Aideen (Slater Brothers 3.5)

My heart burst with love in that moment.

I was someone’s mother.

“He looks just like you, Kane,” Branna commented through her soft crying.

“No way,” he murmured, his eyes locked on our child’s face. “He’s beautiful, that’s all Aideen.”

I smiled with glee, and let my eyes roam over my son’s face. He had a cute button nose, real chubby cheeks, a head full of dark brown hair and plump pink lips. I lifted him up and leaned my mouth down to his head and I kissed him.

“I love you,” I whispered. “I love you so much, baby boy.”

Kane repositioned himself behind me. He put his legs on either side of my hips and pulled me and our baby back into his chest. He leaned his head into the side of mine and we both stared down at out little angel.

“I can’t believe we made him,” I murmured. “He is perfect.”

“He is,” Kane agreed.

Branna reached down and gently pressed on my breast and the baby gurgled then hummed as he relaxed even more against me. I closed my eyes as she moved to her bag and took some objects out. I felt her come back over and lean over me and the baby, but I only opened my eyes when she spoke to Kane.

“Cut between the clamp and my fingers.”

I opened my eyes and saw Branna handing Kane a funny shaped pair of scissors and then glanced down to the baby’s umbilical cord. What I can only describe as a white peg was clamped near the baby’s belly button and Branna was directing Kane where to cut.

Kane did as told and cut through our son’s umbilical cord. It took a few cuts, but he cut it off and handed Branna back her scissors.

“You might want to claw my eyes out, but can I have him for a few minutes? I’ll dry him off and wrap him up nice and warm.”

I frowned at Branna. “Why?”

Branna chuckled. “I have to help you deliver the placenta, babe, and I want to weigh him.”

Oh, right.

“Okay,” I glowered and carefully handed my son over to her.

Branna smiled as she leaned in and kissed my head. “He will be back in your arms before you know it.”

I hoped so, I already missed him.

Branna weighed the baby, and he was ten pounds on the dot.

Ten. Fucking. Pounds.

I was terrified to think how big he would have grown had I carried him full-term.

After weighing him, Branna then cleaned him up and placed him in the Moses basket next to my bed. Everyone, except Kane, left the room then as Branna came to my side.

The next ten minutes were painful, but not as painful as active labour.

“There you go,” Branna said as she pressed on my stomach once more.

I winced as I felt something pass through my body.

“All done,” Branna announced then reached into the water and lifted a clump of something nasty looking and placed it into a plastic bag next to her.

Branna lifted our son from the Moses basket and gave him back to me, I held my arms up making sure the blanket he was wrapped in didn’t touch the water of the pool.

I glanced up when I heard a soft click. I noticed Branna had left the room so it was just Kane, our son and me.

“I was so scared there for a second.”

Kane kissed my shoulder. “Me too, sweetheart. My heart stopped.”

Mine did, too.

Our son wailed and it made me chuckle when Kane said, “I love your cry.”

I gazed at the baby then murmured to Kane, “You don’t think the smoke from that night hurt him, right?”

“No,” he replied. “Look at him; he is healthy as can be. Pink and big all over.”

His little face was pressed against my chest, and his instinct took over. He tried to suckle on my skin so I nervously repositioned him under my breast as I remembered what Branna had taught me. Kane reached around and adjusted my breast and nipple with his hand until it was close to the baby’s mouth.

It took about a minute of adjusting, and brushing my nipple against our son’s mouth, but he eventually latched on and began to suckle.

“Ow,” I winced.

“Are you okay?” Kane asked me, his voice barely a whisper.

I nodded, but continued to wince. “It hurts a little, but it’s okay. Branna said that a little pain was normal.”

Kane pressed his face to the side of mine, and we both looked down as our son fed for the first time. I heard a little click, but didn’t look up. I heard some movement then the sound of a shutter caught my attention.

I looked up and saw Branna smiling apologetically as she tucked her phone into her trouser pocket.

“Sorry, it was too perfect of a moment not to capture.”

I smiled and looked back down to my son.

“How is everythin’?” Branna’s voice whispered.

“Perfect.”

“Branna,” Kane murmured. “He latched on.”

“Brilliant,” she beamed as she moved closer. “Are you feelin’ okay, Aideen?”

I nodded my head.

I felt incredible.

I looked down to the baby when the pressure on my nipple lessened. I noticed he unlatched and smacked his lips together a few times, before just lying in my arms in a baby drunk daze.

“Your colostrum must taste good,” Kane chuckled. “Look at him.”

I smiled. “I love him so much.”

“Me too, babydoll.”

“Put him in his Moses basket,” Branna instructed, “and we’ll get her out of the pool. I want her dried and into warm clothes as soon as possible. I don’t want her to catch a bug; she’s very vulnerable right now.”

Kane sprang into action as he climbed out of the birthing pool.

He very carefully placed our son in his Moses basket that was by my side of the bed. He came for me then, and with Branna’s help, they got me up and out of the birthing pool. I walked slowly away from the pool and winced. I could move, but it hurt to do so.

Branna went and got a basin of hot water and both she and Kane washed me down with a sponge bath. It only took a minute, but I felt so refreshed after and relaxed into Kane as he wrapped a large towel around me and rubbed me dry.