Never Leave My Side (A Teen Pregnancy story)

At Last

My eyelids felt heavy as I groggily tried to keep them open. For a fleeting moment, I forgot where I was and what had transpired. As I blinked a few more times, it all came back to me and I gasped. I knew I had recently been transferred to the postpartum ward, but exhaustion continued to take over me and I hadn't been able to stay awake for longer than a few minutes each time I came to. Were my babies okay? I looked around the hospital room and found the call light neatly placed across my lap. I quickly pressed it and anxiously waited. I felt too weak to get up and from the padding on the side rails, I got the impression I really wasn't supposed to get up anyway.

The call was quickly answered by a nurse opening the door and greeting me. "Hi, Gabry." She smiled at me. "You're awake! What can I do for you?"

A million questions flooded my brain. What all had gone down? Where was my family? Storm? The twins? "What-what happened? All I remember is going in for the C-section and now I'm here and -"

"You are in the postpartum ward. The C-section went well, the twins are in the NICU as we had expected..."

"How long has been? What day is it?"

"It's September 23. It's been about three days since your C-section."

It felt like more time had passed, but I supposed that wasn't a terrible thing it had only been one day. "How long will I be in here? What is going on with the twins? Where's Jason?"

"He is with them in the NICU... They are monitoring their lung development since they were born several weeks premature."

My throat tightened. "A-are they going to be okay?" Tears started to well up in my eyes. "Did I hurt them?" This was all my fault.

The nurse made a sympathetic face and accompanying sigh and sat down on the corner of my bed. She grabbed my hand. "I'm not directly involved in their care because I'm caring for you, but from everything that the doctors have been saying to your boyfriend, they are doing well and they will have a good outcome. You did nothing to hurt them... your health was beyond your control when you developed eclampsia. Your OB should have been monitoring you closer, but the twins are doing well now and you are too." She smiled reassuringly. "Once the twins were born, you had another seizure and we had to sedate you further to stop it and once the doctor was sure that the likelihood of seizing had decreased, they brought you out of the coma and they sent you down here to me. You were in the ICU for a couple of days, but they felt that you were stable enough to come down to me and the doctors believe you should make a full recovery."

With all of that information dumped, all I could do was a nod to confirm that I understood. I blinked away the tears. "Can I see them? Can I go down to the NICU?"

"Of course, just give me a few minutes to call down there and I will go get a wheelchair for you." She stood up and began walking to the door.

"wait, do you know where my cell phone is? I want to call Jason." I looked around, my bedside table was empty and I couldn't see anything around the room that belonged to me.

"Um, yes, I believe they stashed your belongings in the closet when you came down here." She walked over to the cabinet door in the corner of the room and opened it. "Yes, here it is. Is it okay for me to open your bag to get your phone out?"

"Yes, of course," I said eagerly, adjusting the head of my bed so that I could sit up more as she handed it to me.

"Is there anything else I can get for you? Are you having any pain?"

I shook my head. "No, I feel pretty good actually. My vision is better and I don't have a headache anymore." Which had been a complete turnaround from what I had felt like days earlier before the twins were born.