"I feel like a whale!" Patty said to Elizabeth. They sat together on a picnic bench at the park, watching Paul and Anton fly kites with Max and Laura. Max trotted happily along holding his kite's string, while little Laura, struggling to keep up, toppled over every few steps.

Elizabeth laughed. "How well I remember - I'm so glad those days are behind me!"

"I feel like I've been pregnant forever!" Patty added.

"When's your due date?" asked Elizabeth.

"The fifteenth."

"You're getting close, then."

"Anton told me it could go two weeks either way, so I might be pregnant until May!"

"Oh, I doubt that. Are you still planning on going to church with us tomorrow?"

Patty nodded. "Except for when we got married, I've never been inside a church before, but I've always heard Easter is a good time to go."

"It is - there will be lilies on the altar."

"I love lilies." Although Patty wasn't considering converting, she'd become more interested in Christianity since marrying Anton.

The sun soon began to set, and the two families went to their respective homes. Anton and Patty had leftovers for dinner, but Patty was only able to eat a bite or two.

"I'm just not very hungry," she explained. She waddled over to the sofa, grimacing as she gripped her back.

"Do you have another backache?" asked Anton.

Patty nodded. She lay down on the sofa, and Anton began to massage her back.

"Mm, that feels wonderful," she murmured.

That night, she was startled awake by tight bands squeezing her around the middle, as if she were being wrung out like a wet washcloth. Is the baby coming now? she wondered. She looked over at Anton, who was fast asleep. I don't want to wake him. Maybe I can hold out until morning.

Later, she became aware that she was being gently shaken and stared into Anton's wide eyes.

"Patty! What is wrong?"

"I didn't mean to wake you up," she mumbled.

"You were groaning so loud I thought a wild animal had gotten in," he told her. "I am taking you to the hospital right now."

As soon as they got to the hospital, Anton helped his wife into a wheelchair and up to the maternity floor, where he helped her into a hospital gown and then into bed. He checked her blood pressure, then gave her an injection of morphine and Scopolamine.

After that, he settled in for the long wait. He knew there was the possibility Patty might react badly to the medication, and he might have to strap her to the bed to keep her from hurting herself, but he didn't know what else to do. He loved her and wanted to spare her the pain of labor and delivery.

To his relief, his wife seemed to spend most of her time asleep. When a strong contraction would hit her, she'd wake up moaning, and he held her hand and spoke comforting words to her while wiping the sweat from her forehead with a soft cloth.

Once she mumbled some words, and he heard her say "thirsty." He found some ice chips for her to suck on, and she was quiet after that.

As the labor dragged on into the early morning, he drank cup after cup of black coffee to stay awake. As a result, he had to make frequent trips to the restroom, but he was always sure to leave his wife in the capable hands of a nurse he could trust each time.

Patty went into the second stage of labor in the wee hours of the morning. Anton put a mask over her face so she could inhale the anesthesia. He put her feet up in stirrups and prepared for the birth of his child.

Luckily, the baby was in the ideal position, so he didn't have to use forceps. He only had to help a little with the delivery of the shoulders, and the rest of the body slipped right out.

Tenderly he wiped the blood and mucous from his new child's body, speaking soothingly in German to the baby the whole time. He saw that she was a girl. She opened her unfocused dark blue eyes and gazed up at him, and he felt his heart melt inside. He cut her umbilical cord, and she began to cry, a thin wail that made him think of the sound a newborn kitten would make. He placed her on the scales and found that she weighed seven pounds, four ounces and was twenty inches long. He wrapped her tightly in a blanket and found a bassinet for her.

Patty awakened feeling woozy and dry-mouthed. She felt her stomach and found it was flat. My baby...

Her frightened brown eyes quickly found Anton's beaming face, and she relaxed right away.

"Anton?"

"I am right here, PR."

"Is the baby all right?"

"She is beautiful. We have a healthy new daughter, PR."

Patty smiled with relief. A daughter!

"When can I see her, please?"

"Why, as soon as you want!" He went to the hospital nursery and found the bassinet labeled 'Baby Girl Reiker.' He wheeled the bassinet into the recovery room and then helped his wife sit up in bed so she could hold the sleeping infant.

"She looks so fragile I'm almost afraid to touch her!"

Anton laughed. "You can hold her as much as you want. She will not break." He lifted the newborn and placed her into her mother's arms. Tears filled Patty's eyes as she held the warm bundle close.

"I can't believe she's really mine!"

"She is really ours, PR. I love you so very much!"

"I love you too, Anton."