by Carol Devine
She'd become so responsive with the pregnancy, amazingly in her blossoming, something that didn't happen for every pregnant woman and because of it, something she took pride in. He certainly appreciated it. He took advantage of it whenever he could because they enjoyed each other in this profound way. Once their little baby girl arrived in the world, he was sure life had to change, that it wasn't going to be just about him and Mariah anymore.
But it was all about Mariah right now. He loved her fragrance here, kinda soapy but earthy, tasting a little salty and Mariah sweet, and he went down on her armed with everything he had learned about her in the time they had known each other, from knocking her into the whitewash of Grizzly Springs creek to now. She responded in her special way, becoming trebly with need.
He was shaking, about ready to burst, she was such a magical seductress, well-schooled in what he liked best, where to kiss and swirl with her tongue, until he wasn't able to hold back anymore. She was getting pretty shaky, too, moaning while she administered to him and he to her.
She gasped and tried to move as little as possible because he had her at his mercy, at the point where she was at the edge, ready to tumble into orgasmic bliss. When he gave it to her, she cried out and squeezed his cock with her hands, milking him until he came, too.
At the end, he aimed his body to land next to hers, and lay replete. She assumed the spooning position at his side, her favorite these days, complete with pillow underneath her belly. He spooned with her, cradling her entire body with his.
"Do you think we woke her up?" he asked.
"Must have. She's kicking up a storm."
Shane tightened his arm around her. He could feel the movement, so obvious now under Mariah's taut skin.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we could kick start labor this way?" she asked.
"I'm willing to give it another try."
"You insatiable man. Will I ever be able to satisfy you?"
He kissed the back of her neck. "You satisfy me every day, Mariah, just by being you."
"Thank you, Shane." She snuggled into the well of his body, getting more comfortable, making him feel like he was sheltering his new family already, even before Cassie was born. He slept that way for awhile.
Mariah did, too, overtaken by love and satiation. She hoped it would serve her well in the trying days to come.
* * * * *
As per Mariah's birth plan, once labor began, Shane served as a go-between whenever the obstetrical staff advised a change in procedure and approach. But the latest opinion from the hospital's attending physician and obstetrical head nurse was going to be a tough sell. Mariah was eighteen hours into labor, fully committed to her goal of achieving natural childbirth.
He didn't beat around the bush, though. He strode into the birthing room, helped her through her latest contraction, then scooted a chair close to the bed and laced his fingers with hers.
"Our obstetrician and the doctor in charge are concerned about how long it's taking to get you fully dilated," he said. "They want to give you pitocin to make the labor progress faster. If that doesn't work, they want you prepped for a C-section. They say the baby's heartbeat is being affected and we have to be ready for that possibility."
"The heartbeat is slower, true, but still in the normal range. I want to keep trying, Shane. Just a little longer." She gasped as a wave of pain speared her, intense enough to whiten her face.
Shane and the midwife supported Mariah as she labored through another contraction. Shane waited until it eased, but anxiety kept him talking. He wasn't the only one who'd noticed how fatigued she was. The midwife kept saying it was to be expected after staying up all night but Shane wondered how much more of this Mariah could stand.
"These are professionals who are telling us this."
The midwife piped in. "Statistics say that C-sections, like any major surgery, have risks people rarely think about in emergency situations."
Shane glowered. "We're trying to avoid an emergency situation."
Mariah waved off the midwife and hooked her hands around her thighs. "Help me, Shane."
He helped her, gritting his teeth at the sound of her gritting her teeth. He counted down the seconds. Her legs shook with her effort. Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes.
He felt like smashing his fist through the wall.
She panted and rested against her bed pillows. "I'll talk to the doctors if you want," she said between breaths. "But I can't make any promises."
Shane wrung a washcloth and wiped the sweat from her brow. "Don't do this to me, Mariah. Don't put me in the middle."
"Then be on my side for a little while longer. I need you to speak for me." Her forehead creased in pain. "Here comes another one."
He massaged Mariah's back. The midwife was opposite him, supposedly helping. Instead, she shook her head in disapproval at him.
Mariah relaxed and grabbed Shane's hand, holding his gaze. "We're in the hospital. Our baby girl will be born today. We both need to be sure we work through these decisions together, so there's no chance we have regrets."
Shane knelt by the bed. "I'm sorry. But the pain you're in. I wasn't prepared. I can't..."
Unbelievably, Mariah smiled. "A comedienne once said having a baby is like taking your bottom lip and pulling it over your head."
"That's impossible."
"That was her point, I think. Here we go again." When finished, Mariah lay back, appealing to Shane with her eyes. "Please take a break. Let one of the nurses help for awhile."
"I promised to stay. I stickin' to you like glue, Doc."
"It's Mrs. Youngblood, remember?"
"Maybe I should have taken your name. Kellen Shane McBride has a certain ring to it."
"You're making me laugh and I'm not sure how well that combines with this stage of labor. It's making it harder to breathe."
He adjusted the oxygen tube stuffed up her nose. "Sniff up that oxygen. When you're done, I may take a whiff myself to keep from fainting."
The obstetrical nurse bustled in, helped Mariah through another contraction, then checked her cervix.
