Page 47 of His to Love
Chapter Twenty-Two
Alexa
Holding my stomach with both hands as another contraction wracked my body, I wished we were already at the hospital, instead of on the way there. “How did I sleep through something this painful?”
“I don’t know, but you did.” Patton put on his hazard lights. “I’m going to speed up. I don’t like seeing you in pain at all.”
Breathing again as the contraction eased off, I took out my phone and called my brother. “Alexa?”
“Luciano, we’re on the way to the hospital. I think the baby’s coming.” I closed my eyes as I thought about the fact that my mother couldn’t be there with me for the birth of her first grandchild. “It’ll be best for Mamma not to know until after I have the baby. I don’t want her to be stressed out.”
“I agree,” he said. “And I’m going to get dressed and meet you at the hospital. I’ll text Patton when I get there so he can direct me to you. I will see you soon, my princesa.”
“I love you, hermano.” As I put my cell into my purse, I sniffled as a few tears slipped from my eyes. “It’s upsetting that my mother can’t be with me.”
“I know it is.” He ran his hand over my shoulder. “But we both know how stressed out she’d be. And then there’s the fact that she might accidentally hear that the baby’s actually only a month early, instead of the two months she’ll think he is.”
“Yes, I know. I can’t let our secret get out now. And I would never want her to be worried. After he’s born, I’ll call her with the good news. I hope it’ll all be good news.” Worry filled me about him being four weeks early.
Rubbing my shoulder, Patton tried to help. “The doc said things have been looking good for our boy. I’m sure he’ll be fine. Maybe a little on the small side, but fine.”
Nodding, I hoped he was right. “I just want things to go well.”
“Me too.” Patton pulled into the parking lot by the emergency entrance. Only a couple of cars were parked there. “I’ll go get a wheelchair. You wait right here.”
Sitting in the truck as he went inside, I looked up, clasped my hands, and offered a prayer to the Virgin Mary, asking for her help through the birth of my child.
After the prayer, I thought about how she’d sort of been in my situation. Her baby was not Joseph’s son. And she hadn’t been married to Joseph when she’d conceived her baby. Joseph had married her to make sure she was cared for, and her baby would be too. And their marriage would keep her reputation in check.
Joseph knew Jesus wasn’t his child, and he still loved him and raised him as his own son. Of course, Jesus’ father wasn’t able to be on Earth, raising him. But the situation was very much the same.
Patton was every bit as selfless as Joseph was. I smiled as he came back to me, rolling the wheelchair in front of him. Both were loving men who were good to their families. I knew Patton would be good to my son. I knew it without a doubt. He was every bit the father that Joseph was.
As he opened the door, I had to let him know how highly I thought of him. “Patton, before we get inside and around others, I just want you to know that I think you’re the best man in the world and this baby and I are extremely lucky to have you.”
Running his fingertips along my cheek, tears shimmered in his eyes. “Funny, I was just going to tell you that I think you’re the best woman in the world and that this baby and I are the luckiest couple of guys in the world to have you. Seems great minds think alike.” He smiled at me. “Now climb aboard, my lady. Your chariot awaits.”
Wiping my eyes, I tried to push my emotions to the side as he helped me get onto the wheelchair. “So, this is it. The doctor didn’t say she was going to give me anything to try to stop the contractions, right?”
“She didn’t say anything to me about doing that,” he said as he pushed me toward the sliding glass doors of the ER. “But that doesn’t mean she won’t. We’ll just have to see what she thinks needs to be done. Either way, I think we’ll be here for a while. I don’t think we’ll be going home until we’ve got a baby to take with us.”
The doors swooshed open at three in the morning on a Saturday in May. An empty lobby greeted us as he wheeled me down a long hallway into the hospital’s main lobby.
We’d come to check out the hospital a month ago, so Patton knew exactly where he was going. Onto the elevator we went, up to the third floor. Getting off the elevator, we were only a short walk away from the nurses’ station in the labor and delivery department.
A nurse stepped into the hallway from one of the patient’s rooms. “Are you the Nash’s?”
“We are,” Patton said.
She waved us over. “Come over here. This will be your birthing room. I just finished getting it ready for you.” She went over to the bed to pick up a pale blue hospital gown. “Okay, Daddy, I’ll let you get this on Mommy and then you can get her into bed. Do me a favor and press the nurses’ button on the side rail and I’ll come in to hook her up to everything.”
“Do you know if the doctor is going to try to stop the contractions?” I wanted to know if I would be having the baby soon or not.
“She hasn’t ordered Terbutaline, so I don’t think she wants to stop it. You’re at thirty-six weeks, so that’s not much of a problem.” The nurse eyed my stomach. “My bets are on that baby boy weighing close to six pounds, if not a hair over that.”
“Really?” That made me feel a lot better. I’d read that babies had to weigh over four pounds to be able to leave the hospital. And it sounded like mine was a good amount over that weight.
“Yep,” the nurse said. “In general, most babies at thirty-six weeks tend to be around five pounds.”
