73. Chapter 73
Waverly woke the next morning to find that Nicole had already gotten up, as the part of the hospital bed that the redhead slept on, was now empty and cold. Looking around the room for a clue as to where her wife could be, the thought of dreed crept into Waverly’s mind, that maybe something happened to the triplets overnight and they needed one of them to be present. Before she could let her mind run away on her, Waverly was drawn back to reality when a dishevelled Nicole holding two coffees in her hand.
“I thought that you might like a coffee before we go and see our pup’s.” Nicole moves closer to Waverly’s bed and gives her best-dimpled smile.
“You’re the best. Have you seen them this morning?” Waverly reaches out and takes both coffee’s out of Nicole’s hands and places them on her bedside table, before sliding over in her bed, where she pats the now vacant spot for Nicole to join her.
After taking her position beside her wife on the bed, Nicole slides her arm around the back of Waverly and pulls the smaller woman into her side, “Yes, I checked in on them before heading to the cafeteria. Their oxygen stats dropped slightly overnight, so the doctor has put oxygen pap mask’s on them, to bring their oxygen levels back up to normal. The doctor reckons that they should only need to wear them for a couple of weeks, it’s only till their lungs fully develop. Apart from that, they are doing great.”
“Nicole, how are we going to tell the other children? Nicolas and Alberto may comprehend, but the others are too young to understand. How are we going to do this? I mean the caring for the triplets and our other pup’s? I’m so scared that something bad is going to happen to our tiny pup’s?” Waverly buries her head into Nicole’s shoulder while her hand tightly grips her wife’s uniform. Nicole holds her wife and allows the love of her life the chance to not only voice her fears but also the freedom to cry.
Cooing against Waverly’s forehead, Nicole rubs her hand up and down Waverly’s back, as her wife cried into her shirt, even though she could feel the shirt becoming damp from Waverly’s tears. Nicole couldn’t care less, because this was what it meant to love someone through sickness and in health, in the good and bad times.
“We will work something out when it comes to the triplets and our other pups. The only thing we must concern ourselves with is to drink our coffee’s before we have some breakfast. Then when your ready, we will go and spend some time with our little pup’s. Then I’ll call Wynonna after and ask her to bring in our other pup’s, that way we can see them and show them their brother and sisters, and explain that they are going to need some extra care from the nurses and doctors. And when you come home, we will work out a routine for looking after our pups at home and then caring for the triplets here in the hospital.” Nicole leans over and takes hold of Waverly’s coffee and hands it to her wife. Knowing that Nicole was right, that the only thing they can handle was one thing at a time.
After taking care of all the details of gowning up and making sure that they had scrubbed their hands correctly, Nicole and Waverly entered the NICU ward and made their way towards the three little incubator cots. Inside they found their babies laying on their backs, wearing only a tiny diaper, and cords attached to several areas of their bodies, along with the oxygen pap mask, that was assisting them with maintaining a sustainable oxygen level.
The very sight of her babies wearing the masks, was just a bit much for Waverly as her legs started to wobble before they gave way, resulting in Nicole having to quickly catch her wife before the brunette hit the ground. The nurse attending to their babies, grabbed a chair for Nicole to move Waverly onto. “It’s only a precautionary measure, we want their oxygen levels to come up to a normal level. You can still hold them; would you like to?” Reaching a comforting hand out towards the brunette, the nurse tries to reassure Waverly.
Not knowing how to take it all in, Waverly nods her head as she reaches her good hand around to the back of her neck, to untie the knot that held up her gown and lowering it just low enough for her to lay her son against her naked chest. Making sure that little Lucas’s head was resting on its side, to allow him to hear her heartbeat and not to disturb the mask that covered his tiny nose and mouth. Breathing in her son’s scent, Waverly felt herself relaxing enough to release her own scent for Lucas to recognize as being his Ma’s. With her hand rubbing his back, Waverly began to hum a lullaby to her son as he wiggled under the weight of her hand and now and again, she placed a gentle peck to the top of his head, that revealed a tinge of red hair.
Nicole pulled her seat so that she was beside her wife, before lowering her own gown to make space for Olivia and Charlotte to lay against her skin. Mimicking her wife’s actions Nicole found herself in tune with Waverly as she too hummed the same lullaby to her daughters. Even with the masks, the three little pup’s wiggled against their parent’s skin until they found the right spot to lay against. For Olivia, her favourite spot on Nicole’s chest was just below her Mummy’s left shoulder, while Charlotte found her spot being in the middle of Nicole’s chest just under her Mummy’s chin. For Lucas, he wiggled until he was right over Waverly’s heart and would whimper if he was moved away from his spot.
For the next hour, both Nicole and Waverly took turns holding their children as well as helping with changing their small diapers. As Waverly’s milk was beginning to come in, she was assisted by the nurse at first, but that changed when Nicole’s Alpha raised its jealous side when the nurse tried to apply the suction cup onto Waverly’s nipple. The nurse quickly suggested that Nicole should assist Waverly with the rest of the setting up of the pump. After expressing enough milk to feed all three of the pup’s, the nurse placed the fresh milk into the wards fridge after it had been labelled and documented. While the pups were 28 weeks old, they were too young to begin sucking, and so they were being fed via a nasal tube.
Nicole walked Waverly back to her room before she called Wynonna to ask her to bring their other pup’s to visit them later that day. As Waverly was due to have a check-up with her doctor and they wanted to discuss the further treatment for the premature pup’s, and what they were to expect over the next couple of weeks. As this was all-new for the pair, Nicole and Waverly wanted to be fully informed as to what the next steps would be. Waverly also knew that Wynonna and Doc were not going to be able to look after their other pup’s all the time, that their babies were going to need to have at least one of their parents with them, and it was a conversation Waverly knew she was going to have with Nicole.
