Amanda's POV
I feel my way around to the other side of the bed for Nick but all I feel is the pulled back sheets. I open up my eyes and look around, the bathroom door is wide open and there isn't any sign of Nick around. I sit up as best as I can at 9 months pregnant and call out for him. "Nick?" I yell out into the empty house and then turn to face the clock, it is a little after 7 in the morning and in a few days the kids will be here but until then it's just been Nick. Frannie and I. I try and sit up a little more and rest my hand over my bulging stomach and I look down at my engagement ring, it shines in the morning light as I move it around to look at it. Nick comes into the room and he is in the process of tying his tie but he stops when he sees me.
"Is everything alright?" He ask me, I can see the worry in his eyes and hear it in his voice. Every since a few weeks ago when I was sent to the hospital for the discomfort I was having he has been worried sick about me, I realize now that he is looking down at me with my hand on my stomach and he must think there is something going on. I move my hand before answering him.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just woke up and you weren't here" I tell him. As soon as those words leave my mouth I can see the worry all over his face just wash away. He finishes tying his tie and then climbs into bed with me and plants a kiss on my forehead.
"I'm sorry, I was just getting ready for work. I thought you would still be asleep" Ever since I have been put on bed rest it has been this same thing every morning, I wake up to watch him go off to work while I have to stay here and find various ways to entertain myself without going totally insane.
"Working in SVU for this long has made it pretty impossible for me to sleep in" I say to him, truth be told it is probably more the fact that I am so damn uncomfortable a majority of the time and sleeping through the night can be difficult, I would never tell Nick though. I don't want to give him even more to worry about.
"Well I have already let Frannie out and I will be home for lunch so that you won't have to be alone all day, and, please just try and take it easy today" He says and then kisses me quickly on the lips and gets back out of the bed.
"I'll try" I mutter under my breath, he can't possibly understand how I am feeling about all this. I love our daughter, I really do but having been one to keep going all my life and suddenly have to slow down has not been easy. I rub small circles along my stomach as I watch him go around to the closet and pull out his suit jacket and put it on.
"I brought up the Christmas decorations, I don't want you doing too much today but if you wanted to start decorating the house a little bit for when the kids come later this week"He suggests to me, before my relationship with Nick I never spent many Christmas' with anyone and then along with Nick came Zara and Gil and somehow I was decorating houses and trees.
"Okay, that will finally give me something to do" I say and give him a weak smile, let him know that I am trying. I get up out of bed and come over to him to kiss him properly and then follow him out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. I sit down at the counter and watch as he grabs his keys and winter jacket.
"I will see you at lunchtime and please call me if you are feeling anything is wrong" He says and then gives me a kiss on the cheek. "I love you" He tells me as he is walking out the door.
"I love you too" I say and I know he hears me. Frannie runs over at the sound of the door closing and comes over to where I am sitting to lay her head on my lap. I pet her head and she looks up at me. "It's just us now Frannie" I move to get up and she scurries over to the living room and I waddle behind her. I see boxes on the floor that are filled with Christmas ornaments and I sit down on the couch and begin to go through them, at least this will give me something to occupy my time today. I pull out the contents of each box and then organize everything, I probably didn't need to organize anything but it will take up more of my empty day. Frannie lays by me and watches, every so often I feel the movements of the baby and it seems that each time it gets a little big stronger and a little more intense. After a few hours the pain starts to get worse, it isn't the same as before but they are intense enough that I think I should call Nick. I stand up and there is a wave of pain coming from all over, I reach into my pocket and pull out my cellphone and call Nick. I hear it ring and ring and I am worried he isn't going to answer, they are probably working on a case right now. Finally what feels like the last second, Nick picks up.
"Hey Amanda, everything alright?" I can hear the sound of busy New York traffic in the background, he is outside and probably at a crime scene or doing an interview.
"Actually I think I am going into labor, I've been having what I think are contractions for a couple of hours but they have gotten pretty bad" I sound calm as I say all this and it actually surprises me, I didn't think I would be this calm right now.
"Okay, I'm at a crime scene right now but I'm here with Liv and I'll let her know that I'm going to come home and take you to the hospital, I need you to get together some things for the hospital if you can and I will try and be there as soon as I can" He is trying to sound calm but I can hear that edge in his voice.
