Something About The Way || Greta Van Fleet

Chapter 19 - Like A Beautiful Melody

"Keep going, you're doing so good," Jake praised.

I had been pushing for an hour now and felt like we were getting nowhere. I didn't want to do a c-section but if it was necessary I would do anything. As long as our baby makes it out okay. I pushed for another ten seconds and laid back defeated.

"I'm so tired," I cried.

"I know you're tired, but you're doing amazing," Josh said, wiping the sweat off my forehead with a cloth.

"I don't think I can do it."

"Yes you can, you can do anything. Think of the baby, soon enough you'll have her in your arms," Jake said stroking my hair.

"I'm going to laugh at you when the baby comes out and it's a boy," I giggled.

"The baby is losing air, you have to keep pushing," the doctor said.

"You got this Allani," Danny chimed in.

I could tell he and Sam were terrified but I appreciated their little comments here and there. I took another deep breath before pushing again, pushing, pushing, and pushing. When I was entirely about to give up, a high-pitched broken cry filled the room.

They immediately took the baby away from me. Without a word, they wheeled the medical crib out of the room.

"What are you guys doing?" Jake asked urgently following them.

The doctor stopped him in the doorway, "You need to stay here, we're going to the NICU. We think she has RDS."

"Did you say she?" I asked as the nurses cleaned me up.

"I did, congratulations you guys have a daughter."

Jake turned back to me with a huge smile on his face before realizing what else the doctor had said, "Wait what's wrong with her?"

"The nurses can answer all of your questions right now I have to go help her."

He closed the door and Jake joined me by the bed again. We asked the nurses hundreds of questions, and luckily they had all the answers. RDS was known as respiratory distress syndrome and it is the most common respiratory problem in infants because of immature lungs. They checked on her and came back to tell us it was just a mild case that can be treated by a machine that pushes air into her lungs. If she does well after forty-eight hours we can take her home.

Jake laid next to me stroking my hair, "You were right."

He giggled, "I told you I would be."

The rest of the boys stood there in silence. I couldn't tell if they were in awe or in shock.

I laughed at them, "Are you guys okay?"

"That was...incredible," Sam said.

"You just brought another life into this world," Josh chimed in.

Danny walked over placing his hand on my shoulder, "Thank you for letting us experience that with you."

"Thank you for agreeing to stay. You guys were amazing," I smiled placing my hand over his.

I don't remember much of what happened after that. My eyes fluttered open as the sun shined through my eyelids.

"Good morning," Jake said.

I turned to see him sitting on a chair next to the bed, "Good morning." I smiled.

"They said we could go see her but I wanted to wait for you to wake up so we could go together. If you're feeling up for it."

I immediately perked up, "Yes, please."

He giggled, "Okay let me go find a nurse to help us."

He walked out of the room and a couple of seconds later I heard the door open again.

"How are you feeling mama?" Josh asked bringing in a tray of coffee.

"Good, a little sore, but good. I just want to see her already."

He took a cup out of the tray handing it to me, "I bet, have you guys thought about any names yet?"

"No, we couldn't decide on any names while I was still pregnant and we haven't talked about it since," I said, taking a sip of my coffee.

"I think Josh would be a great name," he grinned.

"Did you forget she's a girl?" I laughed.

"Hey, it's all about breaking gender stereotypes now. Nothing more badass than a girl named Josh."

"Yeah, I'll let you bring that up with Jake." He got silent, "Has he still not talked to you about it?"

"No, and I don't think he will."

I reached over grabbing his hand, "He'll come around, you're his brother, twin brother at that. As much as he may not want to believe it right now, he can't live without you."

I heard footsteps coming into the room and looked up to see Jake and a nurse with a wheelchair, "You ready to see baby girl?" Jake smiled.

I nodded and all three of them helped get me up and into the wheelchair. The nurse led us into a small room with a crib with a ventilator next to it. They pushed me next to the crib but I was too low to see her, so I reached out for Jake and he helped me stand as we looked at our girl.

Jake reached his hand down to gently grab her tiny one, "Hi love. Oh my god, you're so new."

I giggled, "You're so beautiful, you look just like daddy with all that hair."

We stood there admiring her for a few minutes. "You can hold her," the nurse behind us, who I almost forgot was there said.

I sat back in my chair and watched as Jake gently picked her up placing her in my arms. Tears instantly started falling down my cheeks. He pulled up a chair and sat next to me as he started crying silently. We laughed at our new parent emotions.

"You know we still haven't decided on a name," I said.

"I know because you didn't like any of my options."

She started crying so I gently started to rock her, "I know I should hate that sound but her cry is like a beautiful melody to me."

"So name her Aria," I heard Josh say. He stood back by the nurse so we could have our moment.

"How did you come up with that?" Jake asked.

"Aria is Hebrew for 'like a beautiful melody'" He smiled.

I giggled, "Of course you would know that."

"I actually really like it," Jake said, reaching to rub his finger over her cheek.

"Yeah, me too. Aria Kiszka sounds nice."

"Wait you want her to have my last name?" Jake asked shocked.

"Yes, absolutely. Why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know I just thought you would want her to have yours."

"Well, no I hope that someday we will all share the same last name," I smiled at him.

"Jesus, one thing at a time, please. Let me figure out this dad thing first," he joked.

"I think you're supposed to figure out the husband thing first, but you do you," Josh said.