Chapter 9: 36 Hours

Just after dinner he was cleaning up the phone rang, Eric picked it up and quickly handed it to Henry.

“Hello?”

“Henry, it’s your Dad. I received a frantic call from Cindy’s Mom, they are taking her to the hospital and Cindy wanted you to know see if you could meet them there.”

“Is she okay?”

“I don’t think it’s good, from what I could hear over the phone Cindy was quite adamant that she wasn’t going unless they called you. I can drive you if you want.”

“Yes. Please.”

“Okay, I’ll be right over.”

Henry hung up and turned to his Jane, “Cindy is going to the hospital, I’m not sure why but she asked for me, but I’m going to go.”

“I’ll give you a ride”

“Thanks but Dad is on his way.”

He reached for his coat but before he could leave Jane grabbed hold of him and hugged him tightly softly saying, “Be with her and hold her.”

He replied softly “Thanks Mom.” He felt her shudder a moment before ending the hug.

He was out the door and saw that Grandfather was coming around the corner. He jumped in the car and they drove off to the hospital. It wasn’t that far but it seemed to take forever, and when they got there they went to the emergency room where they found Cindy’s Mom waiting for them.

“How is she?”

She began walking them into the hospital as she said, “She’s in labor, and they took her to maternity.”

“In labor? So soon?”

“Yes. They thought it might be brixton-hicks contractions but they aren’t. Her water hasn’t broke so they are trying to stop the contractions as she is only 30 weeks along.”

“So, it’s way too soon.”

“Yes, normal births are about 40 weeks.”

“God.”

They got up to the Maternity floor and Grandfather said, “Should I be in the waiting room?”

Cindy’s Mom looked at him for a moment, “No, I think you should be there when Henry goes into the room. You may need to, be there for Henry.”

FUCK! Cindy’s Dad can beat the shit out of me anytime he wants to but not today! Today he’s going to be there for Cindy!

They walked into the room, Cindy was in the bed gripping the side rails in an iron grip as she gritted her teeth with her eyes tightly shut. Her Dad turned to the door and saw Henry, but held his tongue and turned back to his Daughter.

Henry quickly walked up to the bed and touched Cindy’s hand as he asked, “Are you okay?”

She opened her eyes and smiled weakly, “Henry, you’re hear. I’m so sorry for everything.”

“Nothing to be sorry for.”

She moved her hand from the rail and placed it on the necklace she wore, “I’m wearing it.”

He smiled, “I can see that. Looks good on you.”

“Can you forgive me?”

“Hush, nothing to worry about, nothing to forgive.”

“I’ve been so wrong, and bad to you.”

“Put it out of your mind. It doesn’t matter. Only you and the baby do.”

She grabbed his arm as another contraction hit.

“Henry, I’m so sorry, soooo sorrrry”

He bent down and hugged her as well as he could and softly said, “Shh, just let it go.”

She screamed out at height of the contraction, scaring Henry. Why do woman do it! I can see the first one when they don’t know what the hell is happening, but what about the woman who has more than one!

After Cindy quieted down his grandfather said, “I think I’ll head to the waiting room.”

Her Dad turned and nodded and said, “Yeah. You should go as well Henry.”

Before Henry could say anything Cindy yelled, “NO! He stays.”

“We talked about it sweetie.”

“No, you talked about it.”

“That’s NOT how this is”

Cindy’s Mom stepped up and said to her husband, “Leave.”

“What?”

She placed her hand on his shoulder and said, “Let’s go.”

“I am not leaving my daughter alone with him!”

“Mike, like they are capable of doing anything?” Come on. Let’s get a cup of coffee.”

As their parents left Cindy said, “I’m so sorry Henry.”

“Stop it. Really. Just stop.”

“Everyone was so mean to you.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does.”

“Not to me. You and the baby are all that matters to me. And when you give it up for adoption I will be there for you. I will always be there for you.”

“I can’t do it Henry.”

“What?”

“I can’t let my baby go. Our baby.”

“Shh.”

“My Dad’s forcing me to. I don’t want to though.”

“It’s okay. We will find a way to make it work. The three of us.”

“He’ll kick me out, and I’ve got nowhere to go.”

“We will find a way to make it work. You just need to trust me, because I love you, and will never let you down.”

She was crying openly as Henry professed his love to her.

Unbeknownst to the two, Henry’s grandfather had come back to ask if Henry wanted anything and stood silently as they talked to one another. He quietly turned and left them, his mind walking the options he could see and which ones made the most sense.

