Christmas Angels

Chapter 6

Marianne asked her employer if she could reduce her working hours to half days in order to minimize stress and stay rested during her pregnancy. The company agreed, provided that she would continue working, more or less full-time, until an intern could be hired to act as her assistant. That way, if the recruit proved suitable, he or she would be already trained to fill in when Marianne began her maternity leave later in her pregnancy. Two weeks later, they hired a girl, just out of college, and Marianne began training her while reducing her own work hours at the same time. She was bright and eager to learn and they got along very well. It was not long before Marianne was confident that Cindy would have no problem taking over the job completely when the time came, and she was away for as much as a year. She hoped to keep working part-time for as long as possible, since she and Josh couldn't afford to lose that much income. Besides, she would rather have the time off after the baby was born and spend as much time as she could, becoming a mom, before she had to return to work full-time.

As it turned out, Dr. William Blather had heard that Marianne was now expecting and he had insisted on getting involved. Dr. Strickland had concurred, happy to leave such a fragile case to the older, more experienced man. At eighteen weeks, Marianne was scheduled for her regular appointment with Dr. Balthar. He had brought Marianne herself into the world and now he wanted to handle her own pregnancy. She smiled with delight, when she thought of Dr. Balthar. It gave her a sense of ease to know that he would be there to help her give birth. He had insisted that he would handle the delivery, when the time came, since Marianne's weak heart made her's a high risk pregnancy, if ever there was one. Dr. Strickland would be on standby, for this reason, ready to assist, if needed. Dr. Balthar was an older man now, and he only worked part time these days. He had always made her feel comfortable with his easy, professional manner and matter-of-fact style. He was tall, and clean-shaven, and Marianne was pleased that he wanted to be in charge. On previous visits, Dr. Balthar had done several ultrasounds of Marianne's abdomen and it seemed like such a miracle to her when she saw the tiny new life forming within her womb. Already they had witnessed vast changes in the foetus as it rapidly grew bigger and more complete.

Today was special. This was the day on which the doctor would finally be able to determine the sex of the child. Josh and Marianne had discussed it several times, trying to decide whether to have him tell them whether it was a boy or girl. In a way, Marianne was old-fashioned and thought it should be a surprise to everyone on the day the baby was born, something to look forward to until the great event occurred. On the other hand, she was practical and wanted to decorate the nursery and buy appropriate clothing and toys for the child before it was born. The biggest factor, however, was that she was dying to know and really couldn't wait even one day longer than she had to in order to find out. Josh was happy to do it either way, but he was eager to find out too and went with her for the appointment. "Curiosity killed the cat," he told her. "Satisfaction brought it back." As corny as it was, they had a good laugh over that.

"Hello Josh, hello Marianne. It is nice to see you both again today," Dr. William Balthar greeted them when he entered the examination room at Mount Bethel Hospital.

"Hi Dr. Balthar, we are glad to see you, too. We are really excited about coming today," Josh replied, "We can't wait to hear whether our baby is a boy or a girl."

"Do either of you have a preference, then?"

"Oh no, we don't care which it is, we just can't stand the suspense, really," Marianne cut in. "Just having our own baby will be a dream come true."

"That is very good to hear. A miracle baby such as this one, deserves all the love you can give it. Well, now, Marianne, how are you feeling today?" Dr. Balthar asked.