Wish Come True (The Blogger Diaries Trilogy Book 3) (28 page)

“How you doin’, babe?” Dad asks, coming up to the bed to smack a kiss on my forehead.
 

“She’s six centimeters, so four to go,” Jason cuts in, and I shoot him a look. “She checked you right before Buffy got here. You don’t remember?” At the shake of my head, he adds, “You responded to her asking if she could check you and everything. You must’ve been out of it. Remind me to ask the doc for some of these drugs to take home with us.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me and I smack him on the chest.
 

“As if you’d need to use them on me,” I whisper-hiss in his direction, trying not to let his parents hear, but his dad chuckles, so I know he did. Hopefully Mom was too far away though.
 

“Mommy!” Josalyn chirps and reaches her little arms up. Dad picks her up so she can lean over the bed rail and give me a hug.

“Hi, my baby doll. Guess what?” I prompt.

“What?” she whispers.

“Your baby sister will be here in a little bit. The doctor just has to get her out of my belly.”

Her eyes widen. “How they gon’ do that?”

I look over at Jason, my lips pulled between my teeth, not knowing what to say.

“They’re going to unscrew her belly button. What did you have for breakfast, big girl?” he quickly changes the subject as I snort at his answer.

“Pancakes!” she replies, clapping her hands. “Papa made dem and let me pour da syrup!”

“Oh, my goodness. Were they delicious?” I ask her, smiling at her excited face.

“Supah delicious!”

I can barely handle how adorable she is, with the little gap between her two front teeth and cheeks glowing from how big she’s grinning. Dad sets her back on her feet when she spots Nay and Buffy on the couch beneath the window, and she runs over to them and throws herself into Buffy’s open arms.
 

“How’s it been? Smooth sailing since you called last, bud?” Mom asks Jason.

“We had a scare with the epidural working a little too well, but the nurse fixed it within seconds. They couldn’t have a more attentive staff. Everyone’s been great. The doc broke her water, and she almost immediately dilated two more centimet—”

“Oh, shit! We need to call
my
parents!” It dawns on me suddenly, but Buffy puts me at ease.
 

“I called your mom as soon as I got off the phone telling Renee it was go-time. Your dad said to tell you not to push until midnight so Avary can share a birthday with him.”

“Push what?” Josalyn asks, her sweet face looking at Buffy, waiting for an answer.

“My buttons,” Buffy growls, tickling my two-and-a-half-year-old’s belly, making her squeal with laughter, effectively diverting her attention from the conversation.

“All right, baby. Why don’t you come with Mimi and Papa, and you can play with your cousins in the waiting room?” Dad asks Josalyn, and knowing she’ll get to play with Bret and Brooke, Josalyn runs over to him and grabs a hold of his hand, and they leave the room.
 

A few hours later, after catching a couple of quick catnaps between dilation checks and goofing around taking pictures with my crazy sisters—my favorite being Renee getting into a football stance at the foot of the bed, pretending like she’s going to catch the baby when she shoots out—Rebecca comes to check my progress once again.
 

“Wow, you’re at like, nine and a half.” She pulls the rolling stool over with her toes and sits at the foot of the bed. Placing her fingers back inside me, she says, “Give me like, half of a push, hun.”

I hardly bare down at all when Rebecca squawks, “Stop! Stop! Don’t do anything. Don’t push. Don’t sneeze. Don’t even breathe. I gotta get Dr. Chavez now!” If it weren’t for the happy-excited look on her face, that would’ve probably scared me, but as she speeds toward the door, she throws over her shoulder, “This baby’s a’coming fast!”

And just like that, I’m sent into the same panicked feeling I had when the other nurse told me Josalyn was ready to be born and it was time to push. My heart starts pumping, and I get really scared suddenly, but this time…

This time I feel warm, strong finger interlace with mine, and then my hand is lifted to pillow-soft lips. Warm breath blankets my icy knuckles. My hand is uncurled and my palm is pressed to a stubble-covered cheek, and then the most handsome face on the planet is lowered into my line of vision, with eyes the color of Hershey Kisses locking with mine, filled with more love, pride, and excitement than I’ve ever seen before.
 