As he came to the waiting room he said, “I need to call my daughter to give her an update.”

They both nodded at him. He walked to the elevators and found a quiet spot and made the call.

“Hi Jane, its Dad.”

“What’s happening?”

“Cindy is 30 weeks along and is in labor, they’ve given her some medication that is supposed to stop the contractions but so far it hasn’t worked.”

“How is she doing?”

“Well, she’s a wreck. She’s, apologized to Henry several times, and he keeps telling her its okay.”

“Poor girl.”

“Her Dad is a piece of work.”

“Yeah, we knew that going into it.”

“It’s worse than you know. It was his plan to give up the baby, and he has forced Cindy to agree.”

“That asshole.”

“Agreed. But Cindy stood up to her Dad and now, well, now I’m not sure if she’s going to give up the baby.’

“What will her Dad do?”

“Kick her out.”

“We can’t let that happen.”

“I know. I’ve got an idea but it won’t work without your help.”

“What is it?”

“I would offer to take all three of them in, but, you know THAT won’t work out.”

“So, you want me to take them in?”

“Well, it kind of makes sense.”

“I know.”

“It will be, tight in your place.”

“More than you know Dad.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, guess who’s going to be a grandfather. Again.”

“YOU?”

“Yep.”

“I thought that you were done?”

“Eric and I thought so too.”

“Holy cow! How did it, no that’s not right, I assumed it was not planed?”

“Nope. Not sure how, well I mean I know the cause, but we are both shocked.”

“Wow. So, uhm, there goes my plan.”

“No. We can still make it work I think. Build three more bedrooms downstairs and move the kids down there. Henry, Cindy, and the baby will take the far room and the other room, and the bedroom closer to my bedroom will be my baby’s room.”

“Do you have enough space in the basement?”

“I’ll talk to Eric and have him take a look.”

“If you want I’ll pay for the materials, or even for a contractor to come in and do the work.”

“Thanks Dad. Let me talk to Eric and see what he thinks. He’s already gob smacked about our baby so adding three more might push him over the edge. But I can reason with him. Especially when he realizes that a pregnant hormonal women is NOT someone who he wants to get on their bad side.”

He laughed, “VERY much agreed. I’ll call you back if there is any change.”

He walked back to the waiting room and sat across from Cindy’s parents. He wanted to talk about the situation but the looks on both told him to keep quiet. Family! It shouldn’t be like this, he thought. But then again, look how he screwed it all up with Henry.

Cindy’s Dad stood up and said to his wife, “Well, I’m out of here.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I’ve got work tomorrow and since Cindy does want my opinion I see no reason to be here.”

“She’s your daughter! That should be reason enough.”

“Since my opinions are not even listened to than I don’t need to be here.”

She looked away with disgust as her husband walked away. “That man! I just don’t know about him sometimes. Can you believe him?”

“Well, my wife feels the same way as your husband.”

“I just don’t get it. Your child needs your help! Dammit I can’t sit here, I’m going to see her.”

As Cindy was coming down from the latest contraction her Mom walked in, “How are you?”

“Oh my God. This is tough.”

Her Mom smiled at her as she said, “Only 22 more hours.”

“What!”

“I was in labor 28 hours with my first, your brother.”

“Not helping Mom” she said with a laugh.

“So, I take it they haven’t stopped?”

“No.”

“Did the Doctor stop by?”

“No, but the nurse has been in, they don’t think they can stop them.”

“What will that mean for the baby?”

“We will see.”

She began crying again.

She didn’t get to 24 hours because at 14 hours she gave birth to a daughter. They barely got to see her as the nurses cleaned her up and put her in an incubator. She was weighed in at 3 pounds and was 15 inches long. She was small. And when Henry saw his daughter he was torn, his first thoughts were of happiness that he was a father and second was that she was so small and helpless. He wanted to hold her and protect her but he couldn’t, they said she needed to be in a protected environment where they could maintain her temperature and monitor her vital signs.

For Cindy it was worse as there was no upside to her emotions, the baby was taken from her and placed in an enclosure away from her. She couldn’t hold her or feed her. She desperately wanted to touch her, to hold her, and protect her. But she couldn’t. And it was tearing her apart.

As they waited for the Doctor to come back in after the delivery Cindy turned to Henry, “What do you want to name her?”

Henry looked at her, “I don’t know. Hadn’t given any thought to it. What about you?”

