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Anthony’s phone rang, with Ben’s picture popping up on his screen. ‘Hey Ben, just heading out to a lunch meeting. What’s up?’
‘I just dropped lunch off with my wife and briefly saw your wife. Usually I would not be particularly observant, but even if Sophie hadn’t talked about how tired Kate is today, I gotta say. She looked rough, Ant.’
‘She didn’t look great this morning but swore she was just a normal amount of tired for a woman in the last trimester of pregnancy,’ Anthony responded, concern and fear lacing his voice.
‘Yeah, it seems like more than tired. She apparently isn’t listening to Sophie and is giving her the same line about being tired.’
‘Let me run, Ben. I’m going to cancel and run over to put eyes on her. If I just call, she will send me to voicemail and tell me ‘I’m busy’,’ he said with his best Kate impersonation. ‘Thanks for looking out for us. Love you.’
‘Anytime. You delivered my son. I owe you in perpetuity. Keep me in the loop, mate,’ Ben said, before the call ended.
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Anthony walked into Kate’s office, with a bag of Tangfastics in hand in hopes of bribing her to go home and rest. He knocked on her cracked door before going in and found her with her head resting on her desk. ‘Hey you, I come bearing gifts.’
‘I thought you had a lunch meeting?’ she asked, not lifting her head up to look at him.
‘Unimportant,’ he dismissed, as he walked over toward her, gently rubbing between her shoulder blades. ‘Can you look at me please?’
Her eyes were glassy, a tell-tell sign of fever, and her face was schooled to feign stoicism. ‘Babe,’ Anthony started, before Kate cut him off.
‘I should have listened to you this morning. I really don’t feel well,’ she said, as she started to cry. Anthony kneeled down in front of her, ‘It’s alright. Let’s just go home, get some fluids and something for the fever. Even a cuddle in the tub if you ask nicely.’
‘No, no, Anthony. I feel crampy.’
It was Anthony’s turn to school his face, trying to not panic and make things worse for Kate, despite the pit deep in his belly that seemingly confirmed something was wrong, beyond just a fever. ‘Crampy like you are dehydrated? Like a stomach ache? Or should we call Claire?’
Both Kate and Anthony adored her midwife, Claire. She delivered Ned with great aplomb and - most importantly - was sympathetic toward Kate when Anthony insisted on earning a midwifery certification to be prepared, ‘just in case,’ as soon as they found out they were expecting.
‘Will you call Claire on the way to A&E?’ Kate asked in a small voice.
Anthony immediately went into action mode, falling easily into his tried and true approaches to stress management. ‘Of course, love. I’m going to call a cab, and grab you a glass of water and gather your stuff while we wait, okay?’
‘Yeah,’ she whispered.
‘Kathani Sharma Bridgerton,’ he said, kissing her forehead before continuing. ‘I love you so incredibly much. We’re all going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.’
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From the distance from Kate’s office to A&E, Anthony had coordinated with Ben to get him a change of clothes and Kate’s hospital bag from their place and with Sophie to grab Neddy when she picked up Charlie and Alex from crèche. He had talked with Mary, who was visiting Edwina for the first time since she moved to Berlin for a research fellowship. He texted with Violet, who was in Edinburgh to attend Francesca’s fall piano performance exhibition. Violet promised she would let Daphne - who was ‘babysitting’ Greg and Hy - know what was happening after Anthony insisted he could not handle her inevitably emotional response. Ben, blessedly, confirmed with Violet that she had talked to Daphne before texting the sibling group chat to make sure everyone was on the same page. (Heaven forbid anyone be excluded from the chaos).
With seemingly an entire day’s worth of texting and emailing done in the course of 10 minutes, Anthony helped Kate out of the cab and headed in to meet Claire. Kate was quickly processed through patient intake, changed into a gown, and tucked into an exam room. Claire asked Kate questions and took vitals, as the ultrasound tech set up. After confirming the baby was still measuring between 33 and 34 weeks, they placed a fetal monitor around Kate’s belly.
‘Alright, Kate. You are definitely in labor, but baby looks great.’ A shuddering sob escaped from Kate as the tears started to run down her cheeks. Claire squeezed her shoulder, ‘Deep breaths, Kate. We deliver babies earlier than this quite regularly. Let’s do a quick check to see if we are delivering this guy today or if we are going to keep you here to try to slow things down. Heels to your bum, knees out for me.’
Anthony scooted closer toward the exam table, placed his hand on Kate’s chest and rubbed his thumb back and forth across her collarbone.
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Kate had been in active labor for nearly six hours before she started to transition. As she got closer to pushing, a whole contingent of providers came into the room - a pediatrician, pediatric nurses, and an couple extra labor and delivery nurses. Especially after just Anthony and Claire being there for Edmund’s birth, the energy of so many people was overwhelming.
