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The monitor belt around her belly restricted her from moving around, and she was uncomfortable on her back, trying to reel in her thoughts to concentrate on the positive, moving into their new house and decorating. She was terrible at it, but Joey’s girlfriend, Candy, loved to decorate and had already pledged to help her. Candy had called her as soon as the news got out that she was in the hospital.
“I’m going to Big Mike and Roberta’s tonight to play with Flynn, so don’t worry about him. Don’t worry about anything. Just take care of yourself. Can they stop the labor?”
“I’m not in labor yet. Just bleeding.”
That wouldn’t be true for long. At three in the morning, she called Tony back to the hospital.
“I have to have an emergency C-section. The placenta is starting to separate. Can you come back?”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
The nurses got Bridget ready for surgery. “You’re going to see your little girl in less than an hour!”
A range of emotions flowed through her. Excitement, joy, but fear. She was going to be small.
“Less than five pounds, I’m afraid,” the doctor said honestly. “It’s early.”
In fifteen minutes, Tony, Roberta, Big Mike (crying), Alice and Emmett walked through the door of her room, surrounding her, showing her love, each of them kissing her cheek, and she wiped away tears.
“Flynn’s with Candy and Joey. He was sleeping like a rock, so don’t worry about him,” Tony said, leaning over the side of her bed to kiss her.
“Time to go!” An orderly and a nurse came in, cheerful and smiling idiotically. It was almost four in the morning, and she was preparing to deliver a premature baby that had Down syndrome, suddenly not in the mood for levity. “Is Dad coming in?”
“Do you want to go in the operating room?” Roberta asked.
“Sure. I wouldn’t miss it.”
So Tony held her hand as they pushed the bed along the corridor while the family went to the cafeteria to have coffee.
In less than an hour, like the nurse said, a little cry echoed in the delivery room, and before long, the tiniest baby Bridget had ever seen was brought over to her, Tony smiling and crying tears of joy. They put her right up to Bridget’s face.
This is my baby.Although Tony and Bridget were both raven-haired, the baby had reddish blond feathers.
“She has a lot of hair for a preemie,” someone said.
They whisked the baby off to the intensive care nursery, and the journey continued. Back in her room, the family took turns sitting with Bridget and going to look in the nursery window for a glimpse.
“She’s just beautiful!” Roberta wept. “What will you name her?”
“Do you want to tell her, Big Mike?” Bridget asked in a tired voice.
Of course, he began to cry again, but happy tears. “She’s Isabella Saint.”
Bridget would be in the hospital for at least thirty-six hours. But Isabella would have to stay in longer, until she gained a pound. She wouldn’t suck, so they inserted a feeding tube, and as soon as Bridget’s milk came in, she pumped and delivered bottles of breast milk to the hospital every day.
The family worked around the clock to get the house ready during Bridget’s two-day hospital stay. But when they discharged her, she wanted to go back to Roberta and Big Mike’s.
“You have to go back to work eventually, and I don’t want to be home alone,” she told Tony.
“And I can drive her back and forth to the hospital to see the baby every day,” Roberta said.
“I’m going to take paternity leave,” Tony announced. “But I’ll wait until Isabella comes home. In the meantime, I’ll be home four days a week to do the hospital visits. Charlie will give me time off each evening to run over, too.”
In the NICU for the first time, Bridget sat down gingerly in a padded rocking chair. The nurse placed Isabella in her arms, untangling her oxygen and feeding tubes and the wires hooked up to the monitor. It was the first time they’d really seen her up close.
“She’s adorable,” Tony said, smiling, touching her head. “She looks like an Isabella.”
Near tears, Bridget leaned over to reach his lips. “Thank you, Tony.”
