YOU, BABY AND I

Chapter 7

EVE

The best moments of a woman's life is when she's treated like a queen, during ber pregnancy.

This should be put on a billboard for all men to see, perhaps, that will make the lazy one's sit up.

Thoughts swirled in my head as Eyare drove us back from my antenatal appointment. He had held my hand throughout as the doctor checked me and took my vital statistics. After informing us everything was fine with the baby, she'd turned to me, nodded approvingly and said. "If all men were like your husband, women would be the one's proposing to men."

We had all laughed heartily at her statement.

I revelled in the love Eyare showered on me.

Why hadn't I gotten pregnant since?

He would wake me up gently with a kiss on my lips every morning, then put a hand on my stomach and talk to the baby. He'd coo and make silly noises and I'd giggle and laugh hysterically.

He never allowed me lift a single finger, as long as he was around. All the cooking was done by him.

Every morning, breakfast would be served to me in bed with a red rose, and a warm bath would be waiting for me thereafter. He'd bath me carefully, tenderly, so as not to upset the baby inside, which was funny and wierd to me. I'd laugh and call him a silly daddy. He said these were the moments he had always dreamed off.

We'd splash water on each other and he'd end up wet and in the bath with me, which always led to us making sweet love. As a result of this, we always got to work late.

He bought a lot of books on maternity and parenting. With his foot up on the sitting room table, he'd peer at the them closely, reading them like he was studying for an exam. His brows would furrow heavily, and he'd sigh happily, a wistful expression on his face.

So because of all the care and love I recieved from him, my skin glowed. My naturally pink lips turned rosebud red, even my hair grew noticeably thicker and longer and I began to put on extra weight. My baby bump began to show and I began to get knowing looks from my colleagues and congratulations, too.

Eyare dropped me off at work and picked me up every day. He never allowed me to drive. My eyes finally opened up to him, as if seeing him for the first time. Love for him blossomed in my heart. How could it not? He was everything a woman wanted in a man, and then some. What woman wouldn't want him?

I couldn't understand why it had taken me so long to notice. He had always been caring, more so now that I was pregnant.

I've been so terribly stupid. "A penny for your thoughts, my pregnant lady?!" Onari, asked.

We were having lunch at a quaint little restaurant that served fried snails with onions and loads of pepper. It had become a fetish for me ever since I became pregnant. Eyare would indulge me by buying a lot and refrigerate them.

We were sitting at a table that overlooked the sea. I looked wistfully at the water. The waves were rough and choppy. White foam sprayed everywhere as they receded from the shore. It reminded me of the first night of my honeymoon. I had not been a good wife to him. Scratch that, I'd been a terrible wife.

Sighing, I picked up a snail with the toothpick provided and popped it into my mouth, relishing the peppery taste.

"You know," Onari went on, without waiting for an answer from me. "You look love struck. Is somebody finally in love?" My smile was slow and sweet. That was enough response for her, as she hooted loudly. "Finaly! Oh sweetie, I'm so pleased right now. Look at you, you even look loved up." She winked at me cheekily.

I just laughed.

"What! No clever retorts for me? Wow, Eyare really did a number on you. Look at you, love and pregnancy suits you, 'cause you're glowing, girl. And now you can both live happily ever after." She made this last sentence with a sigh, one hand resting under her chin as she stared wistfully at me.

My face clouded up and she noticed and frowned. "Please don't tell me there's trouble in paradise."

I sighed.

"Say something." She leaned forward, concern written all over her face.

I folded my hands on the table and looked up at my best friend. "I'm scared!" I replied in a small voice. My lower lip trembled and my voice shook. "Damn these pregnancy hormones, they've got me crying about every little thing." I said laughing a bit.

Onari was quiet, still looking at me, not saying anything, just giving me time to reveal what was on my mind.

"I think the baby I'm having is for Geoffrey." I blurted out suddenly.

Onari gasped, one finger in the air. "But are you sure, though?"

