Chapter 96

The Baby Is Here

Victoria wailed and swore. I looked at her stunned while she chucked a vicious face at me. “Make it stop make it stop…” she begged at me.
“Don’t worry Dad that’s normal,” the nurse whispered as I was getting Victoria ice chips. Victoria snatched the cup and scoffed the entire contents chewing them loudly before wailing again. I felt useless to help her. I wanted to be close to her, I actually wanted this to be an intimate time for us. But she was ropeable. Nothing soothed her, and Victoria had remained confident about not wanting to use an epidural during childbirth.
“Here scoot forward darling, I’ll rub your back…” Victoria looked up at me tears streaming down her cheeks. She needed me, you could see it in her eyes … but was nearly at the point of not letting anyone touch her. Her level of comfort was so compromised she was not thinking straight at all. Reluctantly she leant forward and I slid in behind her and she let me caress her back gently.
“I’m sorry Sean… I just cannot escape this agony. I thought I was ready and I was stronger than this,” she said.

“Darling you are strong,” I said smoothing her hair aside as she leant her weight into me and looked up.
“Oh god here comes another one, rub my back really hard at the bottom…” she said as her whole face screwed up. “That’s good, yeah. Keep doing that…” she said breathing easier.

Victoria had done the hard yards, she had been in labour for more than 14 hours and everyone was in the waiting room waiting for her to give birth. My mother arrived along with Beth… and Daphne took time off so she could be here. But Victoria was done, she had enough. She got to the point where she had begged for the drugs, but the nurse said that she was less than 2 centimetres away and that the contractions were too close together. This of course made her livid. She definitely started showing signs of the ‘old Victoria’ I knew unleashing her frustration mainly at her nurses.
“Why do women ever want to do this more than once? This is absolute unbearable torrrrrrrttttttttuuuuuurrrrreeee,” she said screaming through another contraction. Her last few weeks of ‘torture’ with Samara was completely swept under the rug considering the pain she was in. I just wanted to take it from her for just a moment so she could take a breath.

“I’m here darling, what do you need?”
“I want to push… I want to push… tell the nurse I have to push now, if that bitch doesn’t get here and catch it, you be ready okay?” she said un-rationally. I smirked at first, but she looked dead serious and I slapped the buzzer on the wall. The nurse casually came in and signed,
“The doctor is standing by…”
“I’m pushing, I can’t wait anymore,” she cried.
“Let me check you again…” She said pulling around the curtain and flicking Victoria’s sheet off her legs.
“Oh my goodness, you’re crowning!” she said shocked.
“What does that mean?” Victoria said worried.
“It means I can see the babys head…” she said as she got up off the bed urgently and came back in with Victoria’s midwife within one minute. I went to go and check what the nurses were seeing and I was completely shocked, but tried to look at Victoria with a smile.
“Help my back… help my back…” Victoria begged. I leaned behind her again dangling my legs over the sides as the midwife asked Victoria to give a big push to get the head out. I braced her as she screamed the entire hospital wing down and fell back into me.

I dabbed her head first before she barely waited to push again. I felt myself get emotional all of a sudden and I could see the baby’s face from over Victoria’s shoulder. My body jerked against hers and she felt it looking up at me.
“I can see the baby’s face…” Victoria leaned down as the nurse had turned the baby to face her.
“C’mon Victoria one more push…” Victoria’s scream was like a relieving climax to all of this. And within 15 seconds the nurse held the baby up in front us,
“Congratulations …” she said as the baby let out a dainty little cry. “It’s a little girl…” Victoria held her arms out immediately for our baby girl and placed her against her chest and looked down at her just crying. I actually couldn’t tell who was crying more between us, but she looked up at me speechless,
“She’s beautiful…”

“She’s incredible darling. She’s …” I said completely amazed.
“Here dad do you want to do the honours?” the nurse said handing me some surgical scissors. I slid my body out from behind Victoria and cut the cord. I watched as the nurses took the baby over to weigh her and clean her up. I probably filled my phone with at least 100 pictures in a small space of 5 minutes. She was placed in my arms and I led her back to the bed. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her as I sat next to Victoria.
“Do you have a name now that you have seen her little face…?”
“Not really. But I do like the name Eden. And my mother’s name was Maeve,”
“Eden Maeve Hyatt. It’s a beautiful name. Why didn’t you mention Eden before?”
“It’s just something I thought of in the last few days…”
“I think it’s perfect…” I said. “Hey my beautiful Eden…” I smiled. I passed the baby to Victoria and she grabbed her tiny hand, “Hey baby, I’m your Mumma…” she said crying.

After Victoria and I took a good hour doting on our brand new baby daughter, I went out to the Visitors room to announce the news,
“It’s a girl, everything fine…” I wasn’t exactly prepared for a group hug but I got one anyway. “C’mon mum come and meet your new granddaughter…” I said ushering her down the hall. My mother was a ball of emotions when she saw Victoria cradling the baby in her arms.
“What’s her name?”
“Eden Maeve…” Victoria said sweetly. She was in love at first sight as was Victoria and I was. And everyone that followed after my mother was in complete awe and utterly happy for us.