I see it in your Eyes (you'll be alright)

Chapter 12

Lisa was vaguely aware of the fact that her whole body was shaking as she watched them wheel in the incubator with her baby girl inside. She noticed almost immediately that the friendly nurse from earlier, she couldn't remember her name, was one of the people with the baby and it brought her an odd sense of comfort. At least her daughter was surrounded by friendly faces when she was brought into the world.

"The delivery was absolutely perfect, the surgeons are just finishing up with Jennie and she should be in recovery in a few hours." One of the doctors told Lisa, although she only barely heard her over the pounding of her heart in her ears.

It was as though all of her senses were narrowed in on the little tiny human laying in the incubator. Lisa didn't think that she could look away if she tried. Her little girl was laying there asleep, perfectly content despite all of the wires and monitors attached to her body. There were a few stuck to her chest, not unlike the ones that Jennie had on hers earlier, there was one on her face that Lisa guessed was probably oxygen, and one on her both her tiny little hand and foot. She was already wearing a diaper and there was a tiny hat covering her head.

Lisa watched from the side as the nurses set up all of her little monitors and made sure that everything was working for her before all but one left the room. The one that had comforted Lisa earlier.

"It's nice to see you again, despite the circumstances." she told her, giving the baby a final once over before turning to give Lisa her full attention. "Congratulations on the baby. She was born at 4:37pm and right now she weighs 3 pounds and 12 ounces, which is right on track for where she should be at this many weeks. I know this isn't ever how people imagine it's going to be, but it's really incredible at the same time. These babies shouldn't be alive right now, but technology today helps them with that and it really is it's own little miracle."

"I guess you're right." Lisa agreed, although her eyes never left the baby.

"Would you like to hold her?"

That got Lisa's attention.

"C-can I? I mean.. Is it alright? Is it safe?" she stumbled her way through the sentence.

"Of course you can, she's stable for now. At 32 weeks she was pretty much fully developed, the last few months is more about the baby gaining weight than anything else. She might need a little extra oxygen for a few days, and she'll probably need help regulating her own temperature. It'll be harder for her to latch on for feeds too, but other than that she's perfectly alright." the woman told her with a reassuring smile. "If you're comfortable with it you can take your shirt off and we'll lay her on your chest, new babies bond through skin on skin contact and it'll make her feel more at ease."

"Oh, uh, yeah, yeah, of course, that's fine." Lisa rushed out, in her eagerness to hold her daughter she didn't even take a moment to feel awkward about stripping off in front of a complete stranger. She watched from the chair beside the bed as the nurse gently picked up the baby, she wriggled around a little in protest of being moved and small grunt escaped her lips that had Lisa's heart melting into a big puddle of mush.

Nothing, nothing, could have prepared her for the feeling that accompanied holding her newborn daughter for the very first time. She cradled her tiny body close to her chest as she took in all of her little features. Her head fit perfectly inside the palm of Lisa's hand and she was just so tiny. Lisa felt an ache in her chest as she realized that one of the best moments in her life was spent without Jennie by her side, she wished more than anything that she could be here with her, to meet the baby girl that she had carried around for the past seven months, but Lisa knew they had a lifetime of memories that they would make with her.

"I'll leave you guys alone, just ring the buzzer if you need anything." the nurse told her as she made her way over to the door. "Don't worry about the baby, if anything worrisome happens we'll know from the monitors so just relax and let us handle all of that." and with that, the door was closed and Lisa was left alone with their daughter in her little room in the NICU. She gently rocked back and forth on the chair as she remembered what Jisoo had told her earlier. The baby will probably recognize her voice.