Carly's third pregnancy was the only one to be completely planned. Erika, of course, had caught everyone off-guard. With Rosie, they had been talking for a few months about having another baby, but hadn't started seriously trying yet. This time, however, they were comfortably settled back in Japan, and were all ready. Carly had assumed that this would be easy, since she already had two pregnancies behind her. This would prove to be very wrong.
At first, things progressed as expected. Carly couldn't help to be slightly relieved that she was carrying a boy this time. When the subject was brought up, Jack would always scoff that daughters were more fun to buy outfits for. Still, however outdated it was, Carly was glad that there would be someone to carry on Jack's name. Both names, actually…there was never any question that this baby would (or could) be called anything other than Jack Atlas, Jr.
Then things started to go awry. At around twenty-four weeks, Carly started bleeding. She knew that spotting wasn't out of the ordinary, but this was quite a lot. Alarmed, she went to see her doctor, who diagnosed placenta previa. This meant that the placenta was lying over Carly's cervix, so a normal delivery would be very risky. Carly tried her best to not think of all of the needles and other sharp objects that would be involved in a C-section. The doctor obviously wanted to take extra precautions since this was such a high-profile case, so he immediately put Carly on bed-rest.
This was not fun. Carly at least got a private room, but she was not allowed to leave the hospital. Mostly, all she could do was lie around and read or watch TV. She got to see the girls on a fairly regular basis, but the doctor kept these visits very short. Since it was the middle of Riding Duel Season, Jack was away most of the time. Carly couldn't even attend Erika's sixth birthday party in August, and she knew Erika must have resented that.
Sometimes, she was so bored that she almost wished that the paparazzi would burst into her room, just so something exciting would happen. But she took that back when, at 31 weeks, she woke up in the middle of the night to find blood everywhere.
She screamed and rang for a nurse. The nurse in turn gasped as soon as she walked into the room and ran off to find Carly's doctor. No one even had time to answer Carly's panicked questions as they raced to the operating room, with all its medicine smells and shiny metal and beeping machines. Before she could fully adjust to this turn of events, they were putting a gas mask on her and telling her to breathe deeply.
When she woke up again, it seemed like just seconds later, but she was in a completely different room. The first thing she saw was Jack's face looking down at her. Had he been…crying?
It took Carly several seconds to get her throat to work, but at length she managed to croak out, "Is he…okay?"
Jack didn't answer, so Carly amended her question.
"Is he alive…?"
This time, he nodded, and Carly allowed herself to feel at least some relief.
Jack looked like he was about to say something, but then hmphed and crossed his arms.
"No child of mine was going to give up that easily!" he stated confidently. Carly could sense that he was covering something up, but she would only find out the full extent of what had happened a couple of days later.
It had been sheer luck that Jack had been in town that night for a home game the next day. Still, by the time Jack had arrived at the operating room, they had already started the operation and wouldn't let him in. He had to watch through a window as the baby was delivered. He had been blue from lack of oxygen, and for a few minutes it looked like they'd lose him. But then he had finally cried, and was rushed off to Intensive care. Carly herself had come dangerously close to bleeding out on the operating table.
But Carly still didn't know this when she was allowed to go see Jackie. At 1.5 kilos, he wasn't the smallest baby in the room, but he still looked so frail. Most of his face was obscured by tape to hold various tubes in place. All Carly was allowed to do was reach her finger in to touch his hand.
However, Jack's intuition had proven correct. In just a few days, Jackie had stabilized enough that he could eat and be held. Carly had to use her pump, because Jackie had to be fed through a tube. Previously, she'd only used it when she was going to be away from home for long periods of time. Erika and Rosie had both been voracious feeders, so it was odd having so much milk left over after a feeding.
After Carly was discharged, she spent as much time at the hospital as she could. Jack accompanied her whenever he had the chance.
After more than a month, Jackie gained enough weight that he was allowed to go home. Jack's season ended around the same time, so the whole family was finally living under one roof. Jackie had thankfully suffered no apparent long-term effects of being deprived of oxygen for so long. He was a bit small, but healthy. And now, after a huge scare, it finally felt like their family was complete.