“She looks like you,” he said, the awe and wonder in his voice apparent.
“She has your eyes,” I murmured, my words coming out uneven.
Marcia administered some morphine to help with the pain, and another drug to help me calm down.
“Do you know what you’re going to call her?” Marcie asked.
“Her name is Nova Grace Wood,” I said, still unable to lift my gaze from the perfect little baby in my arms.
“That’s really pretty,” Marcie complimented. I didn’t even have the energy to thank her, I smiled and nodded.
We’d chosen the name Nova because it meant “new star”, and it was associated with new beginnings, hope, and optimism. We named her Grace after Noah’s grandmother, and I’d wanted her to carry her father’s last name because he and his family had given me the very thing I’d longed for my whole life: a sense of belonging.
“So sorry for missing the big show,” the attending obstetrician said when he came into our room sometime later. “It’s been an incredibly busy morning. We’ve had six labouring mothers come in, and your baby makes for the fifth birth today.”
“That’s a lot of babies,” Noah said. He was holding Nova now; my arms had started trembling so much that I’d been unable to continue supporting her weight. The pain meds were finally kicking in though, and I was feeling pretty good, though exhausted.
“We call them the Halloween batch.” Carla giggled as the obstetrician checked me out. “There’s usually a huge wave of them around this time: nine months after the Witches’ Ball in Hartwood Creek. I noticed on your chart that you guys are from there. Did you happen to attend?”
Noah and I exchanged a look.
“Er, yes,” he answered sheepishly.
“Knew it! That makes three so far in the past twenty-four hours!” Carla exclaimed.
The obstetrician finished checking me over and gave me a clean bill of health. “Of course, we’ll want you to stay for twenty-four hours, so we can make sure you and baby are healthy before we discharge you.”
“Okay,” I nodded, too exhausted to argue. The obstetrician went on his merry way, and the nurses went with him, leaving Noah and me alone with our beautiful baby girl.
* * *
Noah
* * *
I’d always thought that Nellie was strong and brave but seeing her give birth to our beautiful daughter solidified that. She was the strongest, bravest woman in existence. She had delivered without an epidural, without hesitating, even when I baulked at the absence of an obstetrician.
She bore through the pain and the uncertainty and brought our beautiful Nova Grace into the world, and despite the pain she was in, her tears were of happiness and utter reverence.
A few hours later, Nellie was finally sleeping, and I was holding Nova in my arms and gazing down at her in wonder, at her tiny nose and lips and her little hand wrapped tight around my pinky finger.
A gentle knocking at the door alerted me to the arrival of company. I looked up, surprised to see Nix in the doorway with his own little bundle of blue blankets.
“Congratulations, man!” I said, smiling as I stood up and made my way over to him.
“Thanks, and congratulations to you guys, too!” Nix spoke quietly, to not wake up Nellie. “Sage begged me to pop over and check on Nellie. We’re actually a few doors down, but Sage had a c-section, so she can’t walk yet.”
“Oh man! You guys must have been the c-section the nurses told us about. When was he born?”
“Around five o’clock this morning,” Nix replied, grinning down at his son. “Introducing Reed Davis Hutchinson.”
“This is Nova Grace Wood,” I said, and we peered down at the little ones in our arms. “She was born about a half hour after Reed.”
“That’s crazy!” Nix chuckled lowly, but the sound of us talking woke up Nellie.
“Noah? Oh! Hi Nix.” she tried to sit up more in bed, but then winced from the pain. “Oh my gosh! He’s here!?” she added, catching sight of the bundle in Nix’s arms.
“Hey, Nell. Sage is recovering from a c-section so she’s not up and moving yet. She wanted us to pop over and see how you were doing.”
