Chapter 38
The next time Joci woke up, she heard female voices speaking softly.
She opened her eyes to see Staci, Jackie, Sandi, and Emily sitting in her room talking.
Sandi looked up and noticed that Joci was awake.
She got up and walked over to the left side of the bed.
She leaned down and kissed Joci’s forehead.
Sandi started crying. “God, Joci, I was so scared when I heard you had an accident. They wouldn’t let me come last night. Are you okay? How are you? You’re going to have a baby!”
Sandi’s blubbering and prattling on without giving Joci the chance to speak made her giggle. The other women began laughing at Sandi. Jackie stood and came over next to Sandi, then put her arm around Sandi’s shoulders.
“Sorry, Joci. She promised she wouldn’t cry again.”
Jackie smiled. Sandi tended to get emotional over things, especially something this big. Joci smiled and reached for Sandi’s hand.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m going to be fine. Jeremiah thinks we’re having a girl.” Joci smiled.
Stiffly, she looked around for Jeremiah. Staci piped up then.
“We sent him home to change clothes. He was still wearing his bloody clothes from yesterday. He was going to shower, change, and be right back.”
Joci smiled and nodded slightly. It hurt to move her head more than a little.
Jackie spoke up next. “We were just talking about babies. Do you realize that Staci’s grandchild and your baby will be just a few months apart in age?
Jeremiah’s daughter and his niece or nephew will be the same age.
” She smiled. “Emily and Thomas will have a grandchild and a great-grandchild in the same year. Christmases will be fun.”
The girls giggled and talked about babies again when the nurse walked in a few minutes later.
“We have to get you up today, Joci. How are you feeling?”
“Wait. No. We have to wait for Jeremiah. He’ll be pissed if he misses that,” Staci said. She looked at Joci and shrugged. “We have strict orders that he wants to be here when you get out of bed the first time.”
Staci looked at the nurse. “Can we wait a few more minutes?”
The nurse glance at Joci. “Can you wait a few minutes, honey?”
Joci smiled. “Yes. I don’t want Jeremiah to worry that every time he leaves here, I’ll hit some milestone he wants to be here for.” To Joci, this did feel like a milestone.
The nurse smiled and went on. “We aren’t going far with you, Joci.
We just want to get you sitting up in the chair for a little while so your lungs can work better.
We don’t want pneumonia setting in. I’ll change your sheets.
Then we’ll get a new gown on you and get you back to bed.
I’ll have pain medication right here for you for afterward. ”
She nodded. She could do that. A few minutes later, Jeremiah walked in.
God, he looked so good. He had showered, shaved, and pulled his hair back into a ponytail.
He looked yummy in his fresh shirt and clean jeans.
She could look at him all day. It made her feel better to see him not so tired and dragged out. And dang, he smelled heavenly.
Jackie said, “You’re just in time. They want to get Joci up.”
He walked quickly over to the side of the bed on Joci’s left. He leaned down, kissed her, and put his hand on the baby. He did that every time now.
“Are you up for that?”
She looked at him with a bit of a shrug. “I guess it’s better for me to move around a little.”
“But is it going to hurt?” he worried.
“Like hell, I think. But I want to get better fast. So, I need to do what they ask of me.”
Jeremiah’s jaw tightened. Joci watched him process this. “Hey, if you can’t handle it, Jackie can stay with me.”
Jeremiah shook his head no. “If you can take it, I can.”
“Good to hear,” the nurse said from the doorway.
She looked at the rest of the girls. “She might be uncomfortable with a big audience. Can I encourage you all to wait in the family room?”
The girls stood to leave. They said they would be back shortly and then walked down the hall. The nurse closed the door.
She held up a syringe. “When we’re done, it’ll help you with the pain. Are you ready for this?”
Joci swallowed. Here goes. She nodded.
The nurse bustled around, getting the chair ready so Joci wouldn’t have to go far.
Her hip was going to be very sore. The nurse explained to them what needed to happen.
Jeremiah could stand close by, but she would help Joci.
She reminded Joci about all the places she had stitches as if she weren’t aware.
It would hurt like hell, but Joci should try and breathe through it.
It was important. The nurse moved the IV pole, and then it was time for Joci to move as well.
She took a deep breath as the nurse raised the head of the bed and lowered it so her feet could touch the floor without having to drop down.
When the bed was set, she instructed Joci about how to turn toward her and scoot forward.
Joci did as she was told. More than once, she gasped in pain.
She breathed through it and kept moving.
By the time she reached the chair, she was sweating and panting, and tears slid down her face.
The nurse got her situated, covered her up with a blanket, and began changing the sheets.
Jeremiah kneeled down next to Joci. His eyes were bright with moisture. “That was pure torture watching you in so much pain.”
She gasped. “Should’ve been me.”
His voice hoarse, he said, “I’m so proud of you, Joci. You did so good, baby.”
She smiled weakly. Whew, that had been hard.
Before long, the nurse finished with the sheets and told Joci it was time to move back to the bed.
Tears slid down Joci’s face. She wiped them off and nodded.
She was still a bit shaky from moving to the chair, but she was so tired that all she wanted to do was get back to bed and sleep.
She took a deep breath, and they moved her back to bed.
She felt as helpless as a baby. True to her word, the nurse gave her a shot of something to manage the pain and told Jeremiah she would let the girls know it was okay to come back in.
She looked at Joci and said, “After that, labor will seem like nothing.”
Joci groaned. She couldn’t even think about labor right now.
Jeremiah’s hands shook as he caressed her face and smoothed her hair.
“I love you so much, Joci. God, I’m so proud of you.”