Trip To The Hospital

Getting Jesse to the doctor took longer than I thought it would.

First I had to clean him up. After I washed him and had a towel wrapped around his little waist, I ran water into the sink to rinse out his clothes before I filled up the sink to let them soak. It wasn’t that difficult to do that but it was the first time I ever has two little kids holding onto my legs as I did it. I don’t know how real moms do it, I thought. For the first time in my life, I was actually worrying if I could handle being a mom for real.

“Ama I cold,” Jesse shivered as he looked up at me.

“Ok then,” I led them out of the bathroom and down the hall to Jesse’s room. Jenna got up on Jesse’s bed and rolled around giggling. Jesse sat on the edge of his bed while I turned to get him some clothes to wear.

When I opened the closet I saw a bag of Pull Ups and I thought that they would be a good idea if Jesse got ‘stinky’ like on our drive to the hospital. I turned around with the bag in my hand, “Hey! What are you doing?”

Jenna giggled and moved back from Jesse, “Owie bye-bye.”

“Baby kiss me!” Jesse wiped his wet cheek and turned to Jenna, “I no good baby.”

I held my hand up to my mouth to cover up the smile on my face; I thought it was cute that Jenna kissed him to try and make him feel better. I knelt down in front of Jesse and showed him the Pull Ups, “I think we should put these on until we get to the hospital.”

Jesse’s reaction wasn’t what I expected, he smacked the bag out of my hand and started to whine, “I big boy!” I tried to reason with him but he didn’t want to hear it, “Wear big boy un’wear like daddy!”

How could I argue with that? I didn’t think I could so I went to put the Pull Ups back where I found them but I found Jenna sitting on the floor holding one in her hand. When I looked at her, she fell back and lifted her legs in the air. I couldn’t help but laugh, “These are for little boys silly!” I leaned over her, tickled her and then got Jesse some ‘big boy’ underwear and a pair of sweat pants to put on.

I got them both ready to go and was almost out the door when I remembered I didn’t let Josh know yet.

I wasn’t looking forward to calling him either but I knew I had too; he wouldn’t like it if I didn’t. So as I was talking turns carrying the kids down the stairs, I held my cell to my ear and waiting for him to come to the phone. “Hey!” I was caught off guard when I heard his voice.

“Honey what’s up? Rhea told me that you said it was an emergency, is everything ok?”

“No Josh everything is not ok.” I picked Jesse up and carried him down the last flight and reached out to grab Jenna before she took off down the hallway.

“What happened? Are you hurt? Is Jesse hurt?”

“Josh,” I sat on the steps with Jesse on my lap and Jenna tugging on my hand. “Carol dropped of Jesse about a half hour ago and he didn’t look good. He -”

“What do you mean he didn’t look good? Anna you are scaring me!” I could hear the panic in his voice; I didn’t mean to scare him.

“He has a fever, his ear hurts, and he has diarrhea. I’m on my way now to take him to the hospital, I just…” I paused and silently cursed. “Josh do you have Jesse’s Health Care Card?”

“Yeah…umm…it’s in the cupboard – no it’s not.” He sounded so strange, almost dazed or something like that. “It’s on my dresser.” I groaned, I didn’t want to have to carry both kids back up the stairs. “Carol just dropped him off like this? She didn’t say if she took him to the doctor already?”

I started back up the stairs with the two kids, and silently cursed Josh for living on the top floor. While I walked, I quickly told him what happened when she dropped him off, including everything that was said. And yes, my little rant too.

“I can’t believe it! Why the hell would he say that? And why would Carol be stupid enough to listen to him?” I won’t get into the rest of his rant, he was really upset and half of what he said shocked the hell out of me.

“Josh please,” I whispered as I tried to stop from crying. I knew he wasn’t mad at me but the longer he spoke the louder he yelled.

“Anna I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I’m not mad at you, I just can’t believe…” his voice trailed off. “Thank you honey. Thank you for being there and for caring enough to make sure that Jesse sees a doctor.” He told me that he would meet me at the hospital as soon as he could.

About an hour later, I was sitting in a hospital room in the ER with Jesse who was hooked up to an IV to rehydrate him and administer the meds that he needed to make him feel better.

“Ama?” Jesse tugged on my shirt. When I looked at him, he gave me a smile, the first one I saw all afternoon. “I get up?”

I picked him up in my arms and he snuggled into me. Jenna, who started to get undressed the same time as Jesse did (he had another ‘accident’ so they gave me a gown to put on his) so she too could wear one, was sitting on the foot of the bed holding Mr. Bear for Jesse. When she saw me pick Jesse up, she made her way up to where we were sitting and curled up at my side. I leaned back against the bed and closed my eyes.

I was listening to the sounds of the hospital as the staff went about their jobs. I wouldn’t trade this moment for anything, I thought as I peeked at the kids as they lay still against me. Well, we wouldn’t be in a hospital and Jesse wouldn’t be sick. That I would change if I could.

I don’t know how long we were there like that before I heard Josh’s voice in the hallway asking where we were. I still had my eyes closed when he entered the room. I heard him as he approached the bed. I peeked out at him and saw his smile as he saw us snuggled up together. He reached out and gently stroked Jesse’s head and then tilted his head to peek at Jenna and Mr. Bear.

Finally his eyes met mine, I was surprised to see tears in his eyes. I went to ask him what was wrong but he stopped me with a soft kiss on my lips.

“You look so comfortable with the children Anna, almost like it was meant to be.”

I smiled at him as he pulled up a chair and sat down by the bed, “It feels so right Josh.”

He took my hand in his and kissed my palm, “One day you’ll be holding our children like that.”

My heart soared when I heard him say that, I bit my lip as I gazed down at the wonderful man beside me. “I can’t wait to have your babies.”