn’t here a couple of months ago,” he says. “I just started this rotation a month ago.”

He shrugs elaborately, and I form a “who knows” gesture with my hands. Then I settle down in the bed, my heart fluttering with nervous excitement.

Today! Or tomorrow! Baby! B’ezras Hashem!

The nurse starts her puttering, finding a vein to insert an IV line, strapping me to a monitor, and I’m preoccupied with everything going on around me. It’s a few minutes before I look up to see Dr. Ali eyeing my husband and me again.

“I’m telling you, I know you from somewhere,” he says.

My husband and I look at each other and giggle.

“From where?” my husband asks.

“Do you live in my neighborhood? Oakdale?” I venture.

Dr. Ali shakes his head again, laughs, and returns to my chart.

“Hey!” he exclaims. “I got it! This chart says this was a pregnancy after infertility treatment! Were you seen at Evolve Fertility?”

That’s the name of the clinic we used for our five-year infertility ride.

“Yes,” I say cautiously. “How’d you know?”

“I was there!” The resident looks like he’s won the lottery. “Me! I did that procedure! That’s crazy! My last rotation was fertility, and now I’m doing a year of obstetrics! “How wild that I get to be here, to see the results of what we started at Evolve!”

It comes back to me. Dr. Ali was the resident running the show that day, and his demeanor was kind and unhurried. I’m amazed. My husband is, too.

“How’d you remember us?” he asks. “I remember the nurses at the clinic saying that we were the last procedure in a really long day of procedures, no?”

Dr. Ali laughs. “Yes, you were. I remember it, too. And you guys were so hopeful, and so cheerful. I was rooting for you.”

My husband and I look at each other. What are the chances?

Dr. Ali finishes withthe chart, tells us what to expect next, and gets up to go.

“I’m going to try to be at the birth,” he says. Do I detect a tear glistening in his eye?

“This is really special for me. I know I want to go into fertility after I finish my residency, but I doubt many fertility specialists have ever seen their patient at birth. What a day.” He shakes his head in amazement, wishes us luck, and heads out.

My husband and I are left to wonder.