Saving Forever - Part 5 (Saving Forever #5) (15 page)

“Just enough time so I can fall asleep?” Charity winked. “It’s fine. They’re a good distraction.”

“When the distraction becomes a disturbance, just let me know.”

Charity saluted as the nurse closed the bathroom door. “Will do.”

After a day, a night and another day of barely sleeping, Charity had managed to fall into a restless nap. Her contractions continued and were beginning to become painful. She was exhausted but wanted to hold on as long as she could for the steroids to help the baby.

It felt like she had only closed her eyes a moment and now Elijah, Dr. Govender, and several medical staff were all in the room checking the monitors and talking quietly.

“What’s going on?” Charity rubbed her eyes, trying to shake the groggy feeling hanging over her head. A contraction started and she sucked her breath in sharply, grabbing on the bed rails to keep from crying out.

Elijah raced to her side. “Count, baby, count.”

She had the urge to tell him to shut up but bit her tongue to stop herself. It wasn’t his fault. Wide awake now, she glanced around and did not like the look of the faces in her room. “What’s wrong?”

Dr. Govender signed a form and handed it to a nurse. “Get the operating room ready.”

“What? What’s wrong?” Why wasn’t anybody telling her? Charity covered her stomach protectively.

“Charity,” Dr. Govender looked over the monitors one last time before turning his full focus on her. “The baby is becoming distressed. She’s having heart rate decelerations. It’s dropping too low. We need to get her out now.”

Her heart exploded into an anxious rhythm. She glanced at Elijah and then back to Dr. Govender. “Okay. How far am I dilated? Can you begin oxytocin to induce the labor?”

He shook his head. “There isn’t time. We need to do a C-section. Are you aware of the process?”

She nodded, trying to remember what she had learned in class and wishing she had done a rotation on the prenatal floor before having the baby.

“Good. An anesthesiologist is going to administer a spinal block when we get into the operating room. It will last about twenty-four hours. I prefer working with it instead of an epidural with a C-section.”

A nurse began unhooking the monitors from Charity’s stomach. She set the IV bag attached to the bed and another nurse helped her start pushing Charity’s bed out of the room.

She reached out for Elijah’s hand. “Are you okay?”

He smiled and squeezed her fingers gently between his. “Don’t worry about me.”

Dr. Govender stopped them. “Right now, Dr. Bennet, you are now a father-to-be, not a doctor. Remember that while we are in there. I’m going to scrub in. You do as the nurses ask.” The look on his face seemed to say,
Don’t give them a hard time.

He spun around and hurried through a different door. The nurses pushed Charity’s bed into the other room. It was one of those beds that worked as a birthing table so she didn’t need to switch.

Charity tried to focus, but everything seemed to be happening so fast. The anesthesiologist came in and had her lie on her side to administer the spinal block. She grimaced when a pin pricked into her spine. She knew it was the freezing agent before the needle for the spinal block.

Elijah stood off to the side, his eyes on hers the entire time. He had a deer-in-the-headlights kind of look. It reminded Charity of when she found him after he had received the phone call that his father had died.

A tear slid silently down her cheek and another one ran over her nose and under her eye. She wasn’t prepared for this yet. The baby wasn’t ready.

Everyone moved swiftly inside the little room. Charity was rolled onto her back and staring up at the ceiling. Someone had used and then pushed a light out of their way, probably the anesthesiologist, and forgot about it. The brightness shone directly into Charity’s eyes. She squinted against the light but was unable to ask someone to move it.

Dr. Govender came in and Elijah moved to stand beside Charity where Dr. Govender instructed.

Charity could feel her abdomen contract, but there was no pain or discomfort. She didn’t like the foreign feeling. “I can’t feel my legs.” She reached for Elijah, terrified.

“It’s the spinal block,” he explained. “It’ll come back, it’s just for the C-section.” His eyes held hers a moment before darting over the small raised sheet that Charity couldn’t see over.

“Charity,” Dr. Govender said. “The C-section is going to take about thirty minutes. You’re going to see your little baby very soon.”

She liked that he sounded so confident. She was terrified. What if something was wrong with her? She knew she couldn’t live with herself if Jamie was hurt because of something she had done.

“I’m going to make two incisions. One through your skin down to the uterus and then I’m going to open the uterus to get the baby. I can do a horizontal incision. It’s the Pfannenstiel, or bikini, cut. You have very strong abdomen muscles and I think the next baby you have, you are going to want to have a natural birth.”

Next baby?
She could barely get through this one. She doubted another baby was on the table – ever.

She felt pulling and tugging on her stomach as he began to make the incision. He constantly chatted as he worked. Charity tried to pay attention to what he was saying, but her head kept a steady rhythm of,
“Get her out… Get her out… Get her out.”
She just wanted Jamie out and rushed to NICU to make sure everything was alright. Dr. Govender had wanted to wait forty-eight hours. How long had it been?
Twenty? Thirty?
She couldn’t remember and numbers were her thing.