“You’ve got this, baby,” he says, just loud enough for me to hear. “You’re so strong, and perfect, and beautiful. Look what a badass you’ve been all day. And I don’t think there’s ever been a more gorgeous woman in labor in the history of ever.” He grins, making his whiskers tickle my palm. When I catch his contagious smile, he leans forward and runs the tip of his nose along mine and I close my eyes. “I won’t look, babe. Don’t worry about that. I promise I won’t, so get that out of your head. And I’m not gonna scream a countdown in your ear.”
 

My eyes open at this, meeting the mischievous glint in his. I can’t believe he remembers me telling him that story about Aiden, and how I wanted to stab him in the jugular.
 

“I love you so much. And there’s no one in this world I would rather have as the mother of my baby.” He leans down to kiss me, pulling back to brush my long ponytail back over my shoulder.
 

The door opens, and even though Dr. Chavez is striding swiftly into the room, Rebecca excitedly hustling in behind him, he still has that same calming bubble around him that sucks you in like a vortex as soon as he nears. With the love of my life by my side, my silly sisters jumping up and down by the windows, my peace-inducing doctor at the foot of the bed, and my badass nurse at the ready next to him, my fear subsides, and determination and anxiety to meet our daughter takes me over.
 

In a hushed voice so low it makes everyone in the room silence in order to hear the important words coming out of his mouth, Dr. Chavez says, “As soon as the contraction starts, you’ll push as we count to ten. If the contraction is still going when we reach it, you’ll take a deep breath and go again. We’ll break between contractions and start all over again until this princess makes her grand entrance. You ready, Mom? Dad?” He glances between me and Jason, and we both nod. “Okay, good. Dad, will you be cutting the cord?” he asks.

 
“Yes, but I promised her I wouldn’t look when Avary is coming out,” Jason replies, squeezing my hand.

“Completely understandable, and in many cases, a wise choice. I don’t need anyone fainting in my delivery room.” The doctor smiles, which brightens his darkly tanned face. “So what we’ll do,” he takes the sheet gathered at my waist from where they’d lifted it from my feet so they could check me, “is keep this right here across your knees, and as long as Mr. Robichaux can contain his curiosity as he’s promised to do and not peek over it, he won’t be able to see anything. Stay right up there by her head and pull her knee back, and it’ll make a little tent for me to work under. Who wants to hold your other leg, Mom?”
 

“Me!” Renee yelps and raises her hand as she hurries around the bed to get to my right side.

“Bitch,” Buffy coughs behind her hand and then smiles. “I’ll be the photographer.” She turns the digital camera on and aims it in our direction.”

Renee sticks her tongue out at her then gets a grip on my leg, mimicking Jason’s stance. With my thighs being grasped behind my knees and my feet in their opposite palms, it gives me good leverage when it’ll be time to push, which is apparently now.

“Here we go, folks. Ready. Go. One, two, three…” Dr. Chavez continues the countdown in his soft, soothing voice as I bear down with all my might, and instead of joining in with the chant, I hear Jason next to my ear whispering, encouraging me, telling me I’m doing great and how beautiful I am, thanking me for giving him this wonderful gift. And it’s not like in the movies. I don’t want to yell at him or call him hateful names for ‘doing this to me’. No, instead, I want to absorb every word he’s telling me, which I’m hearing not only with my ears, but with my heart and soul.
 

This baby is being born into a room full of nothing but love and quiet, tranquil welcome. At the end of the first set of ten, with a glance at the monitor, the doctor tells me, “Deep breath,” which I immediate gasp for, “and push. One, two…”

Bearing down once more, I don’t even hear them reach ‘five’ before an overwhelming sense of relief fills me as Avary exits my body, making me feel both empty and full at the same time. Dr. Chavez stands, lifts Avary over the sheet across my knees, and lays her on my stomach, where Rebecca immediately starts rubbing her clean with blankets while somehow simultaneously suctioning her nostrils and mouth. I wrap my arms underneath the squalling baby girl and pull her up higher onto my chest and immediately burst into tears. How could I possibly have thought I wouldn’t love this tiny thing with every fiber of my being? My mom was right. The moment my eyes landed on her miniature, scrunched-up, pissed-as-hell face, my heart grew twice its size.
 

I’m so enamored with her I miss it when her father cuts her umbilical cord, my focus never waning until I feel Jason kiss my cheek, and I turn my face to capture his lips. “She’s so tiny,” I sob, looking back down at Avary, and my heart clenches when I see his hand reach toward her and his finger run gently down the bridge of her itty-bitty nose.
 

