Chapter 37 Alexsei
ALEXSEI
Despite the wait for the baby to want to come, the delivery was a swift one.
“I don’t understand,” Kalina said as her contractions started in earnest.
I carried her to the closest guest room, near where the doctor was staying. Because Kalina was overdue, we had the doctor here, on call, just in case.
“They all told me that first pregnancies would take a long time!” She cringed through another contraction as I set her in bed.
“Not necessarily,” the doctor said as she hurried into the room.
Raisa stayed with me as the doctor and a nurse set everything up. We’d had experience with deliveries here in the mansion, and equipment was on hand. Sadie had given birth to her second daughter, Josephine, just a couple of months back. I bet the doctor felt like this was her private practice.
“Every pregnancy is different,” the doctor said while hooking up monitors to her belly. The nurse moved with efficiency to get ready for the birth. “And every delivery is different too,” the doctor quipped. “I’m just going to see how dilated—whoa.”
“What?” Kalina sat up more and furrowed her brow. “Whoa? What does that mean?”
“The baby’s crowning.” The doctor smiled, busy preparing. “Are you sure you haven’t been having contractions?”
“I don’t know!” she cried loudly before bearing down for another contraction.
Once it passed, and the doctor and nurse conferred and prepared between themselves, Kalina winced at me and held my hand tighter.
“I don’t know how any of this works. I thought they were just cramps.
Or gas. Or—” She gritted her teeth through another contraction.
“You’ve got this, Kalina. You are doing fine,” I coached her, unsure of what else to say. Elena had delivered Misha via a C-section, and I hadn’t gotten to the hospital quickly enough to be present for it.
“All right, I need a good, big push with that next contraction,” the doctor said.
A few more times, she asked her for another push. Right when Kalina grimaced and shook her head as if she wasn’t sure she could do it, I held her hand and gave my arm to grab and squeeze through the pain.
“Good job, Mama,” the doctor announced as the baby was born.
Our baby.
The one who’d helped us to come together in a love that would last forever.
“Oh, Alexsei…” Kalina laughed. Cried. Smiled. And cooed through the exhaustion. It was a mix of reactions, but once the doctor handed the baby to her so she could rest with the infant, she gave me the proudest smile. A deeply content one. “A boy,” she said in awe. “A beautiful baby boy.”
I leaned over to peer at the baby’s face, loving him with just that first look.
My son.
Another boy to love and raise.
Misha’s brother.
“I love you, sweetheart,” I told Kalina. Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, right on her sweaty hair, I closed my eyes and committed the pure joy of the occasion to memory. Tears slipped from my eyes at the miracle of this child, of this strong woman who’d completed me and my family.
“I love you, too,” she replied softly as she endured the rest of the delivery.
I held the baby once the doctor asked for her to focus on getting cleaned up, and Raisa held Kalina’s hand through the rest of it all. While I let the cousins have a moment, talking quietly with sweet smiles, I held my second son and grinned at his little face.
Admiring him, I let the thrill of this second chance at love consume me.
Nothing could beat this feeling of meeting a new member of the family, this new start of a whole new person and soul.
Gabriella led Misha in once we called out that the room was clear and that Kalina was ready to be visited. I planned to stagger everyone else from coming in and overwhelming her, but Misha had the right to meet his sibling first.
“Is that the baby?” he asked me as he walked in.
“Come meet your baby brother, Misha.” I sat down so he could see him.
“Oh, my God!” he whispered, full of awe as he came close. “He’s so pink!”
Gabriella laughed. “You act like you’ve never seen a baby before.”
“He looks so mad!” Misha laughed, his eyes on the baby as he sat next to me and watched him.
Gabriella congratulated us and focused on Kalina so I could have a moment with my son.
My sons.
I smiled all over again. I just couldn’t stop, I was so overwhelmed with happiness.
“Will he be as fussy as Andre?” Misha asked.
I laughed with him, letting him gingerly take the baby and hold him.
For the rest of the afternoon, we let more of the others meet the newest Dubinin.
Bets were going for the choice of name, but over all the excitement and well wishes, I watched Kalina carefully for signs she was overwhelmed.
She wasn’t, all smiles as the women chatted with her and everyone took turns to see the baby. The other children weren’t too interested yet. Andre furrowed his brow as he looked at my baby boy, almost as if he was thinking another one? but knew better than to say it.
When we weren’t discussing and betting on names, Misha and Lev asked many questions.
How the baby got in a woman. When a baby started to grow. How people knew a baby was going to be coming at all.
The women deflected, passing the questions on to us men. We then took turns hedging answers because they weren’t old enough for all the details, too young to handle the entirety of the birds and bees talk.
Luka handled it best, saying, “You will understand more when you are ready to hear more.” And that was that.
Once the baby started to fuss and want to be fed, everyone filed out to give Kalina privacy to nurse.
We’d get her back upstairs to our room, but for now, with the nurse still checking her as if this were a hospital stay, we were staying put.
“Okay, but one last question,” Misha said before leaving the room. “How are babies made?”
I chuckled, bringing the baby to Kalina to nurse. “Later, Misha. I’ll explain more later.”
He nodded and left with Lev, both of them probably trying to figure it all out.
“I’m not ready for him to be curious about all that,” I admitted as I helped Kalina get positioned to feed our son.
She smiled, amused.
“I do know that I can’t wait to practice again and see if we can get a daughter next time.”
She gaped at me, then grinned as the baby latched. “Alexsei! I just had this baby.”
I stroked her hair back to tuck it behind her ear. Leaning in to kiss her, I rested my hand on the back of the baby’s head. “And I will never stop loving you for it.”
She settled against the pillow, watching me with a lazy smile. “Besides, I think it’s up to you whether we’ll have a boy or girl.” She yawned, clearly ready for a nap. “Maybe we’ll just have to keep practicing until you figure it out.”
“We never discussed how many we might want,” I reminded her.
“We never even discussed having one,” she teased. After another yawn, she said, “I have to admit, it wasn’t as bad as I feared.”
“That’s because you are the strongest, bravest woman I know.” I kissed her as I sat next to her and urged her to rest her head against me. She needed to nap, and I’d handle the baby when she did.
“And not a day will go by when I don’t realize how lucky I am that you wanted to be mine.”
“Yours,” she replied sleepily and happily before closing her eyes and trusting me to have her back with our new son.
With everything.
The reward of earning this woman’s trust was the greatest gift she ever could’ve given me.
Her trust and love—both of which I’d never take for granted so long as I lived.