Red Rider (Little Ruby Red Book 2), page 35
“Do you want to take over?” Toby asks.
“No dear, you’re training for this, you do it, I’m here if you need me,” Ella says with a soft smile as I scream out again, pushing.
“Heads out! Come on Ruby!” Toby says as I push harder, feeling the baby push through.
“Do you want to cut the cord, Dante?” Ella asks taking the baby in her arms as I’m breathing heavily.
“Yes,” he nods, tears in his eyes as he goes down there and cuts the cord.
“Why is he so quiet?” I whimper.
“He’s fine, obviously not a screamer,” Ella smiles.
The next wave of contractions hits me, my body was exhausted already, but I had to do this.
“Ready to go again?” Toby asks.
“Is that really a fucking question right now? Like I have a fucking choice,” I growl out through the pain.
“Shh, it’s ok,” Dante rubs my tears away as I begin to push again.
“Baby number two!” Ella grins as Dante cuts another cord, a loud scream pierces the air this time as my chest heaves with exhaustion.
“I can’t, I can’t do it again,” I cry.
“One more, Ruby, you have to do this,” Toby says.
“One more and we’ll have our three babies Ruby, our little ones, you’re so amazing sweet thing, just one more,” Dante kisses my cheek.
I cry out once again as the next wave of contractions hits harder than before, I was so tired, it was all happening so quickly and I could see my two babies in the arms of Ollie and Ella, I was jealous, those were MY babies…
“WAIT! Stop! You have to stop pushing for a second Ruby!” Toby yells.
“Dante take this little one,” Ella says passing one of the babies to him as she rushes to Toby’s side.
“I can’t stop,” I cry trying to do what he asked.
“The cord is wrapped around their neck, if you push you could strangle them, hold on for as long as you can sweetheart I just need to unwrap it, this might hurt a little,” Ella says taking over, Toby watching her intensely.
“Ok, now Ruby!” Toby says as I’m able to push once again, pain throbbing through my body as the third baby comes out slower than the last, causing pain to rip through me.
“This one’s a chunker,” Ella says trying to help in any way she can before I hear the final scream of my third little angel.
“You did it baby, they’re here, they are so beautiful,” Dante says kneeling beside me, holding one of them in his arms, wrapped in a soft towel, tears in my eyes as I look down at the beautiful bundle.
“Here, you should be the one to hold her,” Ollie says passing over the other bundle.
“Her?” I smile, still trying to catch my breath.
“Two boys and a girl,” Ella smiles at us.
“But… The doctors said three boys,” I reply in confusion.
“Sometimes scans aren’t exact,” Ella answers.
“Thank you, all of you,” I cry holding onto my little girl, looking at my little boy in Dante’s arms before Toby brings the second boy to me, placing him softly in my arms before kissing me on the head.
“Anything for you big sis, looks like I didn’t miss the births at all,” Toby smiles.
“I’m so glad you were here Toby, thank you,” Dante shakes his hand over me.
I can feel Ella trying to clean me up.
“We should get her to the hospital, she’s going to need stitches and the babies will need to be looked at, I’ll call for an ambulance to come,” Ella says.
“Thank you,” I say, feeling sleepy and completely worn out.
I couldn’t believe it, my little ones were here, they were here and absolutely beautiful, my eyes filled with tears as Ella showed me how to put them on my breast to feed properly while Toby snapped pictures of the little ones when they were done.
“I love you, Ruby, you did so well, they are gorgeous,” Dante kisses me softly with the biggest smile I had ever seen on his face as he holds our little girl.
“Now we just have to name them,” I smile back.
“Ambulance is here, come on, let’s get you up,” Ella says before they all help me up carefully, a towel softly between my legs as they cart me into the ambulance and take us to the hospital as Ollie says he will stay behind to clean up with Toby so Dante and I can be with the babies.
Within a few hours, I was stitched up and the babies were checked over, they were healthy, though our first-born little boy was a little quiet, but they didn’t seem bothered by it.
Finally, we were heading home and I was still utterly exhausted, wandering into the house slowly with my little girl in my arms, stroking her soft cheeks.
“Hey! We’ve cleaned up your bedroom for you so you can rest up, we’ve decided to stay at mum and dad’s instead as we want to give you some space with the babies, though we will be coming to see them as much as we are allowed,” Toby grins seeing us walk in.
“Thank you, Toby, for everything, I don’t know where I’d be without you,” I say teary-eyed as I hug him.
“She’s so cute!” Toby coos looking at her.
“Have you named them?” Ollie asks.
“Yes, our quiet little one is Jaxon, this little girl is Riley and mister chunk is Max,” I smile. Max had been weighed at a massive nine-pounds-eight, while the other two were much smaller at six-pounds-three and four.
Toby and Ollie stay a little longer before hugging us both goodbye and heading to mum’s, leaving me to rest for the day and to get some time to dote upon our little ones.
“They’re perfect Ruby,” Dante says sitting beside me on the bed as I nurse Riley and Jaxon on my breasts.
“They really are,” I kiss him softly with tears in my eyes of happiness.
What a day… Thank god my brother was here or I would have been screwed, I owed him big time.
Messages were flying in from family members, we’d asked them to give us the day for me to rest and to get time with the babies alone, Toby had even refrained from passing the photos he’d taken around as he wanted to give us the chance to do it. I was grateful for him doing that.
