The Pregnancy Ship

Chapter 23: Mom Duty

This is an A/U story

Andy walked into the hospital room and found Sharon asleep. Her mother was sitting beside her holding her hand, but nodding off herself. Her father had come back from the NIC unit and he was asleep on another chair. It seemed he had been replaced in the nursery by Ricky who was nowhere around. Rusty was with the Provenza's. Linda and Emily had been leaving to go to the cafeteria as he was coming in. Andy yawned, it was only five in the evening, but he'd been called out at one in the morning and had been going nonstop ever since. He gently touched Eileen's shoulder. She jumped a little, "Sorry to scare you. I just wanted to tell you, I'm here now so if you and Sean wanted to head back to the house it's okay," he whispered.

"Who would watch over the babies? No, I will go spend some time in the nursery and I'll send Ricky and Sean home to shower and change. Then they can bring back some take-out. That should give you time to rest with Sharon before she has to feed the babies."

"Thanks." Andy was grateful to have family here to help them out.

"How are Lieutenant Provenza and his wife?" Ellen inquired of their friend and colleague.

"They're fine. Louie was totally shocked that they had two babies instead of one and he's a bit worried for his daughter. She's underweight and may have some challenges in the future. Michael is built like his father, indestructible and Patrice is fine now that the babies are here. " Andy smiled with relieve for his friend, that the babies and their mother made it through the delivery. "Their names are, Michael and Mickayla."

"Meaning gifts from God. How appropriate," she said nodding her head. She watched Andy as he stroked Sharon's hair absentmindedly with one hand while he rubbed the back of her fingers with the thumb of his other hand. Eileen reached up on her tippy toes and kissed Andy on the cheek. "You did good, Son," she said and patted him affectionately on the chest. A gesture she shared with Sharon.

He caught her hand and squeezed it gently, "thank you for both the approval and for calling me son. It...it means...a...lot," he said his voice choked up with emotion.

"I never cared for Jack from the beginning. In fact her father and I tried to talk Sharon out of marrying him." she stated matter-of-factly. Then she went on to say. "But from the very first moment I met you, I knew you were a keeper." Eileen said, and winked at him. She then woke Sean up and they left to go to the NICU nursery.

Andy went to the bathroom to change into Dodger blue cotton pajama pants and a white t -shirt. He pushed the side rail down and sat down on the edge of the bed to spoon Sharon who was wearing her Dodger blue nightgown. Her mother and a nurse had helped her get a shower, wash her hair and get into a fresh nightgown. Andy nosed her hair away from her neck, inhaling the scent that was uniquely Sharon. She smelled like flowers, hibiscus, water lilies and China lilies. He then kissed the spot where her shoulder met her neck.

Sharon felt him get in the bed, felt him kiss her and snuggled closer. "I missed you," she said in a hoarse voice. It was raw from screaming through some of the stronger contractions and childbirth.

"I missed you too, " he said and kissed a spot just below her jaw in front of her ear.

She turned in his arms and put her hands on either side of his face and brought her lips to his. They kissed until they had to come up for air. She looked at him then tracing the lines of his face with her index fingers. Those lines showed his fatigue and she imagined her face had those same lines and some others as well. "You're so tired," she said softly. "I guess waking up at 12:30am to a call out then coming home, having to deliver twins, then having to hold me together, the babies and Provenza not to mention all the drama that surrounded Madison's birth is exhausting. Hmmm?"

"Maybe, but you had the harder job. I heard a rumor that having one baby is like pushing something the size of a small watermelon through a hole the size of a small lemon or like pulling your bottom lip up over your head and you did it twice!" Andy exclaimed proud of his wife.

Sharon snort laughed at his description of what childbirth was like. "Well, actually I've done it three times. Ricky was born caesarian, but Emily was born naturally and that is kind of what it's like," she giggled a low throaty giggle. "Although I can't say I've ever thought of it quite like that. It is an apt description," she giggled again as she buried her face in his chest and let her eyes start to flutter closed.

"Sharon, Honey, before you go back to sleep, I have to ask this question. How did you end up alone today? I thought I made it clear that at no time were you ever to be left alone. I mean we have so many people living with us how did that even happen? It shouldn't have happened!" His voice was a bit sharp, but Sharon understood it was out of concern for her not just temper.