"Oh, I don't know. Before I knew I was pregnant, I hadn't slept with Eyare for a month, it was just Geoffrey." I looked down at the table, my fingers fiddling nervously with the table cloth. When I looked up, Onari was looking at me with a shocked expression on her face.

"Hold up! You mean to tell me even after I pleaded with you to stop seeing that weasel, you went ahead to sleep with him over and over again?"

"Please, Onari," I pleaded, my two hands raised. "I'm not proud of what I did. I didn't even know what I was doing with him, nor why I continued to see him. I just need you to tell me what to do now. Please, don't leave me in the lurch, I beg you."

The tears in my eyes were already falling silently now.

Onari looked at me, her gaze softening. "Shush now, you'll only upset the baby. You know they feel every emotion you feel. I won't abandon you, dear friend, I'm here for you." She held my hands. "But you will need to do a DNA test. I imagine the suspense of not knowing is almost killing you." She looked at me with sympathetic eyes.

"You can't imagine how much." The tremor in my voice betrayed my true feelings. "I've thought about doing it, but I'm scared it would harm the baby. I've decided to do so once I give birth."

I was so grateful Onari was there for me. I was an only child and Onari was like the sister I never had. We had become fast friends ever since she slapped a boy who had bullied me back in primary school.

"What if it's Geoffrey's?" I asked, with palpable fear.

'We will cross that bridge when we get there." She replied, holding my hand.

"I love you, dear sister." I clutched her hand tighter.

I love you too, dearie." She replied, squeezing my hand.

EYARE

Yannnn. Yannnn. Yannnn.

Cries of a new born baby suddenly rent the air.

I paced up and down. I couldn't contain the nervous tension within me anymore. I peeped into the theatre, through the open glass, but all I saw were the nurses backs.

The doctor appeared and started walking towards the door and I stepped back just in time.

"Doctor, is my wife okay? And my baby, is he or she okay?" My hands gripped his white lab coat. A splotch of red stained the front and I gazed at it in horror.

My hands unknowingly dropped to my side.

Did something happen to Osagiede?

Is my baby alright?

I was still staring at it in horror when he clapped me on the back.

"Congratulations daddy, it's a beautiful baby girl."

Immediately, the tension dissolved from within me, quickly replaced with a tight coil of excitement. It burbled up to the surface and came out as laughter. I laughed like I had just won the lottery.

All the sleepless nights I had spent keeping my wife company because she couldn't sleep and rubbing her back when it was hurting, disappeared into thin air. I was beside myself with joy, all I could do was hold the doctor's hands as I thanked him over and over again.

I'm a father now.

I can't believe it.

My heart beat had accelerated triple time. My eyes were brimming with tears. I saw the doctor smiling at me, understanding in his eyes.

He patted my back once more.

"I understand how you feel. They'll both be out soon, then you can see them."

With that last statement, he excused himself and left me in my excited state.

The first person I called naturally, was my mother. "Guess what, ma!" I shouted when she picked up on the second ring. "It's a girl."

I heard her screaming on the other end. From the corner of my eyes, the theater door swung open and out came Osagiede being wheeled on a stretcher. Her eyes were closed, so

I inched closer to her, calling her name. She opened them and she smiled at me tiredly.

"We have a girl, gorgeous," I announced, smiling at her. I couldn't stop smiling. My skin stretched taughtly across my cheek.

She nodded, and I gripped her hand tightly before dropping it, allowing them wheel her back to her room.

"Hello, son, are you there?" I suddenly remembered mother was still on the line, so I quickly put the phone back to my ear, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Hey ma, sorry, I just got distracted a bit."

"Have you seen your baby girl yet?" Excitement tingee her voice.

"Not yet. I just wanted to give you the great news first. They're probably cleaning her up. I'm going to join Osagiede in her room and wait for the nurses to bring my baby. I'll update you."

"Okay son, you do that." We said our goodbyes and I practically sailed to the room where Osagiede was in. She was already sleeping when I got there. Her breathing, slow and steady. I didn't want to wake her up after her ordeal.

