Dream Child

Chapter Sixteen

After what felt like forever, the anesthesiologist arrived in her room,

"Amanda, I am Dr. Melone and I will be helping you to help get your baby here!" she introduced herself.

"And I assume that handsome man behind you is Daddy" she asked.

"If not, I'll call security and we can get him removed if you don't know him," she laughed.

Amanda smiled, too exhausted to give out a laugh, and she felt Eric's rumble of laughter through her back.

"Yes, ma'am, I'm Eric and from what my wife tells me, I am the Daddy," he answered.

"Well that's a relief," Dr. Melone replied, "It's a lot of paper work to help fill out if you had to be removed."

Eric smiled and tilted his head down towards his wife.

"Here we go babe," he whispered and rubbed his hands up and down her shoulders.

"Alright Eric, unless you want the epidural, and I'm fairly certain Amanda wants it more than you, I need you to climb on down and allow me to get the procedure done so you can meet your baby."

Eric kissed the back of Amanda's neck and slowly eased himself backwards and off the side of the bed.

Amanda suddenly was struck with a shiver as the heat of his body was removed.

"Okay sweetheart, are you more comfortable sitting up or would you like to lay on your side?"

A contraction suddenly rent her body and she wrenched to the side and waited for it to pass.

"I think we'll go ahead and have you lay on your side. When I began to administer the epidural, you must be still so that the needle isn't knocked into the wrong place. How far apart are your contractions at this point? Your doctor told me it was at least 5-7 minutes apart when you arrived. Have they begun to get closer together?" she asked.

Amanda shook her head and said she didn't know, they seemed about the same.

"Okay, so this one just passed so we have at least 3-4 minutes until the next one. What I need you to do is to lay over on your left side for me and arch your back. For you to remain stable, I suggest you wrap left arm around your knees, pulling them up towards your tummy," Dr. Melone ordered.

Amanda began to shift herself around, and Eric assisted her in getting her knees folded enough to arch her back for the Doctor.

"Great job Amanda and Eric. Now, you're going to feel some coldness, which is just going to be my ice-cold fingers looking for the spine," she joked.

Amanda felt the doctor's fingers walking down her spine and stop near her tailbone and go back up some.

"Alright, now I am going to just clean the spot with some alcohol so any germs from the bed doesn't get in. I don't think that's a problem, I made sure they changed the sheets for you."

Though the doctor was trying to ease the situation with humor, Amanda was starting to get aggravated with her jokes. But, she knew that it was her way of trying to distract her and knew she should be grateful to have a doctor who wasn't a jerk or uncaring.

Soon she felt the coolness of the alcohol pad touch her back and she jerked a little.

"I know it was cold honey, but I need you to try your best not to move." Amanda squeezed her arm tighter around her legs and prayed that she wouldn't get another contraction.

"I am going to inject some local anesthetic to numb the place where the needle will need to go, so on the count of three you will feel the needle. One.... Two... three..."

Amanda felt the needle go in, and although she hated needles, it was nothing compared to the contraction pain she'd been enduring.

"Now, I am going to place a needle into the area that I numbed, and I need you to be as still as you possible can. Try not to jerk your back or straighten it." Dr. Melone instructed.

Eric watches as she inserted a needle that looked about a inch long into her spine, and then thread a small tube through the needle into her back. The Doctor slowly removed the needle and the tube was left. She then removed one glove and taped the tube to Amanda's back.

Just as she finished, Amanda began to have a contraction.

"Its not working!" she cried, doing her best not to move her back... which was difficult to do.

Then she felt liquid entering her back, and then a sort of coolness, and then she could feel a warmth flood her as she felt the pain begin to subside in her back and abdomen.

"We're done love," she told Amanda, gently placing her hand on her shoulder. "You can move if you need to get through this contraction."

Amanda remained like she was, only extending her legs out and gripping the railing to ride the pain out.

Once it passed, Dr. Melone attached the tube to another that ran into a bag next to her IV fluids and handed her a button.

"Press this when you need more medication, sometimes it will wear off slightly, and when you press it, you'll feel it work again. It will only allow you to do it once an hour, to prevent you from overdosing. I know it's tempting to press it every second, believe me, I've had my own babies and know how you are feeling. But, your baby needs her momma, so only once an hour is what you'll need. In about five to ten minutes, you'll start to feel your lower body going numb. Do not get out of bed... you'll need stitches in your head if you do so. Even if you feel like you can move, your legs will not cooperate with your brain. Since your contraction just passed, I am hoping that you'll be starting to feel it before the next one; in about twenty minutes you should be completely numb."

"What if I have to pee?" Amanda asked.

"Well, that was the next thing I was going to address, you are moving faster than I talk!" she laughed.

"The nurse is going to come back in and place a catheter so that you won't pee the bed. Because you are numb, you won't feel the urge."

"Okay," she breathed, starting to feel her lower body kind of disappear. She looked down and saw her legs and tried to wiggle her toes. Nothing happened, and she was both relieved and a little freaked out. When she had Jenny, she had her naturally. There was pain, but it was so quick that she really had no time to get an epidural and before she knew it, Jenny had popped out.

"How are you feeling?" Eric asked her, rubbing the hair away from her face.

"It feels wonderful. I can't feel the contractions," she told him.

...............................

"She's so perfect!" Amanda cried, staring down at her daughter's face.

Anastasia was so beautiful, in her, she could see Jenny and Eric. Her dark hair was matted down to her small round head, her eyes were almond shaped like hers and framed in long gorgeous eyelashes. They were so long, they were nearly touching her eyebrows. Her lips were cupid shaped and were pressed together tightly, her tiny eyebrows furrowed as she was feeling the temperature of her new environment.

"She is so amazing," Eric softly whispered against her ear.

It had taken another four hours before Anastasia was born, and before she had her, Amanda was able to sleep thanks to the miracle of the epidural.

She had woken an hour and a half before she began pushing, and in no time their daughter was entering the world. It was so surreal pushing her daughter out when she couldn't feel her legs. She knew that they were there, but the medicine had worked so well that Eric and another nurse had to hold her legs up because she couldn't control them.

She was still numb, but the doctor told her that it would wear off soon.

Amanda sighed and leaned her head against Eric's and together they looked down at their pink and tiny daughter.

"Everything is going to be okay, you did so great," Eric told her.

Amanda nodded and she closed her eyes and prayed that it would be.