Chapter 21

 

 

Ramsey pulled up at the hospital, jumped out of the car and didn’t stop running until he reached Labor & Delivery. Nearly out of breath, he asked a group of nurses, “Gianna St. Claire…where is she?”

“Are you the husband?”

“I am. Yes. Where is she?”

“Right this way, Mr. St. Claire.” The nurse began down a cold, long hallway while saying, “It seems her contractions have slowed down a bit. Happened right after she arrived. Her doctor is in route as we speak and should be here within the next few minutes.”

“Okay. Good.” Ramsey stepped into the room and saw Gianna lying on the hospital bed connected to an IV, a heart monitor and another monitor that kept track of the frequency of her contractions. He immediately attached himself to her side. Kissed her. Went into protective mode. “Gianna, I’m here, baby,” he said. He watched her eyes open slowly. He kissed her again. She looked tired already. Skin clammy. She almost seemed out of it. And her blood pressure was low, Ramsey observed. In all of her check-ups, he’d never seen it high or low.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“I feel sick.”

“Sick like you may vomit?”

She nodded.

The nurse went to get a small pan, just in case it got to that point.

When the doctor finally arrived, Ramsey greeted her with a barrage of questions. Gianna’s temperature was slightly elevated…she was sweaty…her blood pressure was low…she looked tired…weak. Gianna had told him she felt nauseated.

“This could just be the way her body is responding to pregnancy. I’m more concerned about the contractions starting out so strong then completely phasing out, so let’s see what’s going on here,” she said, putting on a pair of blue latex gloves. “All right, Gianna, I’m going to check to see how far your cervix has dilated.”

“Okay,” Gianna said softly.

After a brief exam, she said, “You are about six centimeters which is odd because your contractions have stopped. Also, there is some blood—”

“Blood?” Ramsey asked frowning.

“Yes which suggests there could be some hemorrhaging going on, but let’s not panic. We’re going to make sure baby girl arrives safely. Right now, I’m going to give you some Pitocin which will trigger your body to start contractions again, but I must let you know—if the Pitocin doesn’t work, we’ll have to do a cesarean. Remember we talked about that at your last appointment?”

“Yes, but I don’t want a cesarean unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Gianna told her.

“I understand, and it may not even come to that,” the doctor explained. “I just want you to prepare yourself if it does.”

“Yes. Thank you,” Ramsey said. Still holding Gianna’s hand, he said, “We’ll be fine, Gianna. Everything will be okay.”

“How do you know that?” she asked him.

Her question took him by surprise for a second, then he answered, “Because it has to be. This is a happy time for us.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re not about to push a whole, big person out of your body.” She chuckled a bit.

So did he. “You can do it, Gianna.” He wiped sweat from her forehead. “I have all the confidence in the world in you. You’re strong and you’ve endured so much. You can do anything. You hear me?”

She was staring at him like she was in a daze. An eerie peaceful calm over her face.

“Gianna, do you hear me?”

She smiled just barely and whispered, “Love you,” then everything went dark. Monitors went crazy with beeps and piercing alerts. She was out.

“Gianna!” Ramsey said, his heart racing so fast, he felt dizzy.

The room instantly filled with medical personnel – a bunch of attending nurses, Gianna’s doctor and other doctors he didn’t know. Ramsey held Gianna’s hand tight, didn’t want to let go even though two nurses tried to pry his hand away. He didn’t want to let go. Letting go meant things he didn’t want to think about.

The doctors quickly got her pulse back, but she wasn’t doing good. Blood pressure still low. She was out of it and now the focus was on getting their daughter delivered. One of the nurses unlocked the wheels that kept the bed from moving. They had to move now – to the operating room. An emergency cesarean was the only option at this stage. Gianna couldn’t push. She was too out of it to do anything. And she was bleeding abnormally. Shaking.

The doctor didn’t have time to explain every detail to Ramsey and he realized this so he stayed out of the way, feeling helpless, trusting that the doctors would do their job – deliver his daughter and stabilize his wife.

Their baby girl’s first cries brought tears to Ramsey’s eyes. He’d gotten a glimpse of her before the nurses whisked her away to suction her nose and clean her up and then she cried more – sounded like a sweet melody to Ramsey’s ears. She was perfect – six pounds, two ounces he heard one of the nurses say. After they got her measurements and footprints, they swaddled her, then handed her to Ramsey.

He smiled, looking down at his daughter – his creation – completely in awe and amazement but he couldn’t rejoice like he wanted. Couldn’t enjoy the smell of her. The cute little button nose and all the other features that were her mother’s. His heart was heavy with worry. Gianna wasn’t doing so well.

“What’s going on?” Ramsey asked the doctor. “Is she okay?”

“We’ve managed to get the bleeding under control. We’re giving her medication via the IV, but she’s not out of the woods just yet. She’s going to need time to heal and rest. She’s still critical at this point.”

“Critical?” Ramsey blinked back wetness, still holding his daughter close to his heart. Their daughter.

“Yes. We’re taking her to the intensive care unit for recovery. I know you want to be with your wife, but unfortunately, the baby can’t be up there in ICU. We’ll have to take her to the nursery.”

Ramsey grew conflicted. He couldn’t be at two places at the same time and needed to be by Gianna’s side. At the same time, he didn’t want to let his daughter go to the nursery. He wanted to hold her. Love her. Admire her.

“Don’t worry, Mr. St. Claire. Our team of nurses is the best in the state. Your daughter will be well taken care of and you can come by and see her anytime you like.”

Ramsey didn’t respond. He didn’t know how. Didn’t expect this. None of it. Everything was supposed to go smoothly. Gianna was supposed to have the baby, and they were going to be reunited in a recovery suite for a few days where all the family could come visit, see and hold the baby for the first time, then they would be released to go home. But Gianna was critical and now, baby girl had to go to the nursery alone.

“I’ll take the baby to the nursery,” one of the nurses said reaching for her.

Ramsey didn’t move a muscle. He didn’t want to let his daughter go just yet.

“Don’t you want to go and give the family an update,” she asked.

“No,” he said. “I’m not leaving Gianna’s side. Can you give my family an update for me please?”

“I sure will, Mr. St. Claire, after I take the baby to the nursery.”

Ramsey didn’t want to, but he handed baby girl to the nurse finally and walked up to ICU while the nurses wheeled Gianna’s bed toward the elevator.

 

 

As promised, the nurse went to talk to the family and explained all that led up to Gianna receiving an emergency C-section. She told them the baby was okay, but Gianna was in intensive care.

Bernadette immediately burst into tears. Mason consoled her as best as he could.

Gemma couldn’t control her emotions at the thought that Gianna – her sister, who in many ways felt like her mother – was in intensive care. Royal wrapped her in his arms – told her everything was going to be okay.

Felicity covered her mouth in shock while her eyes teared.

Regal sat down and hung his head, trying to make sense of it all. He felt sorry for his brother. Ramsey didn’t need anything like this to happen especially after what happened to Leandra. He could only imagine the thoughts flying through Ramsey’s mind.

Romulus stayed holding up the wall, not making eye contact with anyone or saying a word about what was going down. He just stood there with a stoic face, figuring he’d wait to get an update directly from Ramsey. No one would really gauge the seriousness of the situation until they heard the breakdown of what happened and Gianna’s prognosis directly from him.