After the nurse left, Ken walked over to Daisy’s bed and pressed his lips to her forehead. She looked up at him. Her face had tired lines, but her brown eyes glowed with anticipation. “I admit it. I was tempted.”
He smiled and didn’t reply because any words that came to him would have encouraged her to get one. She had grown accustomed to his silences. His mom rubbed Daisy’s shins through the blanket. “Do you need anything?”
She shook her head. “I need to dilate one more centimeter. I don’t think you can help with that.”
She chuckled. “I’m going to go find your parents.”
Daisy smiled. “Thank you. They’re down in the cafeteria.”
As the door shut behind his mom, Daisy held her hand up, and he grasped it, sandwiching it with both of his. “Ken!” She started to squeeze his hand almost painfully. “Oh!”
He brushed her hair away from her forehead and pressed the back of her hand against his cheek. She breathed through the contraction but yelled out at the end. “Okay! We’re moving now!”
She barely finished the words when another contraction had her. For several minutes, Ken breathed with her, touched her, stroked her, and prayed for her. When she said, “I need to push!” he pressed the call button.
“Can I help you?”
Before Ken could speak, Daisy yelled out, “I need to push!”
Seconds later, a nurse came in the room pulling a glove on. She checked Daisy and then hit a button on the wall. Another nurse arrived.
Ken stayed near Daisy’s head while they arranged her on the bed. By the time they had her set up, Doctor Reynolds had arrived.
“I hear we’re ready! Let’s welcome baby Dixon number three into this world.” Doctor Reynolds murmured something to a nurse, and then she pushed a stool to the foot of the bed. “I’m just going to check.” She glanced under the sheet the nurses had arranged, then peered over it and smiled at Daisy. “I see a head!”
She nodded to the nurses in the room. They moved to flank the bed, each one taking Daisy under her knee to hold her legs. The doctor said, “On your next good contraction, I want you to push.”
Ken could tell when the contractions started because Daisy squeezed his hand and bared down. He slipped his arm behind her shoulders. “That’s it,” he said softly. “You got this.”
Daisy bared her gritted teeth and groaned through them, sweat pouring off of her forehead and down her face. After several seconds, she lay back, panting.
“Almost there,” Doctor Reynolds said. “Push again on the next contraction.”
Ken’s stomach tied itself in knots. He anticipated seeing the baby but didn’t like watching Daisy go through this. He needed it to end so the pain would go away. He tried not to watch the activity with the doctor and the nurses. Instead, he focused on his wife, on the expressions as they crossed her face, on the sounds she made.
She relaxed again and rolled her head toward him. “I’m tired.”
“I know. But you got this,” he said.
“Okay, Daisy, one more time. Ready?”
Even though she whimpered, he watched her summon the strength, then lean forward and push. He hugged her to him and willed her to get a reserve of strength from him. Suddenly, the activity at her feet picked up. The doctor moved, and Daisy collapsed back as a sharp cry filled the room.
Doctor Reynolds stood and leaned over the sheet in one move and lay the baby on Daisy’s chest. “It’s a girl!” The baby had jet black hair and pink skin. A sob clogged his throat, and he kissed Daisy’s temple.
Daisy cried and pressed her lips to the top of her head. “A girl,” she said, tears filling her eyes. She looked at him and smiled. “Little Rosita.”
They’d found a name that combined both of their mothers’ names. He touched his finger to the little wet curl on Rosita’s head. The joy Ken Dixon felt in that moment of completeness rocked him. Logic abandoned him, and pure joy poured into him and filled him until he felt it overflow. He felt like he soared above the clouds with Daisy and Rosita by his side. He felt like he flew high above the earth.
He had a home. He had a wife. He had a child. He was a husband and a father. Together, they were a family. Their family would grow closer and deeper in love from this day forward. Nothing could ever take away the complete bliss he felt in this moment.
Daisy laid her fingers lightly over his wrist as he stroked his daughter’s hair. Ken uttered the only word that seemed to fit. “Perfection,” he whispered.
“Ken?” Daisy whispered. Something about her quiet voice set off blaring alarms. Her grip on his wrist tightened to a bruising grip. “Ken? Something’s wrong,” she said with a gasp.
His eyes darted to hers. He studied her face. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. She gasped, “I… can’t… breathe.”
As he watched, Daisy’s eyes rolled up, and her head lolled back. “Daisy?” He straightened and shook her shoulder. “Daisy!”
