“Okay, Niamh. We’re going to have us a few babies now. I need you to push only when I tell you, and these little McNallys are going to come out just fine and take their place in the world. Let’s do this.”
Niamh did as she was told, breathing through her contractions and listening to Amanda as she told her the first baby was crowning and in position. Everything turned into one big blur as she delivered the first baby, then the second only forty-two seconds later, with the third coming another minute and ten seconds afterward.
She was relieved when they said she was done. She’d been told childbirth was so difficult by many of the women in her circle here and she wondered if that was true for them but maybe not so much for Omegas, who were built for multiple pregnancies and births. Whatever the case, it had seemed not nearly as bad as she expected.
In fact, it had seemed much easier, though not completely without discomfort. At any rate, she was glad it was over and she had managed it so well. She continued to clutch Olcan’s hand as the nurses worked nearby on the deliveries they’d made.
Cries filled the air as the babies were suctioned and cleaned up, each expressing their displeasure at being taken from their warm place all cuddled up together and expelled into a semi-warm room on separate tables where people fiddled with them. Niamh couldn’t help but think how confusing birth must be for such little minds and wondered if they were really capable of any real thought about it.
“Three healthy boys,” the doctor said from the examination tables where he and two of the nurses tended babies while the midwife finished up with her.
“Boys? All of them?” Olcan asked, practically glowing with how excited he was to have three sons.
“Every last one of them,” Dr. Kelly replied. “Let us just get finished up with them over here and well bring them over so that you can get to know them.”
He stood holding Niamh’s hand, still beaming as he waited for them to be done with both her and the boys. Once they had finally finished with their cleaning, weighing, and measuring, they wrapped them in blankets and put tiny beanies on their heads for warmth before bringing them over to their waiting parents.
One by one, they lay each baby on Niamh’s chest, balancing their tiny bodies so that they could all snuggle up against one another as their mom cradled them in her arms. The midwife stood on one side in case she was needed, but the rest pulled back, letting the new parents enjoy their first moment with their new sons.
“Do you have names picked out?” Doctor Kelly asked.
“We’ve decided to name them after our fathers, Cathal and Patrick. The last will be Olcan Jr.” Niamh told him.
“Solid. Now you just have to decide which is which. Good thing they aren’t identical. You might stand a chance of telling them apart,” he laughed.
“Thank God for that,” Olcan replied. “I thought I was going to have to give them baby tattoos.”
One of the nurses gasped aloud and then looked alarmed that it had been so audible. “I’m sorry,” she apologized.
“It’s okay,” Olcan replied. “It was only a joke. I’d just paint a mark on the back of their hands until they were at least twelve or so. I’m dead set against children getting their first tattoo before they’re twelve.”
She looked at him, wide-eyed, finally breathing a sigh of relief when he laughed, reaching out to stroke Niamh’s hair and look down at their babies. With his other hand, he touched each of their tiny hands, smiling. Only one of them caught his finger and grasped it with his own little paw. Olcan smiled broadly. “I think we have found Olcan, Jr.,” he quipped, looking at the poor nurse he’d been giving a tough time. “You got any paint?”
This time she laughed, though it still sounded a little nervous, finally responding, “I don’t think you need any paint with a head of red hair like that one has.”
“A fair point,” he replied, looking puzzled. “Where did he get that? Our bears are ginger, but no one is an actual redhead in my family.
“My mother,” Niamh replied with a smile. “His hair is the exact same color as my mother’s hair.”
“Ya hear that, Olcan Jr.? You beautiful little ginger boy,” Olcan said.
Niamh looked at him, how he already fawned over their boys, and despite being exhausted from the fast and furious births of these three little bears, she knew she’d do it all again and that she’d be just fine if she had girls, because they had a father and three brothers who would always protect them.
This moment would be forever etched in her mind, along with the day Olcan had first taken her, the day he had rescued her, the day he had proposed and the day they had married. These things, along with the time they’d spent together since they’d met, were enough to make up for the years that had preceded them.