"Okay, I'll be ready when you get here" I say through the pain and then he hangs up. I go over to the bedroom and pull out one of our suitcases and I start putting some of my clothes and then Nick's into it, I leave the bedroom and slowly walk down the hall to the baby's room and I go through the dresser, I pull out a couple of outfits for her and then bring them back with me to put them in the suitcase. As soon as I am done I bring the bag with me and sit back on the couch, I look at our barley decorated tree and the plethora of decorations that sit on our living room floor and begin to laugh, there will be so much to be done for the kids to come and yet she has decided to come today. I lean back on the couch and try to close my eyes and relax a little bit while I wait for Nick to get home. I don't how much time passes but I open my eyes when I hear the front door open up, Nick comes rushing in and is by my side.
"How are you feeling?" He asks me as he helps me get up off the couch.
"Yeah, just in some pain" I say, I look at him and can tell he is worried, this hasn't exactly been the easiest pregnancy and after what happened I'm sure he is anxious that she is coming early. "But not as bad as before" I add in to try and calm some of his nerves. He keeps his arm around me and guides me outside and into the car. When I get into the passengers seat I get my seat belt on and wait when Nick goes into the house to go and get the suitcases, he comes back out with them in hand and puts them in the back of the car and gets into the car himself.
"Okay, let's do this" Nick says with a smile and then backs out of the driveway and starts driving towards the hospital, I try and keep my breathing steady as we drive. It seems as each mile goes on this baby just wants to come out more and more. I try and keep my emotions to myself but it is seeming to be harder and harder, I just don't want to scare Nick and I would rather be hooked up to a bunch of monitors so Nick can see that I am fine before I'm ready to let everyone know how much this really hurts. Nick parks the car and then comes over to open my door for me. "I'm going to go grab a wheelchair, just wait here" He tells me and then goes off to grab me one that is waiting inside the entrance of the hospital, he wheels it back and then helps me in and then we are heading inside the hospital. He wheels me over to the front desk and we get the attention of the lady sitting behind the desk.
"Hi, I'm having a baby" I say with urgency in my voice, I try and sound as polite as I can while I say that but with each contraction I can feel my composure begin to slip. I need to get to a room and fast.
"Alright, I'll need you to fill out some forms and then we will get you to a room. What is your name?" She asks me.
"I'm Amanda Rollins, this is my first baby" I say with a forced smile.
"And is this your husband?" She asks me, that same damn question each and every time. As soon as we get married then we will be able to finally have a different answer to that question. Maybe by time we have our next kid we will be married I think to myself, and as soon as I have that thought I have to remind myself that I need to have this baby first before I can even think about having any other babies.
"He is my fiancee actually" I tell her and hope this conversation can move along faster and I can get a room soon.
"I'll just need you to fill out these forms and I am going to let them know we will need a room for you guys, it shouldn't take long" She tells us and then I give her a weak smile as Nick rolls me over by the chairs so he can sit down and start to fill out the forms. I rub circles along my stomach and try and breath through the latest contraction. Nick fills out what he can and then hands it over to me to finish the rest, I try and focus on my hand on the paper as a way to distract myself from the pain. As soon as I finish the papers I hand them over to Nick so he can return them to the front desk and it will hopefully help us get a room faster. I've never had a baby before but to me it feels like she is about to arrive any second, I have to remember to ask someone if that is normal. I try and lean back in the wheelchair to get comfortable and wait anxiously for them to finally take me back to a room. A few minutes pass and a nurse comes out to let us know that we have a room, she wheels me away and Nick follows close behind. When we get to the room Nick helps me up and into the bed, as soon as I lay down I am getting all hooked up, they put an IV inn my arm and a monitor around my stomach so they can track the baby's heart rate. Just hearing the fast paced sound of her heartbeat makes me forget the pain for a few seconds, I sit up a little and take a look at the lines on the screen signifying her heart beating, her life.
"Just sit back and relax a little"Nick tells me as he eases me back down, I try and protest when another wave of contractions come.
"Is there anyway that I can get some sort of pain reliever?" I say through clenched teeth.
