9781618853158SpecialKindofWomanBergman (21 page)

Soon Collin brought her
some fruit. “Here you go baby, some pears, grapes, and some melon.”

“Thanks sweetie.” After
she gave him a kiss on the lips, he walked away. As she bit into a piece of
pear Randy III came over with a plate from the table.

“I didn’t know what you
wanted so I just brought you a little bit of everything they had.” Handing her
the plate, he smiled.

“Thanks dear.”

While munching a bit
more on the pear she was eating, Regina almost choked as she let out a groan.

“Are you all right
Regina?” Alannah asked with concern.

Taking a deep breath,
she looked over at Alannah anxious. “I don’t know, this time that kick was
sharp as hell.”

“You haven’t had any
contractions today have you?”

“No, everything has
been going pretty good except for the kicking he’s been doing.” Then another
kick came along and this time she could feel a trickle of what she thought was
water and then a gush. Regina sat staring wide-eyed at Alannah as alarm flowed
through her. “You better get Collin.”

“Collin, Collin come
quickly boy! Regina’s water just broke!” Alannah shouted as Randy Sr. came
over.

This couldn’t be
happening right now, something was wrong. She looked up and saw Collin standing
there with his mouth agape as he stared at her sitting in a huge puddle. She
knew by the look in his eyes that he was just as scared for her as she was at
that moment.

“It’s time?” he asked
her.

“I guess he wants to
come out a little bit early, we better call the doctor.” With help from Collin
and Randy Sr. she walked slowly back inside the house. Regina grabbed the phone
as they went in their bedroom so that she could change out of her dress first. Once
Alannah helped her clean up and she got dressed, Regina sat down and called
Doctor Anderson, her Ob/Gyn.

“Hello?”

“Hi Doctor Anderson,
this is Regina Noonan. I’m calling because the baby has been kicking me pretty
hard and my water just broke.” Collin sat next to her as everybody else stood
around waiting to see what was going to happen next.

“Okay, I will meet you
in delivery Regina, don’t panic and remain calm. I’ll see you both when you get
here.”

“Goodbye,” Regina said
as she hung up the phone. “All right, let’s head on over to the delivery room,
she’s going to meet us there.” Another kick came and she almost doubled over with
pain. Collin helped her sit upright along with Randy Sr.

“All right everybody
let’s let them out so we can get out of here now!” said Alannah as the two men
helped Regina stand while everybody else started heading out the door.

When they walked outside,
Kenny had already started up his patrol car. “C’mon you guys, I can get us
there faster.”

“Thanks bro, all right
everybody just follow us, if you get lost, we are going to Henderson Memorial.”

Once Collin and Regina
were inside, everybody scattered to their cars and Kenny drove off with the
lights and siren blaring away. Soon the long procession of cars that was the
whole Noonan family headed off to the hospital.

“Where…is…your phone?”
asked Regina between her breathing.

“Here you go baby, who
are you going to call?”

“Maxine, she’s got to
be there, ahhhhh God!”

“We’ll call here once
we get to the hospital, right now you need to do your breathing and focus.”

He was right, she
thought as she continued her exercises, but then she decided to just text Maxine
to let her know what was going on. Once she was done with her message, she
continued with her breathing while Collin rubbed her stomach. Even though they
were speeding in Kenny’s car, it seemed like everything was going so damn slow.
Why was this happening so soon?

When Kenny pulled into
the delivery area of the hospital, he got out and opened the door. A nurse appeared
and helped Collin get Regina out of the car and into wheelchair. They wheeled
her inside.

“Is Doctor Anderson
here, she’s expecting us,” asked Collin while they went to the front desk.

As soon as he said
that, Doctor Anderson came out of the elevator already ready for her. “Hello
Collin, Regina dear how are you feeling? How far apart are the contractions
since I last talked to you?”

“They just started
really, oh my God there goes another one!” she shouted and continued with her
breathing.

“Let’s get her into a
room. Do you know who besides Collin you want to bring with you?”

“My mother-in-law and
my best friend but it’s going to take some time for her to get here I think, I
just texted her.”

“What’s her name?”
asked the lady at the front desk.

“Maxine, Maxine Wallace.”

“I’ll make sure she
gets back there to you when she gets here.” And with that, they wheeled her
down the hall as Collin waited for his mother to come inside.

Once Regina was hooked
up to the machines and had her IV in, the doctor and her interns looked her
over to determine why the baby was coming so soon. After they looked at the
baby on the ultrasound machine and checked over her records, Doctor Anderson pulled
her fellow doctors outside in the hallway. The expression on her face only made
Regina worry even more.

“Something must be
wrong,” Collin said as he and Alannah walked in.

“Now don’t go looking
for trouble me boy. Let them do their job.” Alannah hugged him and kissed her
cheek. The door opened again and Regina was relieved to see Maxine come in.

“How are you, are you
doing your breathing?” she asked frantically.

“I’m all right. We’re
just waiting to be told what is going on from the doctors right now about the
baby.” Then another contraction came on and she screamed out and the doctors
soon came back inside the room.

“Mrs. Noonan, I don’t
know how to say this so I’m just going to say it. When you first came in and we
went to determine how far along you were, it seems the intern who saw you that
day made an oversight on her part. As of right now, you are right on time with
giving birth to the baby. You are not going to have a premature baby, which is
great. I don’t know how in the hell this could have happened though and I do
want to apologize for this because this is not how I work.”

“Saints be praised!”
shouted Alannah as Regina was just relieved to know that their child would not
have any problems.

“Thank God, let me go
and tell the family the good news.” Collin smiled as he kissed Regina’s lips
and ran out the door.