“I’ve not really thought of it either.”

“What was your Dad’s mother’s name?”

“I don’t know, we called her Grandma M, and she died when I was five. Mom what was her name.”

“It was Meredith.”

“So how about Meredith Jane?”

“Are you going to name her after your sister?”

The words stuck in his throat, he couldn’t get them out

His grandfather jumped in, “Jane was my wife’s name, his sister was named after her.”

“Oh, so that works out very well. I like it.”

“It’s a good name” her mom replied.

His Grandfather left with Cindy’s Mom and the two were left alone. The next couple of hours were tame comparatively, but in some respects they were tenser as they had not seen their daughter other than through a window. As they calmly sat talking a doctor came into the room looking at a clip board. He quickly looked up and asked, “Are you Cindy, mother of Meredith Jane?”

“Yes, that’s me. And this is the Father, Henry.”

“Hi, I’m Doctor Alkesh Lutirjene, I am a neonatal specialist.”

“Is there something wrong with Meredith?”

“Your daughter’s numbers, for someone who was born at 30 weeks, are not what they should be and has us concerned. We are going to be administering some medication to help her but most of what she needs is going to come from her, so if she’s strong she will be come out of this fine. The next 24 to 48 hours are critical for her continued development and survival.”

“She might not make it?”

“There is that possibility. With babies born at 30 weeks survivability is quite high at around 90%. But, Meredith is not as developed as other 30 week olds, she seems to be underdeveloped in some of her core systems, and it may cause problems that are not common.”

“What kind of problems?”

“Immunity is the primary concern, but also the underdeveloped lungs and gastrointestinal organs that we take for granted for such things as blood oxygenation and breaking down food into energy could lead to complications. If one of these things were to occur it may cause her condition to deteriorate.”

“Is this because she was born early?”

“At this point it is difficult to say, but to answer you yes. That is not to say that if she was full term she would be problem free, all babies born have a basic standard for development of their bodies and organs, Meredith seems to have a, deficiency in her development that has prevented some of her systems to be developed normally. We can treat her for some of the things that she is below on but with all premise it come down to her strength to overcome those deficiencies and to grow.”

“What may have caused these deficiencies?”

“It is difficult to say. Diet and exercise of the mother when in utero is critical for a healthy developed embryo to grow and is critical through birth. The records provided to me indicate you’ve been to your doctor regularly and that you have been prescribed neonatal drugs and vitamins. Another area would be physical work that you were doing during the pregnancy and external stressors that could impact the development of the baby.”

“So if I was under a lot of stress?”

“Again, it is tough to say that it was the cause, it is more than likely a contributing factor.”

“So, we just wait?”

“Unfortunately, yes. But I must say that babies are very resilient and Meredith can, not so much recover but to gain the strength required building up her deficiencies and striving. We should know how well she will be doing in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

“So we just have to wait it out.”

“Unfortunately it is all dependent on Meredith.”

“Thanks Doc.”

“If you need anything please contacts the nurses and they will get a hold of me.”

“Can, well, when will I be able to hold her?”

“You haven’t?”

“No, they took her out after she was born.”

“Let me fix that right now. Just the act of holding her may be all that she needs.”

They looked at one another, Henry was the first to say something, “We, probably should tell our parents.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t think that I can, get through that with them the way things are.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mom, she would be okay, but Dad. He, well he would just. I think it would be better off not to say anything.”

“Is it that you don’t want them to know or is it you don’t want to tell them.”

“Both.”

“I can tell them.”

“Not over the phone.”

“No, when they visit next.”

“Okay. Just our parents.”

Within the next 5 minutes Meredith was in Cindy’s arms. For the rest of his life, Henry will never forget the picture in his mind of Cindy holding Meredith. He saw so many things in that simple act that it would take him years to describe and a lifetime to understand. Within moments of Cindy taking hold of Meredith she opened her eyes and looked at Cindy, blinked twice and fell back to sleep snuggling into her. Tears formed in her eyes as she finally held her baby. It seemed the months of pressure and stress were gone, at least temporarily, and Cindy could enjoy her first taste of motherhood as she bonded with her daughter even if it was only her sleeping upon her chest.

Not wanting to wake Meredith or to disrupt Cindy Henry just sat there and watched the two. He wanted to pick her up and hold her, but he quickly put that thought out his head as it was clear that Cindy needed this more than he. Plus Meredith looked to comfortable sleeping it would be criminal to wake her up.