‘Ant, I can’t do this,’ Kate whispered, face buried in Anthony’s abdomen. He knelt down in front of her, hands on her thighs. ‘Of course you can, love,’ he started, as Kate began shaking her head in earnest, ‘There are too many people.’
Anthony, miscalculating her panic, responded practically, ‘They are just here to make sure you and our tiny man are safe and healthy,’ before whispering conspiratorially, ‘Plus, I’d imagine yours is not even close to the first vagina they’ve seen today.’
‘No, I can’t, I can’t …’ Kate responded, before Anthony clocked her panic, ‘Ah, ok.’
Turning to their accumulated audience, ‘Um, can we have a minute? Just with Claire?’
The room cleared out, and Anthony enveloped Kate into a hug. ‘Ok, babe. It’s just me and you. And Claire, because my baby catching days began and ended with Alex,’ he said, shuddering at the memory of unceremoniously delivering his nephew while Ben was a completely useless ball of panic.
‘Claire, talk us through what’s going to happen with all those folks who were in here,’ he asked of their beloved midwife, before kissing the crown of Kate’s head. ‘Armed with knowledge and all that,’ he added as an after thought, thinking about his dad’s words to him and Ben, as he would teach them about different species of trees and flowers on their hikes. And after the sex talk when they were tweens, Anthony remembered wryly.
Claire walked them through the delivery, moving the baby to the NICU, taking care of Kate, and the first couple of hours after birth. ‘Alright, we can do that, right?’ Anthony asked Kate, as she tensed with a contraction. She grunted, leaning more heavily into Anthony and looked up at him after the contraction waned. ‘Yeah, we can do that.’
The care team slowly trickled back into the room, and quickly Anthony texted Benedict. ‘You owe me for delivering your child. Neither Mary nor Mum are going to make it back in time. Kate loves and trusts you. Will you stay with her so I can go with the baby? She made me promise to go with him.’
Ben texted back from the waiting room. While Anthony’s stress response was action, Ben’s was the ministry of presence. Even if he wasn’t needed, he was scared to leave after dropping off the change of clothes and hospital bag, so holding vigil it was. ‘Of course. Out here in the waiting room - on standby.’
Just as he put his phone down, Kate groaned, the intonation changing. He reached out to Kate, who grabbed his hand, panting out, ‘I need to ..’ before Anthony cut her off, ‘Alright, love. Let’s do it. In a more comfortable position?’
‘My side,’ she responded, as she started to lean back with Anthony’s help. Claire came to sit on the foot of the bed, and, as the contraction passed, she asked, ‘Kate, can I move your leg onto my shoulder? I want to do a quick check before the next contraction.’
‘Dilated and fully effaced. You’re good to go, Kate. Whenever you feel ready.’ As she went to move Kate’s leg, she tapped her calf and paused to ask, ‘Up or down?’ Kate huffed out and ‘up’ before bearing down.
After a couple of contractions, Kate looked at Anthony, panicked, ‘It feels different than Edmund. Something’s wrong.’
Anthony steeled his emotions and looked at his wife with all the love and confidence he could muster. ‘Katie, his heart rate has been consistent your entire labor, even when pushing. His little lungs make surfactant, and the steroid shot will help. And, love, even if you were delivering at exactly 40 weeks and 2 days like with Ned, this guy would feel different,’ he encouraged, rubbing her belly. ‘You’ve done so incredibly well, just a little more work to do.’
The pediatric nurses shot questioning glares at Claire, who shrugged, as best she could with Kate’s calf resting in the crook of her neck. ‘That man got his midwifery certification during her first pregnancy, quote, ‘just in case.’ I wish I were joking.’
Kate pushed a couple more times, before Claire encouraged her to reach between her legs to feel the baby’s head. ‘He’s right there. Try to breathe through this next contraction.’ A minute later, the baby’s head was delivered, ‘gentle push for the shoulders, and he will be here,’ Claire coached.
And just like that, the newest Bridgerton slid into the world. He let out a quiet, aggravated cry, letting his Amma and Papa know he was here and he was just fine. ‘APGAR of five. Let’s get a quick cuddle with Mum. How’s that sound little man?’ Claire asked as she settled him on to Kate’s belly.
Kate had rolled onto her back, silent tears and shaky breaths ravaging her body. She had flung her arm across her eyes, and Anthony gently coaxed it away. ‘Look at who you made, Kathani! He’s beautiful and he’s here,’ emphasizing the here. Kate slowly and shakily moved her hand down to cradle the baby. Anthony laid his hand over hers as a silent promise to both Kate and their tiny baby that he would do every thing in his power to ensure they were both going to both be just fine.
A minute later, the spell was broken, and the peds team started to work on the baby before Anthony was trailing after the incubator and Ben was taking his place by Kate’s side.