Category: Romance

In the parents’ lounge, Sophie introduced herself to a circle of mothers seated in rocking chairs. They welcomed her in and made space for her to pull up a rocker. Sophie listened as the mothers exchanged delivery stories. A mother sitting next to Sophie was in tears as she recounted the delivery of her baby

“ Hey, you two. Do you have a minute?” Dr. Sheldon peeked around the curtain of Danny’s incubator space. Adam and Sophie invited him to pull up a chair. “As you just saw, apnea is a problem in premature babies. It’s called apnea of prematurity. You’ve probably heard of some adults using a CPAP machine

Later that afternoon, Dr. Vandewater came back into the pod, this time to talk with Sophie and Adam. He introduced him self to them as one of the NICU attending neonatologists. “Hello, Dr. Vande . . . Vande . . . Geez, Doctor, I’m sorry.” Adam looked to Sophie for help. He extended his hand

A group of doctors gathered outside Pod C, waiting to begin rounds. Kim came over to tell Sophie and Adam they had to step out of the pod for a few minutes. Morning rounds were starting, and for the sake of privacy, parents had to leave until they were done. Adam pushed Sophie and the

Adam wheeled Sophie down the hall to the NICU, cautiously avoiding bumps over thresholds and slowly maneuvering the wheelchair around corners. “It’s okay, Adam, I won’t break,” Sophie teased. “You can go a little faster.” Outside the NICU, the electronic doors were closed with no door handles and no apparent way to get in. “I

The nurses prepared to transfer Sophie upstairs to her post partum room. Triage needed her bed right away for the next laboring mother. She had her belongings tucked in around her on the gurney—the clothes she had worn into triage, her boots, her jacket, her pocketbook, and the Kong. Carol walked toward her, closely tailed

That had been before the storm of her labor and the blur of her own chaotic delivery. Now here she was, a new mother, nearly four months early. Unbelievable. What in God’s name had happened? Hardest to think about was whether her son would survive. She tried not to let her mind go there but

Sophie woke a while later—minutes? Hours? She couldn’t tell. Her stretcher was up against the back wall of triage, tucked out of the way from the main part of the room. She was chilled despite the warm blankets piled on top of her. She felt the restrictive tug of an IV line taped to her

“ Stop! Sophie, stop!” Carol was yelling at her. “Close your legs!” Sophie fought to squeeze her legs together while she clutched the oxygen mask tightly to her face. Her heart pounded. Her abdo men was on fire. What the heck was happening? She clenched her legs together as if her life depended on it.