Everything is a blur as, once we arrive, I’m taken into a room and hooked up to machines. I can hear Bastian telling the doctor’s assistant off just outside my door. The nurse pretends she doesn’t hear a thing as Amadeo and Bastian enter the room, Amadeo with his arm around Bastian clearly to pull him away.
Bastian looks at me but all I can do is squeeze my eyes shut as the next contraction overwhelms me.
“Can’t you give her something?” he snaps at the nurse.
“Doctor’s on her way. She’s just—”
Before she finishes, the door is pushed open, and Dr. Sandra enters. “I hear this little one is anxious to meet Mom!” she says with a wide smile for my benefit. She settles on a stool to check my progress.
“Give her something for the pain,” Bastian tells her urgently.
Dr. Sandra looks up at him and shakes her head. “Too late. Baby’s coming. Nurse.”
Within minutes, the room is abuzz with men and women in scrubs. Before I know it, I’m being told to push, and fuck, the pain is so fucking bad all I see is black as I dig my nails into Amadeo and Bastian’s hands and push until finally, what feels like a lifetime later, I hear her. I hear her little cry.
We all stop, and the doctor holds up a little pink human and smiles as the baby begins to wail, and I think she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
“It’s a girl,” Dr. Sandra says.
And I look at her when they lay her on my chest and watch the awe on Amadeo and Bastian’s faces as they take her in.
“Hannah,” I whisper as Hannah wriggles and turns her face up to mine, and for the briefest of moments, her eyes meet mine before she closes them, and I know that I can’t be happier than I am in this instant. This beautiful moment that marks the beginning of the rest of our lives.