So sorry for the delay with getting this chapter out. Thank you so much for your continued support!
I do not own these wonderful characters or Signed, Sealed, Delivered. They belong to the wonderful Martha Williamson.
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Chapter 7:
Shane was now entering her third trimester and she had started to get frantic about how much they still needed to get done before their daughter's arrival. They already had the furniture set up in the nursery, however she had been putting off registering for baby gifts. She and Oliver thought it would be a good idea to get it done before the upcoming baby shower and were now spending their Saturday afternoon at buybuy BABY.
After Shane and Oliver checked in at the gift registry counter, they were handed a scan gun and given directions on how to complete their registry. They began walking towards the first set of aisles when Shane put her hand on Oliver's arm to stop him. "I'm just going to use the ladies' room before we get started. I'll meet you over there." She smiled at him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before walking towards the restroom.
Oliver made his way over to the "diapering" section and turned down the first aisle. He felt anxious as he stared at the various brands of infant diaper rash cream for what seemed like hours. Why would a baby need so many choices? Which one should he scan? Did every baby get rashes? He held the scan gun and began firing away at the various barcodes. Maybe they should just try them all out and see which one works best. He moved on to the next set of items: baby powder. "My goodness! Are there this many options for every type of product?" He exclaimed out loud to no one in particular.
"Oliver, what are you doing?" Shane rounded the corner and found her husband frantically scanning baby powder. She could tell that he hadn't heard her as he continued massively scanning everything in sight. She slowly walked over to him and placed her hand on his. "Oliver, hand me the gun. It's going to be alright." She could sense that he was feeling very overwhelmed as he still stared hopelessly at the baby powder.
"How do you know if you should get 'Lavender Scented', 'Unscented' or 'Pure Cornstarch'? What is the difference between 'Organic Baby Powder' and 'Dusting Powder'? Shane, do babies really need all of this?" He was absolutely dumbfounded as he willingly handed her the scan gun, finally turning his head to make eye contact with her.
"No, not necessarily." She placed a comforting hand on his face and reassuringly stroked his cheek with her thumb. "Oliver, I know this is a lot to take in and there are so many things to choose from, but we're in this together. We'll take our time and scan what we think we need." She held his hand in hers and gave it a comforting squeeze, eliciting a smile from Oliver.
"Thank you for helping me come to my senses." He leaned down and kissed Shane on the forehead. "I suppose I got a tad bit carried away."
"Maybe just a little." She set the scan gun down on one of the shelves so she could hold both of his hands. "But it's one of the reasons I love you so much. You're just trying to do everything you can to make sure our daughter is taken care of. You're already the best husband I could ever hope for. You're going to be an amazing daddy to our baby."
"I love you so much, Shane." Oliver pulled her close to him and gave her a sweet kiss. "I know we had planned to dine out this evening, however might I convince you to spend the night in instead? I would much rather keep you all to myself and I will even cook you whatever you would like for dinner."
"Mmm dinner you say? And would this dinner include rocky road ice cream for dessert?" She asked with a hopeful smile. Throughout her pregnancy, Shane had maintained a relatively healthy diet and hadn't really had any bizarre cravings. However, over the past couple of weeks she had developed an insatiable hunger for rocky road ice cream, going as far as to sending Oliver out to buy some late one night the week prior.
"Of course. I'll even throw in extra marshmallows in there if you promise to share a few bites with me." He gave her his signature boyish grin as he flirtatiously raised his eyebrows to her. "What do you say, my love?"
"You had me at 'I love you'." Shane smiled at him and picked the scan gun back up. "We should get started." She began walking away and then turned her head to look back at him. "I'm anxious to be alone with my husband." She winked at him and then continued her journey to the next aisle, a smitten Oliver following close behind.
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Shane laid on the couch mindlessly rubbing her belly as she waited for Oliver to join her. They had just enjoyed a delicious dinner and Oliver was now cleaning up the kitchen. She had tried to assist him so they could get it done faster, however Oliver wouldn't hear of it. He was insistent that she had been on her feet all day and needed to rest the remainder of the evening. She hated to admit that she was relieved, as her ankles were now swollen and achy.