Elijah whispered assuring words into her ear. He hesitated when Dr. Govender shifted and stood up. His arms disappeared. A severe tugging made Charity’s body jerk down and then up.

“Congratulations! It’s a girl!” Dr. Govender held a tiny little ball of skin up. He handed her to the pediatrician and turned his attention back to Charity.

Charity pushed Elijah. “Is she alright?” She arched her neck trying to see. “Go check if she’s okay.”

Elijah, mask and hospital gown on over his regular clothes, rushed over. His back was to Charity as he bent over the little body as the pediatrician and nurses hovered over the baby. The pediatrician handed Elijah a pair of scissors.

It took Charity a moment to realize he was cutting the placenta. Tears rushed out of her eyes and she blinked rapidly trying to remove them. Why wasn’t the baby crying? Were her little lungs not breathing? “Please,” she pleaded in a hoarse voice. “What’s wrong?”

Elijah slowly turned around, his face locked on the little bundle in his arms. A tear ran down his cheek as he brought his head up to Charity.

Charity reached her arms out to him. Silently he laid Jamie on her chest. Terrified, but unable to look away, she stared at her petite newborn. Jamie moved slightly and moved her head. A tiny wail blessed her mouth. It grew as she gasped another first breath of life and tried to cry out again.

Laughing and crying at the same time, Charity wrapped her arms carefully around her. She was so incredibly small. “Hi, Jamie. I’m your mommy. I’m your mommy.” She brushed her finger gently down Jamie’s teeny pink face. Her eyes were scrunched tight as she screamed, but her head moved toward Charity’s finger, her mouth open. She couldn’t believe how tiny and perfect Jamie was. She didn’t know the last time she held a baby, but she knew she never wanted to let this one go.

The pediatrician walked over. “This one’s a fighter. She’s amazingly breathing on her own. Thirty-two weeks, four pounds three ounces, and she’s already trying to suck on her finger.”

Four pounds three ounces? That was so light. “Is she… is everything alright?” Charity touched Jamie’s miniature hands, counting ten perfect fingers.

Elijah bent down, his head beside Charity as he reached out to stroke Jamie’s hand. His finger looked bigger than her petite arm. “You couldn’t have made her more perfect.”

“We did it,” Charity whispered and turned her head so she could kiss Elijah’s cheek. She giggled when she kissed him. “You need to shave.”

Elijah rubbed his five o’clock shadow.

The pediatrician came over and picked Jamie up. “I need to take her now and run some tests. Let’s make sure everything’s okay and she’s managing. I want her up in NICU until I give her the all clear. Plus, she needs to get under the heat lamps. It’s cold out here compared to your beautiful warm belly.”

He picked the baby up and Charity reached out to stop him leaving. “Elijah, go with Jamie. I don’t want her to be alone.” She wouldn’t be able to relax or focus if Jamie wasn’t with one of them.

“She’s not a …” Elijah stopped himself when he glanced up at Dr. Govender. “Sure.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Do what Doctor Govender says.”

Dr. Govender popped his head up. Charity could see him smile from behind his mask. “I’m almost finished here. Charity, when the freezing wears off, you are going to be sore.”

She was okay with that. It would be a good sore, worth every minute of the pain inflicted. She watched her baby being wheeled away in a little container and Elijah following right behind it. She knew their baby would be okay. Deep down, she felt her mother watching and protecting them. She knew from a doctor’s standpoint it sounded silly, but she didn’t care. It gave her peace.

“We’ve removed your placenta and closed everything up with internal sutures that will dissolve on their own.” He stood up as a nurse laid a blanket over Charity’s midsection and set the bed so her legs were flat. “I didn’t go near your Caduceus tattoo.”

Charity had forgotten all about the ink. She waved her hand, embarrassed now about it. “It wouldn’t have mattered.” She could feel her cheeks begin to burn.

“Well, it’s intact.” He pulled his mask off. “You did a fantastic job, Dr. Thompson-Bennet. Barring any complications, I’m going to keep you here for a few days, maybe four. Your father insisted your room be set up by the NICU wing.” He grinned. “I won’t be surprised if you’re right in the chamber beside your baby.” He tossed his gloves in the correct bin and pulled his phone out. “Duty calls. Congratulations again.”

While he spoke to one of the birthing nurses, Charity let her head fall back on the bed. She closed her eyes and tried to relax, but she was too over-exhausted to stop her brain from running on overdrive. She couldn’t believe what had transpired in the past thirty hours. One moment it was just her and Elijah, then the next she couldn’t imagine how it could only be the two of them. One teeny, tiny little fighting heartbeat had changed her forever.

