A/N: See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.
Chapter 6: CPR
"I'm back, Elizabeth, and I've got the cavalry right behind me," said Hyacinth as Richard and Daisy followed her into the master bedroom. Elizabeth now had her knees bent in position for birth, and she had the bed sheet over her legs.
"Oh Richard, Daisy, I'm so sorry about this."
"Oh, don't you apologize, love. You have nothing to apologize for," Daisy said lovingly, and then she sat down on the bed behind Elizabeth to give her some extra support, and Richard sat down in front of Elizabeth. "If anything, Richard and I need to be thanking you."
"Thanking me? Why?" Elizabeth asked.
"Because getting to be present when a brand-new human being comes into the world is an incredible privilege," Daisy replied.
"It certainly is," Richard agreed.
"Are you sure this isn't too uncomfortable for you, Richard?"
"Not at all. I'm more than happy to be of help. And besides, the only person's comfort we need to be worrying about right now is yours."
"That's right," said Hyacinth as she sat down on the foot of the bed. "Is your lower back still hurting, Elizabeth?"
"Yes, it's killing me."
"I can help with that," Daisy told Elizabeth, and then she began massaging her lower back for her.
"Oh, that's such a big help, Daisy. Thank you."
"Sure thing, love."
"Oh Richard, I need to push," Elizabeth told him.
"Here, Liz. Take my hands," said Richard, and once she did, he pulled with as much strength as he dared to use while she pulled his hands and pushed. Richard was very careful to try to strike the right balance between pulling hard enough to help Elizabeth push as much as possible and not pulling so hard that he hurt her, just as he'd done with Hyacinth during Sheridan's birth.
And thankfully, Richard was successful, and with his help, Hyacinth was able to see the top of the baby's head after three pushes.
"Excellent work, you two. Excellent work," Hyacinth praised them as Mrs. Councilor Nugent brought the sterilized bulb syringe and scissors into the room and set them down on the nightstand. "The baby's crowning now. Your baby's coming, Elizabeth. You're doing beautifully," Hyacinth told her as Mrs. Councilor Nugent quickly and quietly left the bedroom and shut the door behind her. "Now, Elizabeth, Richard, listen to me carefully. I need you two to slow down for a bit. It's very important that the baby's head isn't born too quickly, because if it is, you could really injure yourself, Elizabeth. We need the baby's head to come very slowly. So in the next few pushes, I need both of you to be very careful not to use too much strength. We need to take this very, very slow. Do you understand?"
Liz nodded and said, "Yes, Hyacinth."
"Yes, ma'am," Richard told his wife.
And over the next few minutes, Elizabeth and Richard followed Hyacinth's instructions to the letter, and after several light pushes from Liz, the baby's head finally emerged. And in that instant, as soon as Daisy saw her sister's face, she knew that something was very wrong, and she got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Elizabeth, Richard, look at me, both of you, and listen to me very carefully," Hyacinth said in a very serious tone of voice. Richard quickly turned around to face his wife, and as soon as he saw the expression on Hyacinth's face, he began getting the same sick feeling as Daisy. "Elizabeth, your baby's in trouble, and we need to get your baby out immediately. We can't wait for the next contraction. Gather every ounce of strength you can, take a very deep breath, and push with all your might. And Richard, that goes for you too. I need both of you to work together and give me everything you've got in this next push."
Richard instantly turned back to Elizabeth and took her hands in that moment, and Elizabeth took as deep of a breath as she could, and with both of them using every trace of strength they could find, Elizabeth began to push just as hard as she could.
"Your baby's coming, Elizabeth. It's coming. Keep pushing. Don't stop."
In the next instant, the baby came out into Hyacinth's arms, who was waiting for it anxiously with a big beige towel in her hands.
"The baby's out," Hyacinth announced, but instead of the room being filled with the sound of a crying newborn, there was nothing but deafening silence. "I need the bulb syringe, Richard. Quickly," she told her husband, and Richard jumped to his feet and brought her the bulb syringe as fast as his legs would take him.
And in that moment, Richard saw Elizabeth's baby lying on the bed in front of Hyacinth. A little girl. A completely still and lifeless little girl whose skin was purple and bluish. And as soon as Richard saw it, his heart sank, because he knew what that meant. The baby had been deprived of oxygen. Just as Baby Angela had been. His eyes remained glued to Hyacinth's hands as they immediately went to work, suctioning the baby's nose and mouth. But when Hyacinth was finished, the baby made no sound or movement whatsoever, and she still wasn't breathing. Hyacinth then checked for a pulse and found none, so she covered the baby's nose and mouth with hers and gave the baby two strong breaths, and then she placed her index and middle fingers on the baby's chest and began doing compressions.
Richard couldn't bear to watch anymore, so he returned to Elizabeth and Daisy and sat down in his previous spot on the bed.
"Oh Richard, what's happening?" Elizabeth whispered with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Richard took Elizabeth's hands again and told her truthfully, "It's not good, Elizabeth. The baby's not breathing and she doesn't have a pulse. Hyacinth is giving her CPR right now."
"Oh, God," Elizabeth gasped. Richard then wrapped his arms around her and hugged her from in front, and Daisy wrapped her arms around both Elizabeth and Richard from behind, and she and Richard just held onto Elizabeth and stayed in a quiet huddle together with her during those agonizing moments while Hyacinth worked on the baby.