"For you, my love. A big bowl of rocky road ice cream with extra marshmallows." She had been so lost in thought that she hadn't heard Oliver come into the room. He handed her the bowl, which she eagerly accepted, before moving her legs slightly so that her husband could join her. Once situated, Oliver gently pulled her legs to rest on his lap and as he began to massage her feet.
"Thank you for taking such good care of me." She smiled at him before happily indulging in a big bite of chocolatey goodness then noticed he hadn't brought any ice cream out for himself. "Where's your dessert?"
"I was hoping you would make due on your promise and share with me. I did throw in quite a few extra marshmallows." He paused for a moment before adding in a low voice, "however I would be okay if you didn't. I have my dessert right here and you're all that I need, Mrs. O'Toole." He looked at her with such passion in his eyes that she immediately blushed.
"Well if that's the case, then I'm yours for the taking." She teased before taking another bite. "But I'm also more than willing to share with you." She scooped up a generous amount with the spoon and slowly fed it to Oliver.
"As delicious as that was, I prefer my other dessert option better." Oliver gave his wife a flirtatious smile and then suddenly watched her face contort in pain as her hand grabbed her stomach. "Shane, what is it? Is it the baby?" His worry increased as she kept silent, however he did his best not to panic.
"I, uh…I think I felt another contraction." Shane was focusing on keeping her breathing steady but her shaky voice couldn't hide the fact that she was scared. Meanwhile, Oliver's eyes bulged and his jaw dropped.
"Another? What do you mean another?"
"I think I felt a couple when we were at buybuy BABY and then another one just before dinner." She did her best to explain in a calm voice. "I wasn't sure until just now. This one was more intense than the other ones." Oliver was upset that he was only hearing about this now, however knew that expressing his feelings to her at the moment was the last thing that she needed.
"I know you're worried, but I want you to try to relax and let me take care of you." He tried to reassure her while saying a silent prayer to God, asking him to keep his wife and daughter safe. "I'm going to call your doctor and see what she recommends we do." He carefully moved her legs aside so he could get off the couch and walked into the other room to call the doctor.
A couple of minutes later, Oliver walked back into the room and made his way over to Shane. He sat next to her on the couch, reassuringly grabbing her hand in his. "Shane, Dr. Mills wants us to meet her at the hospital so she can assess you and the baby." He softly rubbed circles on the back of her hand and hoped she wouldn't recognize the fear in his eyes.
"Oliver, it's too soon." Shane could no longer keep the tears from falling down her cheeks. "Is our baby going to be okay?"
"Shhh." Oliver whispered as he pulled her in his arms and began slowly rocking her. "I have faith that God will watch over us tonight, just as he always has."
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Oliver paced outside of Shane's room as he continuously checked his pocket watch. They arrived at the hospital thirty minutes prior to see Dr. Mills already waiting for them in OB Triage. As soon as they got Shane checked into a room, the nurse had asked him to step out for a few minutes so she and Dr. Mills could assess Shane and get her set up on the monitors. He had now been waiting for fifteen minutes and he was becoming increasingly impatient. He was relieved when the nurse opened the door and she and Dr. Mills walked out.
The doctor explained to him that they had Shane hooked up to a machine to monitor any contractions that she may have and had drawn a few units of blood. She reassured Oliver that so far the baby looked fine but she would be back later once she had the lab results. After she reiterated to him that he should encourage Shane to get some rest, she told him he was free to go inside and then walked towards the nurse's station.
Oliver held his breath as he entered Shane's hospital room, the sight before him momentarily stopping him in his tracks and breaking his heart. His beautiful wife was laying in the hospital bed hooked up to various machines to monitor her with an IV imbedded in her arm. She was wearing a hospital gown and her legs were covered by a thin sheet, however her belly was on display with some type of belt wrapped around it. His eyes followed the attached cords to the monitor they were plugged into and he could see the patterns displaying what he realized to be his daughter's heartbeat. However what ripped Oliver to shreds was the look on Shane's face, which spoke volumes of how worried she was and how badly she needed him. He was by her side in an instant, taking her hand in his own.
