It was a good thing we hadn’t gone with anything tighter for the wedding dress or they might have had to cut it off me. Howard was in the labor room with me, and after two hours of labor and me crushing Howard’s hand multiple times, I gave birth to our little baby girl.
It was a few hours later, after I’d been put in a hospital room and Howard had joined me, when my daughter was brought to me, after she’d been wiped down and wrapped in a soft blanket, and I got to see her properly. I held her carefully with my arms under her, tucking her into my chest. I began to feed her nervously but, according to the nurse’s instructions. A little while later Howard sat on the bed beside me as we watched in silent awe at our sleeping daughter.
I heard the door open again minutes after the nurse had left and knew without looking that Dad and Katie had arrived.
“Mom, Ben,” Howard called, his tone proud. “Come and meet your very first granddaughter.”
Katie practically flew to his side.
“She’s so beautiful,” Katie whispered, crowding against Howard, almost pushing him out of the way to see the baby, but he just laughed good-naturedly.
“What happened to the team?” I asked. “And my friends?”
“Because we already had the reception planned and you guys would be here for hours, everyone else went ahead there. They already know, it’s about midnight, but I’m sure they’re still celebrating. They said they’d come visit after you get out of the hospital.”
I couldn’t wait for Kayla to see my little baby. We’d talked a lot over the past several months, and I’d already promised her she could be the baby’s godmother. Grandma already said she would be over as soon as she could, and she regretted missing the wedding.
Dad came over to the other side of the bed and placed his hand on my shoulder.
When I looked up at him, I was surprised to see he was smiling.
“She’s so tiny,” he said, voice rough. “Kind of like you were. I was there when your mom gave birth to you, and you were so small I was afraid to even touch you.”
I gave him a shaky smile as my own eyes blurred with tears, and I heard him sigh.
“The labor was hard on your mom, Zoe. So, I thought it would be better for her if she stayed at home to look after you. Then there just wasn’t need for her to work. Thinking back on it now, she couldn’t have been all that happy with it, even though she loved you with everything she had. I’m sorry to her, and to you, too. I promise I’m going to support you from now on.”
“It’s okay, Dad,” I said shakily. “Thank you.”
He chuckled. “No need to say thank you. What are you going to call her?”
My smile widened. “Since it’s a girl, we decided to call her Benedicta.”
Dad’s eyes widened in surprise, before he let out a laugh that was just a little wet. Benedicta was Mom’s name, after all.
Howard squeezed his mother out of the way and wrapped a possessive arm around me, pecking my cheek before leaning his head against mine, and all of us sat in silent harmony, listening to the baby breathing.
###The End###