A few seconds later, Mrs. Councilor Nugent, who'd remained right outside the bedroom door listening, came out to the lounge to speak to Emmet and Onslow.
"Bad news, gentlemen," she told them. "The baby's been born, a little girl, and she's not breathing and she doesn't have a pulse. Mrs. Bucket's performing CPR on her now. I often attend church functions for the sake of charity, but I've never believed that Jesus Christ is an actual deity who rose from the dead after a crucifixion to pay for all of humanity's sins. But if either of you actually do believe that, then I would strongly suggest dropping to your knees in prayer right now."
While Emmet had come to faith in Christ as a child, he'd become very distant from Jesus through the years, especially after his marriage began to fail. But Emmet knew beyond a doubt in those moments that the words Mrs. Councilor Nugent had just spoken were a direct command from the Holy Spirit, and as soon as she said what she did, Emmet immediately went down on his knees, closed his eyes, and started begging Jesus for a miracle. And although Onslow was not a believer, he did not hesitate to kneel right beside Emmet to show his support. And while he certainly would never admit it to anyone out loud, on the inside, Onslow was now crying out to God silently, hoping with all his might for Him to exist, and begging Him with all his might to save Elizabeth's baby.
"It's going to be alright, sweetheart," Daisy quietly whispered in Elizabeth's ear as she and Elizabeth and Richard were still all huddled and crying together. "It's going to be alright. If anyone can do this, it's Hyacinth. She'll save her. I know it."
But thirty seconds passed with no change. Then one minute. Then two minutes. Then two and a half minutes. And as all that time passed with the terrible silence growing louder and louder, they all just died inside, including Mrs. Councilor Nugent.
But precisely two minutes and forty-eight seconds after she was born, the baby let out a loud cry and began moving, and the instant the sound of the baby crying filled the cottage, everyone broke down and absolutely sobbed, even Mrs. Councilor Nugent.
"Good girl! Good, good, good girl!" Hyacinth cried out as rivers of tears streamed down her face. And then after drying her off with towel she'd used to catch her, she grabbed another towel from the stack she had on the bed nearby, a pink one, and wrapped the baby girl up in it.
And in what was undoubtedly one of the very greatest moments in all their lives, Hyacinth got up, came over to Elizabeth, and said, "Elizabeth, I'd like to introduce you to your new daughter."
Richard and Daisy immediately got up and got out of the way then, and Hyacinth placed the little girl into her mother's arms. "I'm not going to cut the umbilical cord for a little while, Elizabeth, because she's still getting oxygen from it. I think the umbilical cord was compressed during the delivery, which is why she was oxygen deprived at first. But the cord is no longer compressed, and she's getting an additional oxygen supply from it in addition to the air she's already breathing in, and I want her to have that extra supply of oxygen for as long as possible," Hyacinth explained, and Elizabeth nodded.
"We should probably give Elizabeth a little privacy now," Daisy suggested.
"Yes, let's let these two get acquainted," Hyacinth agreed.
"Hyacinth, will you stay with us, please?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes, of course, darling. I'll stay here just as long as you want me to," Hyacinth assured her as Richard and Daisy quietly slipped out. And then after pulling the thick light pink bedspread over the sheet that was already covering Elizabeth's legs so she wouldn't get cold, she sat down where Richard had been sitting on the bed before, right in front of Elizabeth.
"You saved her, Hyacinth," Elizabeth said through her tears. "You saved my baby's life. If I live a thousand years, I'll never be able to thank you enough."
"It was a privilege, Elizabeth. It really was. But if you really want to thank me, you can bring her over to the house at least a million times a day so her Aunt Hyacinth will see plenty of her."
Elizabeth laughed softly and nodded as she just gazed into her baby girl's face for the longest time. Her color was now much better than it had been before, and she had her mother's light blonde hair and blue eyes, and Elizabeth was completely enraptured by her. And Hyacinth was almost as captivated by her as her mother was.
"She is glorious, Elizabeth," Hyacinth whispered while stroking the top of her head. "Positively glorious." Hyacinth locked her eyes with Elizabeth's then and said, "Just like her mother."
"I do believe that's the kindest thing you've ever said to me, Hyacinth."
Hyacinth shook her head then and said, "I wasn't saying that just to be kind, Elizabeth. I mean it. I really do. I never told you this before like I should have, Elizabeth, but I want you to know that all these years you've been living next door to me, I've come to see you as one of my little sisters, just like Daisy, Violet, and Rose. And I want you to know that I will always, always look out for you and protect you, Elizabeth. Not to mention this glorious new little baby of yours."
"Oh Hyacinth, I don't know what to say," Elizabeth gasped as tears continued streaming down her cheeks.
"You don't have to say anything, love."
Then in that moment, something clicked in Elizabeth's mind, and she said, "You know what, Hyacinth? I think you've just given me the perfect name for her."
"What name is that, my dear?" Hyacinth asked with a very excited smile.
"Gloria."
"Oh, yes! Yes! It's perfect! It's absolutely perfect!"
"I think so too," Elizabeth agreed.
"Gloria. What a beautiful name. It suits her. It really does," Hyacinth said happily.
"Thank you, Hyacinth. Thank you so, so much for saving her."
"And thank you for being brave enough to bring her into the world," said Hyacinth. And then they both just stared at little Gloria together and got completely lost in her precious blue eyes.