"How are you feeling?" He asked as he sat down in the chair beside her hospital bed.
"I'm feeling okay, just scared and needing my husband." Shane squeezed his hand and gave him a small smile.
"I'm right here with you, my love, and I'm not going anywhere." He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Why don't you try to get some sleep while we wait for Dr. Mills to come back in? It's been a long day and you need your rest."
"You're right, I can hardly keep my eyes open." She was both emotionally and physically exhausted and had no energy to argue with him. She situated her head deeper into the pillows before continuing. "Promise me you'll be here when I wake up?"
"I won't leave your side." He leaned down and gently kissed her lips. "Sleep, love." Shane's eyes slowly closed and it didn't take long for her breathing to even out.
Oliver watched the rise and fall of Shane's chest, the beeping of her heart monitor giving him comfort. He had never been more scared in his life as he was today. If anything ever happened to his wife or his baby girl, it would obliterate him. He turned his attention to the fetal monitor and watched his baby girl's heartbeat as he gently laid his hand on Shane's swollen belly. All of the sudden he felt a hard kick right up against his hand, eliciting a smile from him. This was his daughter's way of reminding him that she was here and she was okay. He knew in his heart that this was a sign from God. He placed a tender kiss right where he had felt the kick and then laid his head to rest on Shane's chest, his hand laying protectively over his daughter. He thought about the deep love he had for his girls as he was lulled to sleep by Shane's heartbeat.
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A couple of hours later, Dr. Mills walked into Shane's room and spied Oliver and Shane sleeping soundly. She hated to disturb their peaceful sleep, however knew that they were both anxious to hear the test results. She lightly touched Shane's shoulder and kept her voice soft and reassuring. "Shane?" It was Oliver that stirred first, noting the doctor's presence and quickly sitting up. The movement caused Shane to wake up and both sets of eyes were quickly on Dr. Mills. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling fine, just really tired." Shane's voice came out a little scratchy as she started to become more alert.
"We've been monitoring you and the baby for the past few hours and we haven't seen any contractions. Now that doesn't mean you weren't having them earlier, however they could have just been Braxton Hicks contractions. You can think of those as 'practice contractions' and your body's natural way to prepare itself for labor. They can be worrisome for any pregnant woman, but they are completely harmless."
"That's great, does that mean I can take Shane home?" Oliver inquired with hopeful eyes as he lovingly held Shane's hand.
"Yes, however Shane's blood pressure has been slightly elevated since she arrived. It could very well be stress related due to the contractions she was experiencing, but I don't want to take any chances that it's something more." She paused before continuing to allow Shane and Oliver a moment to grasp what she was saying. "I'm going to send you home, but I want you on bed rest for the next couple of days and then I want to see you in my office on Tuesday. Your feet need to be elevated as much as possible and I only want you to get up if absolutely necessary."
"I understand, Dr. Mills. I'll do whatever you tell me to do in order to make sure my baby is okay." Shane absentmindedly rubbed her stomach. She hated feeling helpless, but she wasn't going to risk anything happening to her baby girl. Oliver exchanged a look with the good doctor, giving her a silent promise that he would make sure Shane followed her orders. Dr. Mills nodded and then gave them further instructions to follow before walking out of the room to get Shane's discharge papers prepared.
"I know you're worried, Shane, but I believe in my heart that our little girl will be okay." Oliver sat on the bed and held her close, trying to give her the reassurance he knew she needed.
"Promise to keep me company while I'm stuck in bed?" Shane couldn't help but worry about their baby, but it was comforting to know that Oliver wouldn't let her go through this alone.
"Of course. Consider us both on bed rest." He lovingly kissed her on the lips and marveled at the feel of her in his arms. He knew that he was blessed and he thanked God for keeping his family safe. He also threw in a prayer seeking guidance, contemplating how he was going to be sure that his headstrong wife obeyed the doctor's orders.
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Next up: How will Shane handle being on bed rest?
Author's Note: Shane and the baby will be fine, no need to worry.