Epilogue

“You absolutely have to stay in bed Julia, no more excuses. This is doctor’s orders,” I said to Julia after she tried to get up and help get the boys off to kindergarten for the day.

“Oh, come on. I’m allowed to get up to use the restroom so I should be allowed to help Brody get his coat on for school.”

“Nope. You are using up all your standing time by using the bathroom. That leaves no standing time for helping the boys. That’s the rules. I’ll bring them to you though and you can help them in the bed.”

“I’ve already made it to thirty-two weeks. I have a feeling this time I’m going to make it full term. There’s only one baby. It’s a piece of cake to cook this one up the full length of time,” she joked.

“Babe, you have to listen to me for the baby’s sake. Okay?” I asked a little more determined to get her to listen.

As much as I knew that bed rest sucked, I also knew that Julia needed it. She was seeing the new female doctor in our practice and we had consulted on what to do after Julia had severe spotting a week earlier. If she was my patient I would have put her on bed rest too.

The practice was going so well that we now had five full-time doctors and I was only working a couple days of the week. I did most of the behind the scenes work with our business manager and the legal team. I also worked with our new marketing team to keep new patients coming in.

Bruce had found the love of his life and married her, she happened to also be the new doctor that we had hired, so that was another mess we had to figure out. I was more worried about it when they were dating than I was now though because he was clearly devoted to her and happier than I’d seen him in years.

“Don’t cancel the dinner party,” Julia yelled from the bedroom as I finished packing both the boys their lunches. “I can still eat dinner. Everyone has already cleared the day and we don’t want to cancel just because I’m on bed rest.”

“Babe, what are we going to do, bring the table in here and all eat in bed with you? We can schedule something for after the baby.”

“No, I am fine to eat. I won’t get up and pee that day,” she tried to argue with me.

“Julia, come on honey.”

“Mike, this is important. I want to see everyone. We have been so busy and everyone else has been so busy. I just don’t want to let this date slip by.”

“Fine, but only dinner. You can’t get up and help prepare it at all but for the actual dinner you can come out and eat. Then you promise to go straight back to bed.”

“Or maybe sit on the couch?” I asked.

“Girl, you drive me crazy,” I said as I crawled into the bed to kiss her growing tummy. “Baby, your mother is one of the strongest women I have ever met. Just you wait until you get to meet her out here. You’ll see what I’m talking about.”

“Dad, Dad, Dad,” Brody said as he pulled on my leg. “I’m hungry.”

“I just fed them. I swear I just fed them,” I said as I slid out of bed. “They must be growing. I can’t believe how they are always hungry.”

“Wait until their teenagers,” Julia laughed.

I couldn’t even imagine what our life would be like with the boys all grown up into teenagers and our new one just a few years behind them. I finally managed to give each of the boys one last snack and brought them to say goodbye to Julia before we headed off to school for the day.

Managing school drop-off with my work schedule wasn’t hard since I was the boss, but I could imagine it would be difficult for regular families to balance. I definitely saw how families could benefit from the use of a nanny.

When the boys were younger we had a nanny come stay with them during the day after Julia went back to work. It was a hard decision for her but eventually she had to work just to keep herself feeling good. She was a driven woman and sitting at home with the boys was fabulous and she loved it, but she really did like working too.

By the time Saturday rolled around, the night of our dinner party, Julia was going stir crazy from her two weeks of bed rest. I wasn’t sure she was going to make it for another month of rest so it was nice that we were having the dinner party to boost her spirits a little.

The bell to the condo rang and I hurried over to answer it. Everyone had arrived at the same time. There was Kendra and Devin, Patrick and his girlfriend, Teddy and his boyfriend, and Sarah came alone.

“Oh, I’m going to die you all look so good,” Julia said as she came out to hug everyone.

“You look so good,” Sarah said as she rubbing Julia’s growing tummy.

We all visited and I managed to get Julia to sit on the couch while I finished preparing dinner. She was alive and vibrant when she was around her friends and I really did love seeing her so happy.

“So when are you due?” Kendra asked.

“It would be nice to go another month but I’m not so sure I’ll make it that long.”

“She’s supposed to be on bed rest,” I shouted from the kitchen.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m resting right here,” Julia said and then went back to talking to her friends.

The boys were in their room sleeping and weren’t phased at all by the commotion going on in the living room. We did have a babysitter who was staying in the spare room and ready to help if the boys needed anything throughout the evening, but I suspected we would be paying her for sitting there texting her boyfriend.

“Uh-oh,” I heard Julia say and the room went quiet.

“Mike, you better come here,” Teddy said and everyone got up from the couch, except Julia.

“My water just broke,” Julia said as calm as could be. “I’m not feeling any contractions though. That’s a good thing, right?”

“No,” I said without stopped to explain.

I grabbed our emergency bag and gave some quick instructions to Kendra who was going to stay at the house with the boys. Going into labor without her water breaking would have been better than having her water break. Under this circumstance we had to deliver. We couldn’t just stop the contractions and continue with the pregnancy. If the amniotic fluid was all gone, then the baby needed to be delivered.

“Mike, you’re scaring me,” Julia said as I helped her into the Uber that was waiting for us when we got downstairs. “What’s going on?”

