2.8 Part Two: Hospital Visits

Rie's Pov

"Look here sweety." Jerry handed  me the camera on which was photographs of our new house.

"These two are from the front and back. Look you're gonna have your very own vegetable garden!"

"And these two are from the room with the stairs to upstairs and the basement."

"It looks good," I gave a weak smile from me. 

"Will she be okay?" I heard Camille ask in the background. 

"Yeah, the doctor said she just need food and rest. It will be better with time." Jerry responded.

I had grown weak from the pregnancy. I couldn't hold anything inside me and the baby was consuming whatever fat or something in my body. I couldn't keep track of what really was the issue but it was something like that. It had made me weak and I was loosing strength faster and faster. Jerry was actually really concerned about my health. He just wanted me safe and secure, but he felt powerless as there was nothing he could do. What i really needed was somehow keep food inside my system long enough for the baby to consume it. How they were going to do that was a mystery to us all.

Days later:

"Have you tried soup?" Came a suggestion from a voice i didn't recognized. 

"Yes, we've tried it all. Nothing works! What are we going to do doctor?"

"Hm i think it is time to try a new method. It clearly isn't useful for her to eat something normally as it just comes back up again right after. We might have to try "stuffing" the food inside of her by force."

Confused faces spread through the room. I heard a lot of hmm's and huh's. 

"Well how do you suggest we do that? I don't want to force her to do anything she doesn't want to." Jerry said a little defensive.

"We won't have to. All we need is her signature. If she is too sick to be able to do that, we just need her husbands signature. Then we can start."

"Honey?" Jerry turned to me. "Honey did you hear what the doctor said? We need your signature so we can give you food."

I opened my eyes slowly. Everything was blurry from having my eyes shut for so long. The sun hurt my eyes giving me a headache. I was too weak to talk. I needed food. I wanted them to help me, desperately trying to stay alive, to keep my baby alive. Then everything got dark. I felt like i was falling through a black tunnel with no light. I kept falling and falling. It felt like days, years... Then out of nowhere i heard voices. Voices were growing inside my head, twisted, ill-sounding voices. I couldn't recognize them. Wait. Wasn't that Jerry? Jerry! He was here with me. I searched the black tunnel for him but i couldn't see anything. Then high high above me i saw a flicker of light. As i rose from the bottom of the pitch black tunnel up towards the light, the voices raised until it felt like they were screaming. 

"She's coming to! look! Her eyes just moved!" It was Jerry. My sweet loving Jerry.

"Yes i saw it too!" And Camille? She was here too?

I got closer and closer to the light. 

"Yes, she is responding nicely to the treatment. Just another moment now and she will be fully awake." A voice i couldn't recognize.

"Rie? Honey? Can you hear me? I'm here! I'm here my girl. Listen to my voice! You are gonna be fine. She gonna be fine!" I heard him screaming to the others. Who else was up there? Where were i going? Am i going to heaven? Is this heaven i'm seeing?

I must have said the latter out loud as Jerry responded: "No sweety. You're at the hospital. Camille and I are both here. Look! She's coming to!"

I slowly opened my eyes as i reached the end of the tunnel. I saw blurry images of people bowed over me. "Jerry? Camille?" I rubbed my eyes, the images becoming more clear. After a couple of minutes of me blinking and rubbing my eyes, i could see them completely clear. 

"Oh i'm so glad you are okay honey." Jerry made a movement as to lean in and hug me, but then decided against it.

"How long was i out?" My voice. I sounded tired or just worn out. 

"You've been out of it for six days. We tried waking you up, but the doctor said that you would wake up sooner or later, so we have just waited here. Camille have been by your side most of the time, while Marwan and I took care of the kids. Olson misses his mommy." He smiled at me, overjoyed. 

"Okay," was all i could say. I didn't know how to react at their smiling faces. It all sounded like i had been near death. Had i?

"So, what kind of treatment did i get?" I tried sitting up, failed, then laid back down.

"You still don't have enough strength to sit up yet, madam." The doctor told me matter-of-factly. "You need to relax as much as possible. We inserted a gavage into your nose, though the gullet and down into your stomach to give you food. It seemed the only way you wouldn't throw it up again. You have gained some strength and the baby's heart rate has gained strength as well. But we will still need to keep you under supervision for another two weeks, just to make sure you are eating properly and that you can keep it down. As you lost strength you became dehydrated. We need to make sure that doesn't happen again. I will leave you three alone now. I'll be back later to do some tests." He left the room leaving me feeling quite vulnerable and exposed.

"Are you okay honey? Remember this is a good thing. You are both gaining strength each day. You were out for a long time. If we hadn't done it, you could both have died." His voice was filled with sadness. "Just relax and soon you will feel better."

I hoped they were right. I needed to get back home. Home to my child, who misses his mommy. I felt tears run down my face. I dried them, my arm feeling heavy.

"I need to see Olson." I said. 