"Nine centimeters. That's two in the last hour. You're back on track, and the heartbeat's solid. It's up to you whether you want to go the pitocin route or not. It's likely to speed things up."
The midwife frowned. "The contractions may hurt more."
"If they get worse than this, I'm saying no."
Shane said nothing, girding himself to withstand yet another round of arguing. He barely could bring himself to witness Mariah's pain. The nurse seemed to notice his discomfort as she checked the cervix again.
"Don't go anywhere, Shane. She's almost there. Your doctor is on her way."
Shane stroked Mariah's hand. "It won't be long now if the doctor is coming."
Tears leaked from her eyes. "I'm scared."
The midwife patted her shoulder. "You're doing a fantastic job, going through this process naturally. Right, Shane?"
Shane glared at the midwife. "Mariah, you don't have to be scared. The doctor will be here in no time."
Mariah leaned forward, panting and laboring. "I'm scared… because," she gasped. "Something… awful… might… happen."
"Look into my eyes and think happy thoughts, Doc. Remember the day we got married? Pretty fun, right?"
"It was... nice."
"That's the spirit. Find something nice to focus on."
Mariah twisted sideways as the pain intensified. "I'm experiencing an insane urge to push."
The midwife checked between Mariah's legs. "You're fully dilated. Don't push until the doctor gets here."
"How am I supposed to do that? It feels like my bottom's about to blow up!"
"Shane, try and calm her down."
"Um, at this stage, I think I've lost my calm, too. Why can't she push if the doctor's on the way?"
The midwife shared a glance with the nurse. "I don't have hospital privileges. You hired me to coach and give advice."
The nurse
laid more cotton padding on the bed. "Shane, she's right. We don't want Mariah to push yet. I don't care how you do it, talking, whispering, feeding her ice..."
"Shane, tell them I have to push."
"Mariah's gonna start pushing and there ain't anything we can do to stop it. If I were you, I'd do whatever is necessary to help birth this baby, cause this baby is about to shoot across the room."
Laboring through another contraction, Mariah gasped. "Can you be any grosser?"
"It's the truth, isn't it?"
"Shut up and squeeze my hand as hard as you can. Keep my mind off the pain." She started panting and the midwife helped her into a more supported position.
"Harder, Shane!" she gasped.
"I'm about to break your bones!" Nevertheless, he squeezed until she fell back, breathing deeply with the easing contraction.
"As you might have noticed, my bones can take an unbelievable amount of abuse. Squeeze harder, dammit!"
Cold sweat broke out on his brow. Mariah was sweating, too, doing the work, puffing and crying and saving her strength by grunting rather than screaming.
"I see the head," the nurse said calmly, hands at the ready. The midwife was helping, too.
Shane craned his neck and he saw the head, crowned with traces of gunk that couldn't hide wet strawberry blonde curls. The red face looked squished as the shoulders were born and then the rest of the pasty body, turning sideways and supported by the nurse's and midwife's experienced hands.
Their doctor rushed in and scooped a warm towel underneath the baby. She used the loose ends to rub her into taking a tiny gasp that led to a loud wail.
How crying that big came out of a human that small shocked Shane.
The nurse laid the baby on Mariah's chest. Mariah looked as shocked as Shane did. But after he cut the umbilical cord, the baby stopped crying, eyes barely open under the ceiling lights. Awed, Mariah touched a tiny fist.
"Oh, my, what a gorgeous baby you are."
Shane thought it was a bald-faced lie. Even toweled off, the baby was smeared with gooey stuff. But there was something cute about the red face and the wet curls. She flailed her tiny fists and feet.
Compelled to move and tally up ten fingers and toes, he touched her tiny head and felt the gossamer texture of baby hair. Kneeling at the head of the bed and looking at the baby's face full on made it apparent that Mariah was absolutely right. They made a gorgeous baby.
After a few minutes, the pediatrician swooped in. "I need to do a quick exam, then you can have her right back. Come on, Dad. You should check this out."
It took a few seconds for Shane to realize the pediatrician had been speaking to him. Dad. The word leaped into his consciousness and he leaped across the floor, too, literally sliding to a stop in front of the weighing apparatus and examining table.
The pediatrician listened to her heart and lungs and checked the movement of her arms and legs, and the straightness of her spine. He put drops in her eyes and gave her a shot and she cried. She quieted as the nurse buffed her skin clean and wrapped her in a flannel blanket.
The pediatrician continued his running commentary as he completed the baby's chart. Shane picked up on the most pertinent details. Weight: 7 lbs. 6 oz. Length: 21 inches. Apgar: 9.
"Do you have a name picked out?"
"Yes," said Shane. "Cassandra Mariah Youngblood. Cassie."
The doctor noted the name on the chart. "You may take her to her mother now."
Wrapped tightly in a blanket with a pink cap on her head, Cassie was put into his arms before he was ready. Standing completely frozen, he couldn't believe how small she looked and how little she weighed.
"Shane? I want to see her."
Startled, he shuffled to Mariah's side, then hesitated, unwilling to make a move.
Mariah frowned at his expression. "Uh, can I hold her?"
