Page 75 of My Omega's Baby
“Ahhh.” I nodded. “I think I get it.”
Dr. Peters pushed open my smock, and he pressed the probe against my stomach. I winced at how cold the probe was, but I held still. A dark image appeared on the screen, but I couldn’t tell what anything was. He continued to move the wand around until a rapid swishing sound became obvious. The image on the screen became a mixture of white, gray, and black, and a small pulsing movement appeared in the center of the image.
“That’s the baby’s heartbeat.” Dr. Peters squinted and continued to move the instrument around my slick abdomen. “Sounds like a good strong heart.”
I was amazed as I stared at the screen. That was the baby’s heart?That was the baby’s actual heart?A lump formed in my throat, and my eyes stung. This was really happening. For so long the baby had been this faceless concept. The baby hadn’t been a who; the baby had been an it. I’d been able to not really connect with the flesh-and-blood side of it all. But when I saw the image of its beating heart on the machine, it became all too real.
“Wow.” Wyatt’s voice was hushed. “That’s actually a baby.”
The doctor chuckled. “Yep.” He pointed to some parts of the screen. “This is the fetus’s head. There are the legs and arms.” He sounded very matter-of-fact.
“This is crazy,” I muttered. It made me feel twice as bad that I’d been eating so much crap. That poor little fetus was eating every bag of Cheetos and Snickers bar I was eating.
“The baby is inside the omega pouch. It’s a fleshy pocket that takes the place of a womb in a solar eclipse omega.” He leaned closer. “It all looks really good. The fetus is the right size for eight weeks.”
“It still looks so small.” Wyatt peered intently at the screen.
“This last month it’s going to grow a lot.” The doctor glanced at me. “Seen enough?”
I glanced at Wyatt. “Yes. You?”
“I guess.” He laughed. “It’s so cool to think that’s our baby.” He held out his hand to me, and I grabbed it.
“Yeah. It’s really wonderful and insane all at the same time.” I squeezed his fingers.
Dr. Peters pulled the probe away, and he wiped my stomach and the instrument clean. He pushed the cart back into the corner and picked up one of the syringes. “As I said earlier, this is vitamin B.”
I let go of Wyatt’s hand, and I tensed my stomach muscles. The needle gave a sharp prick, and then it was done. The doctor then picked up the second syringe.
“We need a blood sample just to make sure everything is as it should be.” He stuck the needle into a vein in my arm, and I watched the syringe fill with my blood. He was skilled enough that it really didn’t hurt, and before I knew it, he was done. He put a Band-Aid over the insertion point and had me bend my arm.
“That wasn’t so bad.” I smiled at the doctor.
He lowered his head, and then his expression became more serious. “Now this is where I need to talk about the real challenges of an omega pregnancy.”
I met Wyatt’s strained glance. “Okay.”
“Unlike a female pregnancy, there’s no birth canal. That means when it’s time to deliver, it’s imperative that you get to the medical complex within thirty minutes or so. You won’t want to leave the compound the last week of pregnancy because the baby can really come at any time.”
I nodded, feeling apprehensive. “So it’s dangerous?”
“Yes.” He grimaced. “In a female pregnancy, whether the woman is ready to deliver or not, the baby has a passage. The baby will be born regardless of whether the woman is ready. In a male omega, there’s no natural exit from the body. If a C-section isn’t performed in a timely manner, the baby and the omega can die.”
“Shit,” I muttered, rubbing my stomach.
“So you’re saying once he goes into labor, we have around thirty minutes?” Wyatt asked, his jaw tense.
The doctor sighed. “Unfortunately, yes. What triggers the labor in a male omega is the disintegration of the air and feeding tube inside the womb. Once it’s no longer functioning, the baby is deprived of oxygen, and if the baby isn’t removed there is a high risk of sepsis. It all happens very quickly. The baby must be removed promptly to prevent infection from spreading through the bloodstream of the omega and the suffocation of the child.”
“Wow.” I stared at him with my eyes wide. “I knew this might be complicated, but I had no idea it was potentially life threatening.”
“That’s why we wanted you here as soon as possible.” Dr. Peters sighed. “We’ll do our very best to make sure you and the baby are safe, Blade. You have my word.”
“Yeah.” I exhaled. “Okay.”
“In twenty years of doing this, I’ve only lost one omega and baby.” He clenched his jaw. “I’m not okay with that ever happening again.”
“Shit. What happened?” Wyatt looked pale.