She sighed she knew this was coming and she knew he would be upset, but she also knew she would have to tell him. She took a deep breath and began, "Okay, we knew mom and dad were going to be busy today getting their condo ready to move in, and that Emily and Linda would be at her PT appointment. That left Rusty and Ricky. Rusty had class, so Ricky had mom duty." She wrinkled her nose and hummed with displeasure at the term. She shook her head slightly and went on. "But apparently, Ricky wasn't aware of that. I guess he thought you'd be home because he made plans with his girlfriend/partner to look at some properties here in Los Angeles so he could open a new office here. To give him credit when he found out he was supposed to stay with me he started to call Sophie to tell her he couldn't make it but I stopped him and told him to just go. I told him I'd be fine and I told him you'd be home soon. That wasn't a lie; you had called me and said you'd be home soon. So I figured I'd just sleep until you got there..."

"But, why would you tell him to leave when you were in labor?" He asked interrupting her story.

"Andy, it's been 28 years since I had Emily. I had no idea I was even in labor. It wasn't until the contractions started and my water broke that I realized that the back pain I was having for the past three days was back labor. I'd experienced back pain before, but I've never had back labor before so I thought it was just pain from carrying too much weight for my frame. I've never been that heavy before. I gained 25lbs with Emily and 30 with Ricky. With the twins I gained 50lbs! So the last three days I just thought I was having regular back pain. After Ricky left, I fell asleep on the couch and I had a nightmare that I had the babies at home by myself and I was unprepared and the babies died." Sharon looked into Andy's eyes, for her it was nice to be able see the deep brown of them again.

Snuggling into Andy closer Sharon finished saying, "since quite a few of my dreams have come true one way or another, I woke up and found my way to the linen closet, I took the towels and put them on the table to warm by the fireplace. I turned the fireplace on to make it warm, I brought all the baby paraphernalia, such as bulb syringes, blankets, clothes and diapers out to the living room from the nursery. Then suddenly I had a contraction and that first one was very strong. Then I thought I needed to pee and as I was going back to the bathroom when my water broke. The contractions that followed were ten times worse after that and they were back to back. I hardly had time to take a breath. I called 911 thank god for Melinda she got me that special screen cover that had raised numbers and letters on it then put all my numbers on speed dial so I was able to call 911 and you. Well, you know the rest."

Andy closed his eyes, "it's over now and everything worked out fine, but Sweetheart, you took an awful chance. It could have ended up so much worse."

Sharon put a finger over his lips, "but it didn't, Andy. You don't have to tell me how badly it could have gone. When Madison came out blue and you couldn't get her to breathe at first, I thought my heart was going to stop. It was the longest two seconds in my life, I think. It was a miracle that, that video article came to mind about those other twins and the benefits of skin to skin contact between mother, child and between twins and that it worked. What's important is that they are both alive and well. I can finally see you, them and the rest of my family. I no longer need somebody to have mom duty," she said with a slightly hurt tone in her voice.

Andy heard the hurt in her voice and felt sorry that he had ever said that at all. "Honey, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings when I coined that phrase."

"I know," she swallowed and when she spoke again her voice was husky and full of unshed tears. "I know you didn't, but Andy for a woman who has been on her own and had to do everything herself and be dependent on no one. It was humiliating when I was blind to have to depend on anyone else. Even you, let alone my kids. I never wanted to be a burden to my kids or you or anyone. Making them take turns having mom duty, made me feel like I was a burden to them," her voice rose and fell an octave as she struggled to control her emotions. She pressed her lips together and tried to keep the tears at bay. She tried but was unsuccessful. She was too tired and her emotions were still very raw and close to the surface.

Andy rubbed her back to comfort her. He felt guilty for bringing up the subject at all. He stroked her hair, "you weren't a burden, Sweetheart, but we all had a responsibility to keep you safe and Ricky dropped the ball. When I think of you alone, blind and in labor my heart freezes."

Sharon was quick to defend her oldest son. "Andy, he would have been there if I had let him, but I told him to go so it was my fault. Even if he had stayed with me we probably wouldn't have had enough time to get to the hospital. The time between my first recognizable contraction and when the babies were born was short, very short, maybe fifteen to twenty minutes. Granted, it seemed like a lifetime at the time, but it wasn't very long at all."

Andy chuckled, "okay, Mama Bear, I believe you. Now settle down and let's get some sleep before Natalie and Madison need to be fed." Sharon looked into his deep brown eyes for a moment, kissed him softly then snuggled against his chest and closed her eyes.

It seemed like they'd barely closed their eyes when they were awakened by her mother, "Sharon, wake up Sweetheart. I've been told to come and get you. The babies are wanting their mother."

Sharon jumped, startled out of a deep sleep. She got up off the bed only to have a dizzy spell. Andy and Eileen were there to support her and keep her from falling on her face. Eileen cried out, "Oh my goodness look, Andy."

