I nominate Mekayla Wilcox for a DAISY Award, as she is an amazing nurse. Around 11 pm, I didn’t realize it, but I was in advanced labor with my second child. (My first labor experience was completely different as I had to be induced, thus my inability to gauge just how advanced I was).

We left home in Benton at 11:30 pm and arrived at Baptist Health Little Rock. When we got to L&D on the second floor, a nurse came out to the reception area to get me while my husband was getting me checked in (which was probably just before midnight).

After wheeling me back to L&D Triage, I was warmly greeted by Mekayla, who let me know that she needed to perform an evaluation to see what stage of labor I was in. I politely requested to use the restroom, as I believed that’s what stage of labor I was in. She politely asked if I truly felt that I needed to go to the bathroom or if I felt that I needed to push because we didn’t want to “fish baby out of the toilet.” To which I chuckled and agreed that I didn’t want her to have to fish my baby out of the toilet either.

I paused a moment to evaluate, and then replied that I felt that I just needed to go to the bathroom, to which she let me know where the restroom was and instructed me to let her know if I needed anything additional.

I was in the bathroom for a moment when I felt a very powerful contraction and hollered for help. Mekayla replied very quickly, asking if I needed her assistance in the restroom, to which I replied yes and “he’s coming out!” Mekayla opened the door and asked if I was able to stand to get in a wheelchair to get back to a room for evaluation, to which I replied that I felt I was able to. I stood up, and my water broke, and I could feel that my son was about to make his appearance in this world.

Mekayla ran and got some blankets, and about that time, my husband ran into the bathroom to assist me in case I started to fall. The next thing I knew, Mekayla was kneeling in front of me and caught my son! I was astonished, to say the very least, by the situation. (This was around 12:12 am, which just so happened to be my husband and I’s 17th anniversary. What an amazing way to celebrate! I’m not sure we could ever top that!)

At that moment, I was ready to sign over all my earthly possessions to this angel, Mekayla, for saving my son. It was a very stressful and scary situation, but she made the whole experience just amazing. We are so incredibly grateful to her!