"I'm afraid to hand her back. Her head likes to flop around."
"That's normal, remember?" Mariah reached for the baby. "I promise she's not going to break."
Shane found a way to hand Cassie over without dropping her. Mariah snuggled the baby against her shoulder and took one of the tiny fists that had escaped the blanket and touched it with her finger. Cassie clutched it, a sight Shane would carry for the rest of his days like a photograph he could whip out any second of any day.
Suddenly he had to get out of there, wound up with adrenaline and excess energy and feelings. He kissed Mariah on the forehead and kissed the top of the baby's cap. "I need a few minutes of fresh air. Can you do without me for a bit?"
"You're probably dying of hunger. Take all the time you need."
The midwife approved. "She should be in her room by the time you get back. Check with the nurse on the maternity ward."
"I have my phone. I'll call every fifteen minutes to see how everyone is doing."
Shane jumped down the concrete stairs in the emergency stairwells and burst out of the door at the bottom. The brick walls of the hospital looked exactly the same, along with the sidewalk and tasteful landscaping that surrounded the building. The rest of the outside world appeared to be normal, with the usual bright sunlight making the sky the typical Colorado electric blue.
He did laps around the hospital building, whooping like the part-blood Native American that he was, drawing the attention of passersby.
"My wife just had a baby!" he yelled.
He ran down the street to the park, did a loop around the playground, swallowing hard at the sight of children playing on the jungle gym, a few only two or three years older than his newborn.
He bought a couple of hamburgers and ate them on his way back to the hospital. Running inside, he pounded up four flights of stairs to the maternity ward to get rid of the last of his nervous energy. He burst onto the floor and rushed to the desk.
"Mariah and Cassandra Youngblood, please."
He walked into the room much calmer, beaming with all the happiness he had in him. Mariah was sitting up in bed, her hair pulled neatly back, holding Cassie.
"I can't believe she's finally here," said Mariah. "I can't stop looking at her. I can't stop holding her. I barely know what to do with myself."
"I went outside, ran around and yelled my lungs out about you having a baby. The cops might show up to take me away."
"I think people around the hospital are pretty tolerant. But the Grizzly Springs Sheriff's Department might ask you to tone it down a tad if you jump around Main Street."
"I can't wait to take her home and show her off."
Mariah yawned. "Do you think you can wait long enough for me to get released from the hospital?"
"I'm loony tunes, I know. It's not going away anytime soon, I'm warning you."
"I think you need to get some workouts in at the Wainwright Ranch over the next day or two. I'm ordering you to exercise every horse at a full gallop until exhaustion sets in, including yours. Meanwhile I'll learn how to get this breastfeeding thing down."
"I haven't been at our house for awhile. I'll race back home and do the stuff necessary to be totally ready. There's still the crib to put together."
"We'll be using the bassinet by our bed for the foreseeable future, remember?"
"You also talked about painting our bedroom a new color. And didn't you say you wanted me to put up some more shelves and pegs on the walls? It feels like everything needs to be ready when we bring her home."
"The bedroom is fine. We won't have use for everything you mentioned yet, but I know better than to try to stop you when you've got your mind made up."
"You'll be okay for awhile without me?"
"The truth is, I'm ready to rest. From what the nurses tell me, I should make that my top priority. So unless you feel compelled to sit by and watch me do that, I think you have better ways to spend your time. In fact, why don't you take Cassie back to the nursery? I need a nap. And if you work your legendary charm, the nurses will give you a diaper changing lesson."
Mariah held out the baby, indicating h
e should take her.
Shane carried the baby to the nursery, again walking on eggshells. He got his first lesson on wiping front to back, something he'd never heard of before. The umbilical cord gave him the heebie-jeebies and was smack dab in the place where the diaper was supposed to go. The diaper itself was impossibly small and uncooperative in his big, clumsy hands.
He felt like giving up on the first try. But, wearing his father face, he finished the lesson, learning how to wrap his baby in a tight cocoon that kept her feeling secure to the point where she didn't cry.
The nurse also demonstrated how to give Cassie a sponge bath. After the nurse showed him how to clean and dry her scalp, her fine hair stuck straight up around her head like a reddish gold halo. He put her cap back on and laid her down in the hospital bassinet. He stared at her for awhile, watching her beady baby eyes as they seemingly took in the surroundings.
According to the books he'd read, he doubted she saw more than blobs of gray, black and white, but he leaned close just the same. He noticed how she seemed suddenly fascinated by the sight of his face. Or maybe just his nose, because she went a little cross-eyed.
Eventually she drifted off to sleep. He watched that, too, remembering the times he'd watched Mariah fall asleep, especially while carrying this tiny bit of humankind inside her body.
"You put your mother through hell, you know that?" he said. "But you're forgiven. In fact, I'll be a little disappointed if you don't do it again in the next eighteen years."
CHAPTER five
The doorbell rang while the three members of the Youngblood family were eating dinner. Two weeks at home had given Mariah time to master the art of breastfeeding but not quite enough time to master the art of simultaneously shoveling food into her mouth at the same time Cassie was nursing. Shane stopped his shoveling to answer the door. Sheriff Wilma Del Toro was standing there.