"I will have to check how far along you are, if you are too close there won't be anything we can give you. How long have you been having contractions?" She asks me as she gets me situated and begins to check between my legs, everyone was right when they said I wouldn't be embarrassed that a complete stranger would be looking down there, the pain is enough to distract from that.
"Since this morning, I wasn't positive it was anything to worry about because I was warned that I might get some contractions here and there closer to the end" I tell her and immediately feel stupid admitting that out loud, if my forms didn't already say that I was a first time mother then that remark definitely did. "Any hope?" I semi-joke with her hoping to lighten the mood. She stands up and doesn't look angry or disappointed to my surprise.
"I'm afraid not, the good thing is that you are going to have your baby very soon, you are already dilated to about 7 centimeters. I would say if you continue to progress like you have been then within the next few hours for sure" She tells me and I'm shocked, mostly because I should have been coming to the hospital much sooner. "I am going to get your doctor to let him know how far you are and we will be checking in on you about every 30 minutes or so to track your progress, just page us if you need anything at all or feel like the baby is coming more immediate than already" She smiles as she says that.
"Thank you" Nick tells her and then tries to help me into a hospital gown, it is an uncomfortable process but once I'm laying back in the bed it is more bearable. A few hours pass by and it's filled with desperate attempts for sleep, the first time was interrupted by my water breaking and after that it wasn't even worth it to try and kid myself that I could be comfortable. Nick is by my side through it all, having someone here who has experienced this before makes me feel better about it. I keep checking the clock on our wall to try and see how much time has passed, it is far from this morning when I was trying to organize Christmas decorations, it is now after dinner and there is still no baby. The good thing is that they doctor is in like clockwork to check me, after about four hours the nurse comes in again to check on me.
"Let's see how you are doing" She tells me and proceeds to check once again, I prepare for the worst as I look over at Nick who is on the phone with Zara, letting her know how far from here her baby sister is. The nurse stands up and looks over at another nurse, they share a look. "Go get the doctor" She says with urgency in her voice.
"What? What's wrong?" I can feel myself begin to panic a little more than I already have been today.
"Nothing is wrong Amanda, but you are dilated to 10 centimeters now and it is time to start pushing. Your baby is about to be here" She tells me and I begin to cry. I can hear Nick telling Zara over the phone that he needs to go and then he is by my side again. "Now I am going to need you to prop your legs up and begin to push for me" She says. I nod my head in response and do as she says, Nick is by my side the whole time and soon there is my doctor in the room and he takes over for the nurse.
"You ready to have a baby?" He ask me, I know that my answer would have been much different a year ago, hell about 10 months ago it would be different than what it is right now.
"Yes" I say and start pushing, it hurts more than anything I could have ever experienced, even more than the time I got shot but after a few minutes of pushing I hear the most beautiful sound I have ever heard in my life, the cries of our daughter. The doctor cleans her off a little bit and then lays her down on my chest. I look down at her head full of Nick's black hair and her tanned skin, her eyes are still closed but I would bet everything on the fact that her eyes will be his same dark brown. I turn to Nick and see that he is smiling wide with tears in his eyes, he gently strokes her back and I hold her tightly, never wanting to let her go. A nurse comes over with a blanket in hand.
"We just need to measure her real fast and get her weight and then she can be back to you" She says in a calm voice, I don't answer but just loosen my grip so the nurse can take her from my arms. I can still hear her strong cries from across the room and as long as I keep hearing her it makes it easier for her to be away from me.
"You did it Amanda" Nick keeps whispering to me in between kisses on the top of my head. Soon she is handed back to me and I take a good look at the little human that we created. After the initial shock of it all things begin to calm down and a nurse returns to our room with papers in her hand.
"If you are ready we can begin to fill out the birth certificate, what is the little cuties name?" She asks us.
"Her first name is Isabella, and her middle name is Josephine" I tell her.
"And her last?" She ask, I'm sure this is the awkward part for most unwed parents, but not for us.
"It's Amaro" Nick proudly says as he holds his baby girl in his arms, his third child.
"Alright, there are some parts that you guys will need to fill out a little later but I am going to let you rest now" She says as she is walking away. "And Congratulations" She adds and then is out of the room, leaving us, the family of three now, and I couldn't be happier.