“I need to get you to the hospital and see if there is any fluid left in there. If not, we have to deliver.”

“But I’m not having contractions.”

“Then you’ll have to have a c-section. Or maybe we could induce you if both you and the baby are doing okay. It’s going to be alright though. Don’t worry, baby.”

“Who is on call tonight?” She asked trying to hide her fear.

“Bruce.”

“Oh, that’s good. I don’t like that new guy you have.”

“He’s just a little nerdy. He’s a very good doctor though,” I reassured her.

We bypassed the Emergency Room and went straight up to the labor and delivery floor. I’d already sent a text to Bruce to let him know we were on the say and he was waiting with the team of nurses at the entrance when we got off the elevator.

“No contractions and at least a partial rupture of the amniotic sac,” I told the crew.

“Let’s see if we have anything to work with,” Bruce said as he and I grabbed the ultra sound machine and wheeled it into the room where Julia was getting hooked up to all the monitors.

“Let’s take a quick look,” Bruce said calmly.

I knew as soon as he put the scope up to her stomach that there was a problem and it wasn’t going to be a smooth delivery. The baby had no fluid around her and her heart beat was much slower than it should be.

“Is that the chord?” I asked as he glided the scope near the baby’s head.

“Yep,” Bruce said and lipped the monitor off. “Prep the OR,” he yelled out.

“Surgery, what? Why do I have to have surgery? I can push. It’s okay. And did you say her? Are we having a girl?” Julia looked so excited for the news.

“Yes, it’s a beautiful little girl but we need to get her out quickly. I need you to stay calm and we are going back to surgery. There is no time for an epidural and I know you really want to be awake but trust me, we need to move fast.”

“Okay,” Julia said with a calmness I hadn’t expected. “You save our little girl.”

She had tears in her eyes and kissed me as we pushed her out of her room and toward the operating room. The operating team was there and ready and we lifted the sheet that Julia was on and moved her to the operating table.

The anesthesiologist was waiting and as soon as the IV was in her he started assessing so he could behind putting Julia to sleep. Everyone was rushing around the room and getting things ready to take care of the baby once she was born. They had all the crash cart supplies for the baby there and I desperately hoped that they wouldn’t need to use any of it.

“I love you. I’ll see you soon,” I said to Julia as they put her mask on and started to put her to sleep.

“I love you too,” she said through the mask.

I was going to lose it. The tears were welling up and it took everything I could to hold back and not hurry Bruce along as he prepped for surgery. He was still scrubbing his hands in the other room as the nurses prepared Julia’s stomach for the procedure.

Everything was moving really fast but it helped that I knew the process and knew what to expect. It was only a few minutes later that Bruce was cutting into Julia and pulling our sweet baby girl out.

She was blue and had the cord wrapped around her next so tight that Bruce had to cut both ends as a nurse unwrapped it. The baby wasn’t breathing at all as they took her to the table and started working on her.

“We good here?” I asked Bruce as he was working on Julia.

“Yes, go ahead,” he motioned for me to go watch them working on my daughter.

I’m not sure there is anything that makes a person feel more helpless than watching people trying to save your child’s life. My hands shook and I felt dizzy but there was no way I was leaving her side. Julia wouldn’t have wanted our sweet baby girl to have to fight all by herself.

The doctor was giving chest compressions while a nurse put a mask over the baby’s face. I closed my eyes and said a little prayer that my sweet baby could fight hard enough to come back to us.

“We got her,” I heard the doctor say and a moment later there was the sweet sound of a baby crying that echoed through the delivery room. “She’s breathing,” he said to all of us who had obviously already heard her crying.

I was so relieved that I almost fell over. Luckily, a nurse brought me a stool and helped me to sit down. I sat there a little bit out of the way while the neonatal doctor finished assessing our newborn baby girl.

“She looks really good, Mike. We will need to watch her over the next few days, but she is looking really good. Come over here and say hi.”

The nurse walked with me just to make sure I wasn’t a fainter. But obviously I was alright now that I knew my daughter was going to be okay. I stood next to her and held onto her little fingers as tears rolled down my face.

“You scared us, sweet pea, let’s not do that again,” I whispered and kissed her sweet little forehead. “Your mom is going to be so excited to meet you.”

The doctor had to take her away shortly after that and I had to wait in the recovery area with Julia as she woke up from the anesthesia. She was scared and disoriented at first, but I just held her hand up to my lips and continued to kiss it and try and reassure her as she woke up enough for me to talk to her.

“Is she okay?” Julia finally asked. “Where is she? I want to see her.”

“She’s okay. She’s so beautiful, oh my gosh, you won’t even believe it,” I said softly and stroked Julia’s hair as she finally set her head back down on the pillow.

“But she’s okay?” She asked again and started to cry. “I was so scared, Mike. I was so scared we were going to lose her.”

“She okay, honey. They are going to keep an eye on her for a few days. You’ll have to be here for a few days too so I’m sure they will let you have her in the room with you when she gets cleared.”

“I love you so much, Mike. You have made me the happiest women in the world.”

“I love you too, Julia. I’m so happy we ran into each other that night at the club and that you wanted this dream of a life and allowed me to be part of it.”

“This life wouldn’t be a dream without you,” she said as I held onto my beautiful wife.

THE END