[Birth]
A woman's struggle was echoing throughout the delivery room. Layla Heartfilia was about to give birth to her child. Doctors were guiding her, watching her vitals and checking on the baby as it was being born. Her husband, Jude, was with her, holding her hand throughout her ordeal. From the time her water broke until now, it has been almost eighteen hours and still no baby. But they were getting close. She could feel it.
"Okay, Heartfilia-san." The doctor attending her said. "Keep pushing. I can see the head."
Layla grunted, groaned and screamed as she pushed. The pain was immense, like nothing she had ever felt with her.
"You're almost there, Layla." Jude comforted. "Think about holding your baby in your arms for the first time and use that as an aide to get through this."
Layla, annoyed that Jude had the audacity of saying that when she was the one going through the pain, ignored him and focused on pushing. She could hear the wails of her little baby as she did.
"You're halfway done, Hearfilia-san." The doctor told her. "One more push and you'll be holding your child."
With a mighty effort, Layla pushed. Then, all of a sudden, instead of pain, she felt a great relief because it was over.
"Congratulations, Heartfilia-san." The doctor said. "It's a girl, a healthy baby girl. Give us a moment to clean her up and you'll be holding her in no time."
The doctors went about cleaning the afterbirth from the baby, weighing her, measuring her and swaddling her. Afterwards, they handed her to Layla and exited the room to give them a moment of privacy.
Layla cried tears of joy as she held her daughter. All of that pain, everything she endured during the birth was quickly forgotten as soon as the baby was in her mother's arms. Jude looked with a happy smile. His daughter was finally born. There were no words to describe how he felt. His daughter, his beautiful daughter...
"Happy birthday, Lucy." Layla whispered to her daughter. "Happy birthday, my dear Lucy."
Baby Lucy fell asleep, surrounded by her loving mother and father.
[Age 1]
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, dear Lucy
Happy birthday to you
Baby Lucy had no idea what was going on. Her parents were singing Happy Birthday. She was wearing a party hat that she kept trying to take off her head. There was a small cake in front of her with a single candle on it and a present next to it. Jude was taking pictures of Lucy in front of the cake while Layla blew out the candle for her.
Jude had wanted to throw a more extravagant party for his daughter but his new business was eating up a lot of their finances. So this was all they could afford. Still Lucy was healthy and growing by leaps and bounds. She really completed the family. He really couldn't ask for more, could he?
"Mama, Papa." Lucy said in her cute one year old voice. "Wan 'ake"
Layla smiled and took a fork to the cake, cutting it into a toddler size portion. She started feeding Lucy her birthday cake.
Lucy was surrounded by her loving mother and father on her first birthday.
[Age 5]
"Happy birthday, Lucy." Her mother smiled as she led her daughter into the dining room.
Lucy was in awe of how it was decorated. There were streamers and balloons everywhere. Many of the servants were holding wrapped gifts to give her on her birthday.