“Nicole, we need to talk about how we’re going to do this. Caring for the triplets as well as for our other babies. While I’m in here, I think the best thing would be is that you go home and look after our babies. Especially Nicolas, as he will be worried and needing reassurance that we haven’t left him.” Waverly says as she begins to pace the room.
All Nicole could do was stand and look at Waverly with a concerned look on her face, as her eyebrows crinkle, indicating that she was worried. “Baby, but I have to be here for you.”
Waverly walked over to Nicole and took her wife’s hands into her own as she looked directly into two beautiful brown eyes. “Sweetie pie, yes I want you here, but our other babies need you just as much. When our babies are at school or daycare, you can come and be with me and the triplets. But for now, this is how it’s going to be. And when I come home, we will work out some sort of routine. I love how you are brave for the both of us.” Standing up on her toes, Waverly leans in to kiss Nicole, who returns the kiss.
It wasn’t long before the Doctor came and examined Waverly, which he said that the bruising hadn’t gotten any worse and that her shoulder was tender but that was to be expected. He then explained that Waverly would be able to go home in a couple of days, as they wanted her close by to express her milk, as it would be given to the pup’s and it would give them a fighting chance with all the good stuff that was in her milk. Nicole and Waverly were told that in the next couple of weeks, the triplets should put on some weight as their bodies develop more fat under their skin.
He also advised them that when the pup’s reach the 29 to 30-week mark, they will begin to feel secure as they will be able to snuggle under a blanket. The doctor explained that most parents like to bring in special blankets that have their scent on them, this helps the pup’s to nest underneath the blanket. Although now the pups were developing their own sleep and wake cycles with periods of REM sleep. They can blink as their rapid eye movement was also developing, as the retina was in the process of forming and this allows the pups to form images during this stage of their growth.
With all this new information to comprehend, Waverly decided that she and Nicole were going to be very much hands-on, throughout their babies development and growth. And if that meant that she and Nicole had to learn everything there was to learn about premature babies, then that was what they were going to do, as well as caring and bringing up their other babies.
Now that the Doctor had answered all their questions and left them to think through all that he had discussed with them, Nicole sat in the chair and looked at her wife, who was now browsing through an online book website while sitting on the bed, as Waverly scrolled through all the books on Premature babies, she was lost in her task that she didn’t see the smirk on the redhead’s lips.
“I love how even with a challenge; you’re always wanting to learn more so that you can achieve whatever the task that’s before you.” Nicole says before the door flung open and in came rushing in were 7 little beings that cried, “Mummy and Ma”. Wynonna and Doc followed behind with four coffees and a box of doughnuts in their hands.
“I’ve missed you guys. Mummy will lift you onto the bed so, I can have my hugs.” Waverly smiled at the little huddle that was made up of a mixture of both brunette and red hair beside her bed. After the last pup had been placed onto the bed, Nicole turned her attention to Wynonna, whose stare spoke more than words. “From the look on your face, they weren’t on their best behaviour last night?”
“Oh, they were perfect little angels overnight, but being woken at 6 am to 7 little beings screaming that they wanted to see their Mummy and Ma, was not what I signed up for. Do you know hard it is to distract this lot when all they want is you two?” Wynonna waved her hand between Waverly and Nicole, which got a chuckle out of the pair.
Nicole joined her family on the very crowded bed and wrapped her arms around each of her babies, kissing each of them and told them how much she loved them. Waverly noticed the tears welling up in her wife’s eyes when she held Padma in her arms. “Now your Mummy and I have something very important to tell you. Yesterday I had a car accident, and it made the babies that were in my tummy, to be born. You have two more sisters and another brother.”
Alberto knelt beside his Ma, “What their names? Where are they?” Nicole sat and watched as her wife explained to their children about the triplets down the hall. “Their names are Olivia, Charlotte and Lucas. Because they were born early, each of them is very tiny. Each one of them is as big as my hand. They need to stay in special beds and need extra care. We’re going to take you to see them, but you won’t be able to touch them. You have to be very quiet as there are other babies like them in the special ward.” Waverly touched the side of each of her children as they looked at her and Nicole.
Making their way down to the NICU Ward, Nicole and Waverly made sure that their children were on their best behaviour and weren’t too loud as they moved through the corridor. As they approached the window to the NICU, Nicole lifted Nicolas and Alberto, while Waverly could only lift Padma, so Wynonna lifted Walden and Winona as Doc lifted Bach and Jagna. When the nurse that oversaw their pups, saw the family looking in, she pointed to the three incubators that housed Olivia, Charlotte, and Lucas.
“They tiny and what are those things?” Nicolas points to the masks that the triplets were wearing.
“They are wearing special masks, to help them breath better.” Nicole hoped that her explanation was able to be understood by her son.
“Where are their clothes? Are they cold?” Walden asks as he lays a hand on his Aunt’s shoulder.
“The special bed they’re in help to keep them warm. Their skin is too sensitive for clothes.” Waverly replies as she shuffles Padma so that she could hold the little one firmly with her good arm.
Padma holds out her little soft toy tiger towards the glass window as if she was trying to give it to her new sisters and brother. Seeing how compassionate her daughter was towards her new siblings, caused Nicole to force back the urge to cry on the spot. She had been fighting the feelings that she had let Waverly and their family down. It was like Waverly could sense her thoughts, leaning closer to Nicole, Waverly whispered, “Nicole, without you, I would not have the family I’ve always wanted. I love how you are always strong, even when you're crumbling inside. Baby, you have never let me or our family down. We are in this together, for better or for worse.”