Within the hour Meredith wiggled slightly before waking up. What followed was an eye opening experience as Meredith began a blood curling scream that was definitely heard within five miles of the hospital. Henry was certain that nurses would be running into the room and pulling Meredith away from the Cindy while a policeman, with his gun drawn, would enter and force everyone on the ground.

But that never happened, a nurse did come into the room and looking at the situation calmly said, “Looks like it’s feeding time. Are you going to breast feed or bottle feed?”

Cindy was totally caught off guard by the question and stumbled over several words, well not really words as inaudible sounds that may have been words. The nurse took it as a clear sign that Cindy was unsure what the answer was, or if she knew the answer was frozen in fear.

But the nurse interpreted the sounds to be a positive confirmation from Cindy that breast feeding was the selected option as she smiled and said, “Breast it is. DO you need help?”

Again, there was a stream of inaudible sounds from Cindy, which the nurse interpreted as Yes, I want to Breast Feed. Please help me as I don’t know what I am supposed to do.

She turned to Henry and asked, “And you are?”

“The Father.”

“So is it safe to say that Cindy has nothing you haven’t seen before?”

“Uhm, no.”

“No? What? Did you do it with your clothes on or your eyes shut?”

“Yes! I mean no. I mean I know what she has because I’ve seen it.”

“Okay.” She looked at Cindy and asked, “Can he stay?”

Again, there was a stream of inaudible sounds from Cindy,

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

What ensued were several minutes of the nurse giving Cindy instructions for nursing, followed by the exposure of her right breast and Meredith taking to it like a duck to water. Wow, her breasts look good!

“See, nothing to it!”

Again, there was a stream of inaudible sounds from Cindy,

“No need to thank me, all part of the service. And you, remember there will be no hide the baloney until the doctor says she’s good to go!”

“But”

“I saw the way you were eying her up before your doughtier got to feeding, and to be clear, that is all for the baby, Daddy going to have to go to the fridge to get him some milk! And I know what’s on your mind, you shouldn’t be thinking of working on number two so soon after number one was born!” She looked at Cindy and said, “We woman have to work together to keep the population down! Heck, leave it up to men and we’d be upwards of 40 billion! No we are talking McDonald’s numbers!”

“McDonald’s numbers?”

“Yeah McDonalds numbers! Haven’t you’ve ever seen the McDonalds signs showing how many have been served!”

With a wink she was gone. It took another 20 minutes for Henry to stop blushing.

After Meredith got her fill a powerful odor wafted through the room, followed by the wall paper peeling away from the walls followed as the paint began to crack away from the walls, and ending up with both Henry and Cindy grabbing their noses to hold off the putrid smell. Time for a diaper change.

When you look up smell in the dictionary there is always a reference to babies. Scientist have yet to determine the cause of the olfactory overload that permanently affixes itself to the poop from a baby. Research indicates that it is caused by two factors, the first being that our perception that something so small and adorable could NEVER create such a toxic fume thus we are ill-prepared for stench that ensues. The second is that the baby, knowing full well that their parents will be the cause of their most embarrassment moments will initiate said embarrassment first in hopes of gaining an advantage. Thus we have the opening salvo in the Parent/Child relationship.

Henry, being the man of the house so to speak, decided that HE would change the diaper first. Of course the nurse was all for the father taking care of his baby walked him through how to change a diaper. After twenty minutes of gaging, a few bouts of the dry heaves, burning and watery eyes, and asking the Nurse multiple times if the smell was toxic or if there was something REALLY wrong with his daughter Henry completed his task, and swore to never again volunteer for something that he had a clue about doing.

As he sat down the nurse patted him on the back, “See Dad, nothing to it.”

“Sure, nothing to it. I don’t think I will ever be able to smell the roses again.”

Soon after, the first of several visitors came to see them. The first being Jane and Eric. He had been able to keep his emotions under control but he was unable to after seeing Jane with tears in her eyes as she looked at her Grand Daughter.

There are two places where the safety of a baby is guaranteed. The first is in the arms of its mother, the second in the arms of its grandmother. When Jane asked to hold her, Cindy was somewhat hesitant but acquis. When Jane picked up Meredith and held her in her arms you would have expected a soft white light to glow about them followed by the singing of angels, but that was far from what happened. No sooner had Jane picked up Meredith than that ear piercing screaming, the alarm that is inherent to all babies that something in their environment has changed and they want everyone within a five block radius to know about it.