Big Dreams

Chapter 21: Maria

I was 7 months pregnant when I had an idea that I shared with Miguel.

- "I think I want to leave the hospital and find another job."

- "And why is that?" Miguel asked although he didn't seem surprised.

- "The hospital pharmacy is a very stressful job and, now that we're going to have a baby, I think I want to work in a less stressful environment. Besides..."

- "Besides, you can't do the same thing for the rest of your life"

- "How did you know what I was gonna say?" I asked.

- "Because I know you, Sara. We always talked about working in different areas of pharmaceutical sciences"

- "And end up as college professors" I finished and we laughed.

- "Come here," Miguel said, grabbing my hands and putting his head against mine "I really like the idea of you thinking about your professional future in a better way to combine with having a baby but I don't want you to feel like you have to be the only one changing."

- "I know, babe but for now I'm the one who should change and it's better if it's only one at a time. If we see it's better for you and our family, we'll see."

- "I love you so much, and I can't wait to meet our daughter." We were happier than I thought I would ever be.

I talked with director Liam Poulsen the next day.

- "Well, we have a partnership with some analysis clinics so I can give you the contacts and, after your maternity leave ends, you will have another job, I'm sure. You did a great job so I wish you all the best." I definitely did not expect that but I was happy because I didn't want to be without a job for too long.

As we had decided to have the baby in Portugal, we took a plane from Toronto to Porto and stayed at my father's house for a few days until the baby would supposedly come out. That was our last flight just the two of us because after there would be 3 of us.

I was 9 months pregnant, the baby could be born anytime and I needed to be ready for every situation. We had a pink bag with everything we would need: diapers, clothes for a few days for the baby and me, a pacifier and some other things the doctors or some friends had recommended.

On the 24th of March, I was at my father's playing with Afonso and Miguel when my water broke. Miguel's eyes were shining, Afonso hugged me before running to my father and we entered the car to go to the maternity.

After 7h in the delivery room, I had Maria for the first time in my arms. She had really small green eyes just like mine, almost no hair so we still didn't know the colour and her arms and legs were small but a little fat. In a way she looked like a little doll that could move, she was just the most adorable baby I've ever seen and, when she grabbed my finger with all her hand, I fell in love with her immediately. The nurses washed the baby, gave her to Miguel and he was so nervous to hold her, I could see he was afraid of doing something wrong.

They took us to our room and informed us that some people had asked how me and the baby were. After that, I started hearing noises near my door and recognized the voices, my friends and my family. They entered the room very quietly because they didn't know if Maria would be sleeping. My brother ran to the baby crib to see her, my father and Beni went with him, all of my friends gave me a big hug and were really happy for me when they saw their niece for the first time.

I noticed that everyone was trying to hold back tears but Marta had given up and had tears all over her face. When my grandma entered the room, she said hello to everyone and went to see her great-granddaughter, she was really happy when she saw her and, to everyone's surprise, she didn't make a single comment about my life, just said she was happy for me.