The Aftermath of Callie and Arizona

And Baby Makes Four

Arizona's POV:

I've had too many sleepless nights to count in my lifetime between being a medical student, a resident, surgical fellow and now a surgeon. Yet, even if you combined all those sleepless nights, you wouldn't come close to the exhaustion I felt after giving birth. 

Our daughter, however, was indescribably beautiful and the adrenaline that was still cruising through me, had negated any fatigue I could have felt. Instead, it seemed like I was floating on a cloud that morning and there was nothing that mattered to me more in that moment.

I was laying in my hospital bed, sitting upright with Callie sitting next to me on the bed. I was holding our daughter on my bare chest as we were discussing what to name our newest family member.

"So Callie, what do you think? What should her name be between the two we picked out or is there something else you've thought of?"

"Well, I think she is fabulous no matter what we name her." Callie was quick to answer and was acting very hesitant by the inflection in her voice.

"Chicken. I can tell you are afraid to pick a name. I don't care what you think and just want to hear your opinion. Besides, I think playing the, "I just gave birth card," gives me license to make you answer. For the record, there is no wrong answer."

Callie and I had picked out two names if it was a boy and two names we liked if we had a girl. However, when faced with the pressure in the moment, Callie had clammed up.

"What if I pick the wrong name, Arizona?"

"Callie, you won't, so just tell me the name you hear in your head when you look at this sleeping beauty." The baby was nuzzled into me and sleeping soundly. 

"Okay. To me Arizona, she looks like a Madelyn. I can't imagine her going by any other name."

"Callie, that's the name that came to me too." We kissed and then gently kissed our baby.

"In that case Dr. Torres, I'd like to officially introduce you to your youngest daughter, Madelyn Brooke Torres-Robbins." Both of us teared up again after deciding on Madelyn's name and gently stroked the soft hair on her head.

As the two of us watched her sleep, Callie filled me in on all of her stats. Madelyn was 7.1 pounds and 19.2 inches long, which was very average for her age at 38 weeks. She was born just after 6 am on one of the last days in February. 

Just then, our nurse, Sara, came in to help me with feeding Maddy. (We already knew that Callie and I would probably be referring to our daughter frequently by that nickname, Maddy. It was actually one of the reasons we liked the name.)

Surprisingly, Madelyn did just fine with breastfeeding for the first time and was able to latch relatively fast. She must have been hungry because she didn't want to stop eating it seemed like, but eventually she did. Everything timed out well, because as Maddy finished, Sara was paged to another room.

That's when Callie stood up and burped Maddy, as she fell back to sleep in Callie's arms. I think Callie saw her opportunity and returned to laying upright again on the bed with Maddy.

"Arizona, she has your nose. Did you see?"

"You think so, Callie?"

"Definitely. Look for yourself. I also think Maddy has your chin." Callie was softly stroking Madelyn's hair as she examined her face. 

A few minutes later as Callie and I continued to stare in amazement at Madelyn, who was still sleeping on Callie's chest, we heard our nurse knock and then come back in. Privacy is a concept that really doesn't exist in hospitals. As an inpatient, you're lucky if you ever get more than an hour to yourself before someone comes in the room to check something or draw blood.