Just as I was leaving my office in midtown on Tuesday evening around 6:35, Ann called me. She said that Eric had just called her to say that Rachel was on the way to the hospital. She said she was going to Brooklyn to watch Leo but that, since she had just come from the gym, she needed to shower and change first. I initially said that I would be coming home, but then on the elevator ride down, I realized that I could get to Brooklyn faster so I headed south instead of north, thinking that by getting there before Ann, I could relieve Eric sooner (even though I had no idea what was happening with Rachel and, remembering the number of false alarms when Leo was born, mistakenly thought it likely that this was the same).
I arrived at Eric and Rachel’s apartment about 35-40 minutes later. When I walked in, all I saw was a woman who I did not know cleaning up ( who I later learned was the nanny from down the hall named Cheri) and an order of take-out sushi that had been delivered. Although much of the clean-up had already been done, I could see from the pile of bright red paper towels that there had been a tremendous amount of blood, with more still to be cleaned. If I had not known better, I would have thought that I walked into a grisly crime scene. I looked around for Leo but, not finding him, I asked the woman doing the cleaning. She explained that Leo was down the hall in 6C. I went there, where he was playing peaceably, and bought him home (with a side trip during which he showed me how he could press for the elevator).
Eric arrived shortly afterwards. He quickly checked on Leo, changed and headed out for the hospital (where I had thought he already was, not realizing that I got to their apartment faster than he did since, as it turned out, he was coming from a meeting in Jamaica). It was only later that I learned Eric, not Rachel, had ordered the sushi (from his taxi).
Ann then arrived after crossing paths with Eric on the street. We (mainly Ann) gave Leo a bath and dinner, put him to bed and cleaned up more. We learned via an email from Eric at this point that Seth (not named yet) had been born. We had some of the sushi and I decided to head to the hospital with the rest of it for Eric. At the hospital, I met Eric and Elizabeth and a still woozy Rachel in the recovery room. Rachel was waking up with questions but, although a resident or intern came by to check on her, there was no one from the medical staff who had been in the OR to answer them until the following morning. Sometime after 10:00, Rachel was moved to a room and I headed home. Ann stayed in their apartment with Leo since, by the time he had his bath and dinner, it was past his bedtime.
Ann brought Leo to our apartment the following morning where Uncle Andrew and then Ann watched him (with Uncle Greg and Aunt Olivia Facetiming him from their honeymoon in South Africa) until Eric picked him up on Thursday. During the day on Wednesday, Ann, I and others visited Rachel and met Seth for the first time in the NICU, with all of us being quite relieved to see that everyone was doing well.
Grandpa Neal
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