She wanted to hold her baby again, hating being apart from Jamie and Elijah. As two nurses pushed her bed out of the room, she opened her eyes. “How soon will the anesthetic wear off? I want to go see how Jamie is doing.” She ran her hands over her soft, now smaller belly. “What if she needs to feed? We can’t wait that long, right? I’m going to breastfeed. They won’t feed her a bottle and then she won’t take my breast right? They’ll ask me first?”

The birthing nurse smiled. “We will bring Jamie to you as soon as she is allowed out. You should rest for a bit. You won’t get much sleep when the baby comes home. Let us take care of the extra work.”

Charity lay back a moment, but her brain fired off more questions as she watched the fluorescent hospital lights slide by above her. “Can I call Elijah? Find out how things are going? What if she needs me? What if something’s wrong and I’m lying around waiting? I’m not going to sleep until I see her and know she’s alright.”

Charity wasn’t going to give up, the nurse must have realized it. She sighed. “How about we get you changed and set up in your new room? While they transfer your things, we’ll go see your baby.”

Charity wanted to argue to go there straight away. However, she decided not to push her luck. “Thank you.”

Miraculously Jamie spent the night in NICU. She did not need any help with breathing, and her sucking/swallowing reflexes kicked in after only a few attempts at breastfeeding. The peeds doctor wanted Jamie under the bilirubin lights since she was such a preemie. It helped keep her warm also while Charity waited for the freezing to wear off.

True to Dr. Govender’s word about her father, Elijah and Charity had a room right beside the NICU main unit. By morning, Jamie was in there with them. Elijah hadn’t left the hospital. He stayed with Jamie when Charity finally had to admit she needed to sleep.

In the morning she woke to Elijah holding Jamie, showing her the view from the window. She grimaced when she rolled onto her back, unaccustomed to the soreness in her abdomen. She turned back to her side and set the bed up so she could sit.

As the bed slowly moved, she wiggled her toes and tested out how much of the anesthetic had worn off. She lifted her knee, loving the feeling coming back.

“Mum’s awake, Jamie.” Elijah smiled, his five o’clock shadow darker, matching his hair now. It gave him a new, sexy look.

Charity wondered how it would feel against her lips, and other parts of her skin. She pushed the thought out of her head. “How’s she doing?”

“Holding strong.” He carefully handed the baby over to Charity. “The pediatrician said if you wanted to try feeding her again to go ahead.”

Charity stared down at the sleeping, little bundle in her arms. Strangely, she wasn’t overwhelmed with a flood of happy emotions, but rather, a sense of incredulousness. She had just gone through the hardest thing in her life and she was exhausted. At least little Jamie felt the same. They had been through it together. She unbuttoned her pajama top and mimicked what the pediatrician had showed her last night.

Jamie stirred and without opening her eyes, she opened her pink mouth and tried to latch onto Charity’s nipple. How could she be so perfect? Teeny tiny and amazingly healthy.

Her father would be on his way to the airport to pick Elijah’s mother up. Last night he had asked Elijah and her if they would consider buying his house. He wanted to move and wasn’t sure if Charity would want to raise her baby where her mother had raised her. They suddenly had the opportunity to own both their childhood homes. It all felt surreal. Like everything was a dream.

She smiled when Jamie’s petite hand rested on her breast. “How did it feel for you to hold your baby for the first time yesterday?” Charity wanted to know if he had a unique moment, or if he had taken everything in and accepted it long before it had happened. He seemed capable of handling everything life threw at him. She knew for her there was love, she just didn’t know what it meant yet.

“You mean that utterly life changing, amazing, scary, happy, humbling, incredibly exhausting moment?”

Charity nodded, too dumbfounded to speak.

Elijah shrugged. “Nah, it didn’t happen.” Then he winked at her.

If she hadn’t been holding Jamie, she’d have thrown a pillow at him.

He came and sat beside her on the hospital bed, kissing her and then the top of their baby’s head. He sighed contently. “I could go on and on. I have two incredible, show-stopping moments in my life; the day you and I got married, and the moment when Jamie was born.” He smiled down at their baby. “All two have led, and will continue to lead, to other awesome moments, but those two, are the best.”

“I love you.”

“It’s a gorgeously, fantastic day.” Elijah kissed her softly on the lips and reached to stroke Jamie’s miniscule hand. He sat quietly watching Jamie open her small mouth against Charity’s breast. “Yesterday, I didn’t know what was going to happen. If you were going to be okay, if our baby was…” He inhaled a sharp breath. “I couldn’t—I can’t lose either of you. Ever.”

Charity didn’t think her heart could get any fuller. “I’d like to save this moment and tuck it away. Keep it locked safe in my heart and remember it forever.”

They sat silent, savoring the moment, already into the best chapter of their lives.

THE END