He looked where she was pointing, at the bed where there was a puddle of blood. Andy tried not to panic. "Call the nurse," he said and lifted Sharon into his arms.

Instead of a nurse, Dr. Janet came in. She assessed the situation in less then a second. "Take her into the bathroom," she said. Looking over her shoulder for a candy striper to change the bed. Then joined them in the bathroom.

She asked Eileen to get Sharon some clean clothes out of her bag. Then she said calmly, "don't panic, Honey some bleeding is normal after delivering a single baby and you just delivered twins. I don't think you're hemorrhaging although it seems like a lot of blood. To be cautious we will keep your legs elevated, and keep you on IV fluids. We'll add some blood to replace what you have lost. We don't want you to go into shock. I'll send an order over to the NIC-U to bring the babies here. I was just coming in to tell you I was going to do that anyway. I've examined them and their pediatrician has also and they are fine. Madison has the loudest cry in the nursery. Let's get you cleaned up and back in bed, so that you can nurse. The sooner you start nursing the faster the bleeding will slow down."

"How long…" Sharon started to ask the doctor knew what she was going to ask before she got the words out.

"Will it last? About six to eight weeks, but it could be longer. We'll have to keep a close eye on it."

Once they got Sharon cleaned up, comfortable and back in bed the doctor turned to Eileen, "so your Sharon's mother?"

"Yes I am, Eileen O'Dwyer," she said and reached out to shake the doctor's hand.

"Well, I'm Doctor Janet Lockhart and I'm pleased to meet you. All throughout this pregnancy I've been driving Sharon crazy with my over cautiousness and dire predictions. Meanwhile, Sharon's been saying I'll be fine, my mother did this at my age and I follow my mother. She was right, well except for the blindness part."

Eileen smiled down at her daughter wistfully. Then she looked back at the doctor, "What Sharon was unaware of, and since she was a child when I was pregnant with the twins is that I almost didn't make it. If my husband hadn't noticed I was doing too much, trying to keep up with the children I already had. Then got me on bed rest, help with the children and around the house. I would've ended up in an early grave and the babies with me."

The doctor nodded and then sensing Sharon's mother had some other things she wanted to share, but didn't want to upset Sharon she said, "speaking of babies, here they are."

Andy could hear Madison screaming down the hall, "she sounds mad. What did they do to her?"

"They probably took some blood and if she's anything like her mother that is a traumatic event, " said Janet.

The nurse brought the babies into the room in an isolette. Madison was of course screaming, and Natalie was mewling. As Sharon reached for Madison there were tears in her eyes, "poor baby, give her to me." Sharon said adjusting her nursing nightgown to begin to nurse. She took the screaming baby in her arms and cradled her close, effectively stopping the screaming then she encouraged Madison's rooting reflex, by touching her cheek with her nipple and guided the nipple into the baby's mouth. She hummed and cooed to her and Madison took a few seconds to settle down but she was finally calmed down enough to start to suckle. Andy put a pillow beneath Sharon's arm to support it and one under the other arm so she could nurse both babies at the same time.

He placed Natalie in the football position, whereas Madison was being cradled on Sharon's left side. He made note of it so they could switch the positions next time for the babies. Since Sharon was planning on nursing exclusively, for at least the first three months this was his way of being a part of the feeding process. Once both babies were positioned and latched on properly, he sat behind her to support her back and for closeness. Sharon had never experienced this before, Jack had not only been absent at Emily's and Ricky's births he had left their care and feeding up to her. He had even made crude comments about her breasts, when she was nursing. He had not wanted her to nurse because he said it would make her breasts saggy. She had done it anyway, because she knew it was beneficial for the babies and her. Also it was also cheaper than formula and she needed to save all the money she could.

Andy's desire to be to be part of every aspect of the care and feeding of their children filled her with such joy. Sharon was more than willing to allow him to be a part of it. He had said it made him happy that she had decided to nurse because it was best for the babies and her willingness to do so made her even more beautiful in his eyes. But that whichever way she chose he would support her any way she needed him too. She looked up into his face and smiled lovingly at him. Andy smiled back at her, all his love for her visible in his chocolate brown eyes. He kissed her tenderly on the lips and then she leaned her forehead into the side of his neck for just a moment, then both of them looked down at their babies. "They look like you," he said.

"Hmmm, you think so?" She mused. "I think Maddie will have your smile, she certainly has your temper," Sharon teased.

"Well, they both have your red hair, and I believe they'll have your freckles. Natalie looks just like you. I hope she has your beautiful green eyes," he said musingly.

"And I hope Maddie has your chocolate brown eyes," she said shyly.

Thank you for reading my story. A special thank you if you have taken the time to leave a review.