“So what do we do now?”
asked Maxine.

“Well the only thing we
can do is wait, just keep checking your vitals as well as the baby’s make sure
you are comfortable and to see how far along dilated you are. This is the tough
part, the waiting.”

And for Regina it was
indeed the roughest thing she had ever done in her entire life. It seemed like
hours ticked by as they waited for some sort of change.

But change didn’t
come…at least not until five-thirty-seven the next morning.

“Oh my fucking God, get
it out, get it out now!” shouted Regina to the top of her lungs.

“All right Regina, we
are going to get you ready to push now sweetie. When I tell you, I want you to
bear down and push. Okay ready, now push!” shouted the doctor.

Regina bore down hard
as she held Alannah and Maxine’s hands for support. Collin was coaching her
throughout, giving her praise.

“All right, now stop
pushing. You’re doing real good Regina, really well.”

As she looked at him
with tired eyes, Collin smiled and wiped her forehead and face. “I love you
baby, you’re doing just fine.”

“All right, here comes
another one, now bear down and push Regina, push as hard as you can!”

As Regina did just that
she screamed so loud that she almost felt her voice give out.

“I can see the head,
you’re doing great Regina, just rest a moment here and we are going to do one
more big push, all right my dear.”

Regina looked over at
Collin. He had tears in his eyes as he stared at her. “Baby, can you give me
some water?”

“Sure baby.” Getting
the small pitcher, he poured some cold water in a cup with a bendy straw and
let her take a sip.

When Regina was done
drinking, he put the cup back on the table. “And baby, can you promise me one
more thing?”

“Anything baby, what is
it?”

“That we won’t be doing
this baby thing for a long time from now, honestly I don’t think I could handle
another right away,” she told him as everybody in the room erupted with
laughter including the doctor.

“I promise, not for a
good long while.” Collin chuckled while brushing her hair from her forehead.

“Oh God, here comes
another one!” shouted Regina.

“All right now I want
you to give me one more really big push Regina and we’ll have your new son, now
push!”

On command, Regina gave
all she could as she pushed harder than she had all morning and let out a
screeching moan that soon accompanied a baby’s crying. Regina had never heard
such a wonderful sound as she saw her first born before her as the doctor held
him up for the group to see. “It’s a boy, a fine healthy boy!”

Alannah and Maxine
started to cry along with Collin and Regina as they hugged and kissed each
other while the nurses cleaned the baby up.

“Mr. Noonan would you
like to come and cut the cord?” asked one of the nurses.

Collin grabbed the
camera they had brought with them and went over to see his first born son. The
baby was wiggling around and crying a bit while they weighed and measured. He
looked great, he thought, with his rosy pink skin and eyes as big as his
mother’s.

“He weights eight
pounds four ounces and is twenty in a half inches long,” the nurse told him
with a smile as she handed him the scissors. While Collin quickly cut the remaining
part of the cord the baby stopped crying as if he knew his father was there.

“He’s just like the
rest of the Noonan men, big and strong and long,” Alannah said with a smile.
Collin loved the look of pride on her face as she looked at her twelfth
grandson.

Once the baby was
wrapped up in a blanket, Collin brought him over to Regina who was waiting
anxiously to see her son. He started to take pictures as she cradled and kissed
the baby with tears in her eyes. Opening his blanket to get a good look at him,
she smiled as his little fist balled up in the air as he tried to reach out for
her. She wiggled her finger into his little hand and he quickly gripped it
hard. “My goodness he’s already got a good grip there. My perfect little man
isn’t he precious Max.”

“That he is, he’s
simply adorable. I know I plan on spoiling my godson rotten. By the way, you
never told me what you guys decided to name him,” Max asked as Regina looked at
Collin who started to laugh a bit.

“Well, when we found
out we were having a boy, we thought long and hard for months about who we were
going to name him after. Well, we decided to go with Aidan Daniel Collin
Noonan, the Daniel is my dad’s name.” Regina gasped turning to him. “Oh my God,
the family, Collin you forgot to tell everybody in the waiting room.”

“Shit, I’ll be back,”
Collin said as he started walking out of the room.

“Oh Mr. Noonan, we will
be moving her into her room in a little while and we’ll be putting the baby in
the nursery soon as well,” said the nurse.

Collin stopped a moment
and then walked back over toward Regina. “Let me hold my son for a bit before
he goes.” Regina handed him over and Collin looked over his son with great
pride and awe. This was his son, his own flesh and blood in a tiny cute little
bundle that was made from their love. Collin saw him open his eyes a bit and
was so happy that he started to smile a little. Motioning for the nurse to
come, he handed him over to her.

She bundled the baby up
and walked out of the room with him. “I’ll be back.”

“It’s Collin, everybody
wake up!” Randy Sr. had gotten up to get himself a cup of coffee from the
machine in the refreshment area. Most of the men had stayed behind as the wives
had taken the children back to their homes since it was getting really late.

When Collin saw his
father and brothers all standing and waiting for the news, he beamed with pride.

“How’d it go brother?”
Bobby asked.

“She had a son, an
eight pound four ounces twenty and a half inch baby boy. We named him Aidan
Daniel Collin Noonan and he looks great fellas, healthy and strong.”

The waiting room
erupted with shouts and hugs all around as Kendrick started to sing a song the
Noonan men would take part in with the arrival of a baby to the family. It
wasn’t long before the rest of the men started to sing along. The other people
in the waiting room looked on and started clapping.

“Now fellas, stop all
of that nonsense, this is a hospital you know,” Alannah told her boys and husband
as she came in and gave them all hugs. “Come on you fellas, so you can see your
nephew and your grandson.