“She’s gorgeous, like her momma,” he tells me, his voice tight, and I glance up to see his eyes and face are pinched with barely-contained emotion.
 

Rebecca picks her up, saying she only needs her for a moment while she weighs her, and very quickly, as promised, brings Avary back, now wearing a soft striped beanie on her head and swaddled securely in a clean blanket. Wrapped up like this, her little cheeks look so chubby, and since she’s stopped crying, I can really get a good look at her.

“Oh, my God, she’s a mini Jason,” Buffy says, leaning over the side of the bed next to him. I see his body jolt at her words, and to my astonishment, it’s as if a dam breaks inside him as his eyes fill with tears and immediately spill over. It’s only the second time I’ve ever seen my unwavering badass boyfriend cry, the first time being when he got drunk during one of his trips to visit me and professed his undying love for me in an alcohol-induced stupor, in which I had responded by laughing so hard I almost puked.
 

But this… there is nothing humorous about this. What I’m witnessing right now is the physical response of a grown man being brought to his knees by a six-pound, fifteen-point-seven-ounce baby girl—a real man’s response when they see their child for the very first time. All that hard-acting, take-no-shit attitude went right out the window, and what’s left before me is my soul mate with all of his walls pulverized and blown away. And it’s a beautiful sight.

The next hour is a blur as first Jason holds Avary for the very first time, my heart filling nearly to bursting seeing him hold our baby with such gentleness and care, and then Renee and Buffy take turns getting their fill of newborn baby smell. Jason’s mom and dad come in with Josalyn, who had been taking a nap in the waiting room and was not happy about being woken up. Red-faced and sweaty, she passed up wanting me and reached for Aunt Buffy, who gladly took her out of her papa’s arms so he could hold his newest grandbaby before handing Avary to Mimi. Lastly, Brooke and Bret came in to meet their cousin, and the hustle and bustle of excitement died down as Buffy took Avary into her arms to let Josalyn meet her sister.
 

Still out of it from being woken up from her nap, my big girl only gave a small smile and Avary a kiss on her cheek before lying her head on Buffy’s shoulder, looking like she was ready to fall back to sleep.
 

“I think that’s our cue to get going,” Buffy tells the room as she hands Avary to Jason, nodding at Renee, who gathers Brooke and Bret after kissing the baby one last time, hugging me and Jason, and then taking Josalyn’s overnight bag from Dad.

Jason’s parents leave soon after, and we’re finally left alone with our new bundle for a few quiet minutes. All we can do is stare at her. She really does look just like Jason, with her full cheeks and insanely long dark eyelashes.
 

“She’s got your nose, thank God,” he says quietly through a chuckle.
 

“I can’t get over how little she is. She’s the same exact weight as Josalyn was when she was born, but I’m so used to seeing our big girl that I forgot how tiny she used to be.”

“Let’s see her hair,” Jason prompts, nodding at the beanie on her head, so I reach over and pull it off, and instantly, my eyebrows pull together.

“Tilt her closer to me?” I ask, and when he does, I lean forward and cock my head to the side. “Is that just the light reflecting off her shiny black hair, am I delirious, or is that a grey streak in the front?”

He brings her head closer to his face to inspect the top of her hair, shifting side-to-side to see it at different angles. “That’s definitely a grey streak. Jeez, punkin’, was being born so stressful it gave you greys?” he asked her softly, placing a sweet kiss to the strands in question.
 

“Hmm… that’s pretty cool, actually. Just like Rogue from
X-Men
. Plus, it’s her mommy’s favorite color.” I smile. But then a flash of my childhood enters my head and I tell Jason, “Kids are so mean. They’ll tease each other for any-damn-thing. I hope she likes it about herself and doesn’t end up dyeing it.”

“Nah, Daddy’s gonna teach her to be a badass and take no shit. If anybody tries to pick on her, she'll knock their ass out. Isn’t that right, baby?” he coos at her, and then Rebecca comes into the room after a light knock on the door.

“We’re just waiting for them to put the final touches on your postpartum room, Miss Kayla. Do y’all have any questions while we wait?” she asks.

“Yeah, actually. How’d you do this swaddle so tight? What’s the trick? We practiced on the dolls during Josalyn’s sibling class last month, but mine kept coming undone.” As the words leave his mouth, he’s reluctant to give up his hold on Avary when Rebecca reaches out and takes her from him. I hide my smile, loving the overprotectiveness he already feels for our girl.