Jerry returned the next day with Olson. He wanted to come up to mommy, to hug me and be kissed. He was scared at seeing me lying with tubes in my nose and arm. He didn't  understand why he couldn't crawl up to me. I cried as he cried. He was just a little boy. He didn't need to see his mom like this. I knew it was for the best, but i was longing to get home.

After two weeks i was finally released. It was amazing getting to come home to familiar surroundings. Suddenly i couldn't wait to move out. To get on with my life, explore every opportunities life would bring me. I had an opportunity to start a new life with my growing family in a new house. The others would still get to visit as often as they wanted, but it would be ours. So Jerry and I decided that after a week back home, that we would move out into our new home. We didn't need to move much stuff with us, as the  house was already fully furnished. Only clothes and a little toys were brought to our new home. We moved a Monday night after dinner. 

"Oh my god, It's huge!" Olson squealed running up to the front door.
"Hold on, let me find the key," Jerry said as he hurried after his son, smiling at his lovely boy who was soon going to grow out of his clothes. I might need to take extra shifts at work, he thought.
We went into our new house and I was marveled at the sight of it. This was ours.

Camille's Pov

It had been a hard couple of weeks, with the hospital. I had stayed at Rie's bedside most of the time, sleeping in a bed next to hers. Now she was moved out to start her own life with her family. While i had been away, Aidan had grown into a toddler by himself in his room. His dad had apparently forgotten all about his birthday because of all of the commotion. I hoped he wasn't going to be marked by it in the future. I silently promised him that the next time he would have a big birthday with all his family around.

Then one day i got a phone call from Rie. "It's coming!" She yelled into the phone, making me hold it out in arms length. "What's coming? Oh," I realized what she was talking about. "Okay, i'll be right there!" I hurried off to the car, yelling to Marwan to look after the kids. I drove as fast and safely i could to her house to pick her up. We drove to the hospital, her screaming in pain.

It was over two hours later. It had been a quick birth, but very painful to watch. She had screamed and screamed for drugs, but it had been too late for that, so she had to just push, push, push even though it hurt like hell!

"Congratulations! It's a girl! What would you like to name her?" the nurse asked.

"Alysia," Rie said, sounding weak but happy at the same time.

Jerry had been at work at the time she had called me. None of us actually thought of calling him before the birth. But he did say he would meet us at home. The new rules of the hospitals were that most mothers would be released very quickly after the birth. They got half a day and then they had to head home. Just time enough to take a bath and make sure little Alysia was okay.

As I drove her home, she kept talking about how i had to come in for a coffee. I really needed to get back home to the kids, but i ended up agreeing to stay until Jerry returned from work, since she had just given birth and was quite sensitive about everything. 

She sat rocking back and forth with Alysia in her arms, while  i drank cop after cop of coffee. Then finally Jerry arrived  home. He hurried into the kitchen and looked at his wife and child with adoration in his eyes. Olson arrived home from school soon after, and i found it was time to go home. I wished them congratulation once again before i left.

I started teaching Aidan how to walk. He learned it pretty fast and soon he was walking all over the place.

Then one morning i felt the familiar pain.
"Auuuu! Honey! Hurry! The baby's coming!" I screamed at Marwan.

He quickly ran down to me from upstairs. "Okay okay just hold on. I'm gonna call Rie." He said fast, dialing her number on his phone.
"Rie? It's Marwan. The baby's coming. Can you get here quick? Cool thanks."
"Okay, Rie is coming to look after the children. She'll be here in minutes."
Within minutes Rie arrived, hurrying inside the house. "Go. I'll look after the children." She said out of breath from the cold.
We drove to the hospital as fast as we could, while i cursed Marwan to hell for doing this to me. He just kept patting my hand and tried to stay out of the way. It was a long birth. It took around 16 hours for our new baby boy to arrive. But it was all worth it. He was such a pretty little boy. We named him Terrance after our favorite tv show "Terrance and Phillip".
Five hours later we brought him home.

"Thank you so much for looking after the children all this time," I said to Rie as i rocked Terrance back and forth in my arms. We were sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee, while Marwan was upstairs trying to get Aidan to fall asleep.
"No problem at all. We've had a lot of fun," she said, smiling tired at me.
We had set up a crib in Olson's old room, and redecorated the walls. Rie and Jerry had donated a lot of toys so he wouldn't miss anything while growing up. We were saving up to rebuild the house.
"Well we definitely appreciate any help we get." I was getting tired, and Terrance had finally fallen asleep. "I'm gonna put him to bed now and then i'm off to bed as well."
"I should get home too." Rie said standing up. She went home and i put Terrance to bed.
"Good night sweety," Marwan said as we laid in bed together, kissing me on my forehead. He always did that when he was hoping to get some action. "Honey i just gave birth earlier this day. I'm really not up for anything else than sleeping right now."
"Oh right. Well that's fine," he laid back down, resting his head on the pillow. "I'm beat too. I have some paperwork to do tomorrow anyway. I can't be sleeping on the job." We turned off the light and fell asleep immediately.