The pains had started in the night and she had woken me up from a very deep slumber. Confused, I didn't know what was going on at first, but when she screamed, I'd jumped up and grabbed a hold of her suitcase and my car keys.

A visit to the doctor two weeks earlier, had made us know that the baby could come at any time and so I had slept dressed up in trousers and a shirt and she in a loose dress, ready for when we needed to go to the hospital.

The ride to the hospital was fraught with tension. She had screamed the whole way through and I had to remind her to take deep breaths as we had been told. She'd shouted back that the the pain was too unbearable for that.

The contractions had not given her a moment's respite. They kept coming, back to back.

That was how I knew my baby was close to coming. Thankfully at 11pm, the streets were free, and so we had gotten to the hospital in record time.

The nurses had taken one look at her and noticed immediately that the baby's head was already coming out. They'd wheeled her straight away to the theatre where my baby girl had come into the world shortly after.

A knock sounded at the door, breaking into my reverie. Two nurses walked in. One held a bundle in her arms. She saw me, smiled and walked towards me. "Here's your baby, sir."

My heart virtually froze.

My hands were shaking. I was scared to hold her. I took a peek at her. She had a full shock of curly hair. She was very light skinned like Osagiede and had light brown eyes like mother. She yawned, her small pink tongue darting out and snaking back in. Her eyes were already drooping, and a tiny thumb was stuck in her tiny pink mouth. She was beautiful and perfect and I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Looking up at the nurse, I shook my head, fearful of touching this fragile creature that Osagiede and I had created. She looked at me sympathetically. "She won't bite, just fold your hands, one on top of each other."

I did as she told me, and she placed my baby in my arms.

She had fallen asleep. Immediately I held her, she stirred and cuddled closer to me.

Is it possible for your heart to expand with so much love?

That was exactly how I felt.

I couldn't take my eyes of her.

I didn't even know when the nurses left.

A crib had been set up beside Osagiede but I just kept staring at my baby, her features so like her mum, yet so much like mother as well..

"Can I hold our baby?" Osagiede asked in a small, tired voice.

I didn't know she had woken up and was watching me. I looked up at her, wonder and marvel in my eyes.

She laughed lightly. "You look like you've just seen a vision."

I had no answer to that. The vision was in my arms. A life so tiny, yet able to bring about so much happiness. I wasn't ready to give up holding her yet, so I walked slowly to Osagiede. Placing her gently in her mother's arms, Osagiede cooed when our baby stirred.

We both gazed at her silently.

"She's beautiful!" she said, wistfully.

"And she looks just like you." I replied. "It's not fair, you two ganged up against me. Couldn't she have taken one of my feautures at least." I grumbled good naturedly.

Osagiede looked up at me with a small smile on her face. "They say babies change as they grow. I'm sure she'll decide to take after you in some way. You are handsome after all."

"Well, I try." I replied feeling a sense of pride that my wife had complimented me.

"What shall we name her?" She asked enquiringly, looking up at me.

"Eseosa!" I said instinctively. "We shall call her Eseosa, because she's a gift from God."

"Such a fitting name." She smiled tiredly at me.

And at that precise moment, Eseosa began crying. I took her from her mother, yet again and started rocking her. Soon after, she fell asleep again.

Osagiede's eyes were already drooping. It must have been an ordeal she went through, giving birth to our baby. My respect for women grew tenfold. I can't begin to imagine what moher went through, birthing me and raising me. And to think some women actually go as far as having nine to ten children.

Wow!

I carefully put Eseosa in the cot and sat down on the bed, staring at both my lovelies. I really couldn't decide who was more precious to me.

My wife who had given me the best gift any woman can ever give a man, or my baby, my princess, a precious gift from God.

I looked up, mouthing a silent prayer to God, thanking him for where I was today and finally giving me the family I had always craved for.

I looked back at my wife. She was snoring lightly. I smiled.

It's just you, baby and I.

A/N: Special shout out to everyone who has voted for me so far.