And Ken was looking at Jennifer and thinking: She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
The first pains came at three o’clock in the morning. They were so sharp that Jennifer was left breathless. A few moments later they were repeated and Jennifer thought exultantly, It’s happening!
She began to count the time between the pains, and when they were ten minutes apart she telephoned her obstetrician. Jennifer drove to the hospital, pulling over to the side of the road every time a contraction came. An attendant was standing outside waiting for her when she arrived, and a few minutes later Dr. Harvey was examining her.
When he finished, he said reassuringly, “Well, this is going to be an easy delivery, Mrs. Parker. Just relax and we’ll let nature take its course.”
It was not easy, but neither was it unbearable. Jennifer could stand the pain because out of it something wonderful was happening. She was in labor for almost eight hours, and at the end of that time, when her body was wracked and contorted with spasms and she thought that it was never going to stop, she felt a quick easing and then a rushing emptiness, and a sudden blessed peace.
She heard a thin squeal and Dr. Harvey was holding up her baby, saying, “Would you like to take a look at your son, Mrs. Parker?”
Jennifer’s smile lit the room.
29
His name was Joshua Adam Parker and he weighed in at eight pounds, six ounces, a perfectly formed baby. Jennifer knew that babies were supposed to be ugly at birth, wrinkled and red and resembling little apes. Not Joshua Adam. He was beautiful. The nurses at the hospital kept telling Jennifer what a handsome boy Joshua was, and Jennifer could not hear it often enough. The resemblance to Adam was striking. Joshua Adam had his father’s gray-blue eyes and beautifully shaped head. When Jennifer looked at him, she was looking at Adam. It was a strange feeling, a poignant mixture of joy and sadness. How Adam would have loved to see his handsome son!
When Joshua was two days old he smiled up at Jennifer and she excitedly rang for the nurse.
“Look! He’s smiling!”
“It’s gas, Mrs. Parker.”
“With other babies it might be gas,” Jennifer said stubbornly. “My son is smiling.”
Jennifer had wondered how she would feel about her baby, had worried whether she would be a good mother. Babies were surely boring to be around. They messed their diapers, demanded to be fed constantly, cried and slept. There was no communication with them.
I won’t really feel anything about him until he’s four or five years old, Jennifer had thought. How wrong, how wrong. From the moment of Joshua’s birth, Jennifer loved her son with a love she had never known existed in her. It was a fiercely protective love. Joshua was so small, and the world so large.
When Jennifer brought Joshua home from the hospital, she was given a long list of instructions, but they only served to panic her. For the first two weeks a practical nurse stayed at the house. After that, Jennifer was on her own, and she was terrified she might do something wrong that would kill the baby. She was afraid he might stop breathing at any moment.
The first time Jennifer made Joshua’s formula, she realized she had forgotten to sterilize the nipple. She threw the formula in the sink and started all over again. When she had finished she remembered she had forgotten to sterilize the bottle. She began again. By the time Joshua’s meal was ready, he was screaming with rage.
There were times when Jennifer did not think she would be able to cope. At unexpected moments she was overwhelmed with feelings of unexplained depression. She told herself that it was the normal postpartum blues, but the explanation did not make her feel any better. She was constantly exhausted. It seemed to her that she was up all night giving Joshua his feedings and when she did finally manage to drop off to sleep, Joshua’s cries would awaken her and Jennifer would stumble back into the nursery.
She called the doctor constantly, at all hours of the day and night
“Joshua’s breathing too fast”…“He’s breathing too slowly”…“Joshua’s coughing”…“He didn’t eat his dinner”…“Joshua vomited.”
In self-defense, the doctor finally drove to the house and gave Jennifer a lecture.
“Mrs. Parker, I’ve never seen a healthier baby than your son. He may look fragile, but he’s as strong as an ox. Stop worrying about him and enjoy him. Just remember one thing—he’s going to outlive both of us!”
And so Jennifer began to relax. She had decorated Joshua’s bedroom with print curtains and a bedspread with a blue background sprigged with white flowers and yellow butter-flies. There was a crib, a play pen, a miniature matching chest and desk and chair, a rocking horse, and the chest full of toys.
Jennifer loved holding Joshua, bathing and diapering him, taking him for airings in his shiny new perambulator. She talked to him constantly, and when Joshua was four weeks old he rewarded her with a smile. Not gas, Jennifer thought happily. A smile!
The first time Ken Bailey saw the baby, he stared at it for a long time. With a feeling of sudden panic, Jennifer thought, He’s going to recognize it. He’s going to know it’s Adam’s baby.
But all Ken said was, “He’s a real beauty. He takes after his mother.”
She let Ken hold Joshua in his arms and she laughed at Ken’s awkwardness. But she could not help thinking, Joshua will never have a father to hold him.
Six weeks had passed and it was time to go back to work. Jennifer hated the idea of being away from her son, even for a few hours a day, but the thought of returning to the office filled her with excitement. She had completely cut herself off from everything for so long. It was time to re-enter her other world.