Dante brought in the large baby basket we had bought to put the triplets in together in our room, playing them softly in it after we fed, burped and changed them. Jaxon seemed easy-going, he barely made a fuss before falling asleep, Riley already had her daddy wrapped around her little finger, every whimper she made he tended too and then Max was just a hungry boy, he didn’t want to stop, if he was off the breast he cried for it until he got it again, luckily he seemed to quieten down with a dummy in his mouth.
“Get some sleep sweet thing, I’ll watch them, you need to rest,” Dante kisses me, brushing my hair out of the way as I lay down on the bed, my eyes gazing at our new-borns, unable to look away.
“But…” I begin.
“Sleep Ruby, I’m not going anywhere,” he whispers as he begins to tickle my arms soothingly, my eyes drooping against my will as I fall asleep.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I should have seen it coming, the surge of people who wanted to see the triplets, the next week our house was full of people doting upon their cuteness, photos were taken, presents were given and I was utterly spent.
Sure, having so many people around had its perks, there were plenty of people to change nappies, but I still had to feed all three and honestly, my boobs were so sore already, trying to keep up with the three of them was making me feel like an overworked cow. Max was definitely drinking the most and we’d had to top them all up with bottles too as I just couldn’t keep up already. My boobs were huge and painful, though Dante seemed to enjoy how big they had gotten. He made sure to spend just as much time with me as he did with the kids.
“I can’t believe Jaxon still has barely made a noise, it’s so weird,” I sigh as I’m sat in my parent's lounge, Riley in dad’s arms and Max in mum’s while I held onto Jaxon.
“Does he respond to noises?” Dad asks.
“Not like those two do,” I shake my head with a frown. Every time there was a loud noise Max and Riley would shriek, but Jaxon still made barely a peep.
“It might be worth getting him checked over, could be a blockage in the ear,” dad says.
“You don’t think he’s deaf, do you?” I say.
“It’s a possibility sweetheart,” dad says with a frown.
“I’ll call Ella now, see what she says,” I nod.
“OOO! My nephew! Give him to me!” Toby grins walking into the house as I pass Jaxon over with a chuckle.
“I’ll be right back,” I sigh as he frowns walking into the lounge, I can hear him question dad as I make the phone call to Ella.
“Hey Ruby, how are the triplets? Is everything ok? We weren’t due to talk for another few days,” She answers.
“Hey, yeah they seem fine, but Jaxon… He doesn’t respond like the other two do, dad thinks there could be issues with his hearing,” I say.
“It’s a possibility, how about I book you in to see the clinic, we’ll get him looked at and see what’s going on, if there are any issues then we can deal with it, don’t worry Ruby, even if he is deaf there are so many more opportunities and things to help now,” she answers.
“Ok, thanks Ella,” I sigh.
Ella managed to get us an appointment the same day, Dante wasn’t able to get away from work in time so dad and Toby came with me. I sat, leg bouncing as we waited in the waiting room to see the doctor.
“Ruby Fox?” The doctor calls out as I nod pushing the triplets in their pram, dad coming with me while Toby waited outside for us.
“Hi, thank you for seeing us so quickly,” I shake the doctor's hand as he nods with a soft smile.
“Ella tells me one of your little ones isn’t responding to sound?” He asks.
“Yes, while Max and Riley scream to loud noises, Jaxon doesn’t really make any noise, he didn’t when he came out either,” I answer picking up Jaxon carefully.
“Ok, are you the father?” The doctor asks my dad.
“No, I’m the grandfather,” dad smiles.
“Ok, well let’s see what we’re dealing with, may I?” he holds his arms out for Jaxon as I hand him over softly, he takes him over to a high table, placing him gently before looking into his ears and doing several tests.
“It’s ok sweetheart,” dad holds my hand softly as I bite my lip nervously.
“Right, he seems to be responding with movement instead of sound, though only to noises closer to the ear, I’m afraid looking inside there seems to be damage to the ears, I'm afraid to say he is partially deaf. Please don’t panic, we have so many options on how to help, he will still live a healthy happy life, we can look into hearing aids and all of the other possibilities. We will keep a close eye on the damage to make sure it doesn’t get any worse,” the doctor says passing Jaxon back to me.
“What could have done this? Why? Did I do this?” I say with teary eyes.
“It could have been any number of things, did you drink or eat anything you shouldn’t while pregnant?” he replies.
“No, I made sure only to eat healthily and I haven’t drunk a drop of alcohol, I was so careful,” I shake my head.
“She was exposed to a chemical via drifting debris in the ocean while on her honeymoon, her and all those that came into contact became sick after,” dad says.
“That could be a high-risk factor in this, what I would like to do is a series of blood tests to make sure there are no other issues with the babies and I will also do a thorough check of the other two,” the doctor nods typing onto his computer as he checks old notes.
We spent the next hour at the doctors as he checked the babies, there seemed to be no other issues with them other than Jaxon’s hearing and until he got back the blood test results there was nothing else we could do.
Getting Jaxon a hearing aid would take us a little while to solve as he was still so young, the doctor wanted to make sure he got it perfect, trying not to damage his hearing further.
When I got home that day I had a complete meltdown, my baby was partially deaf and it could have been because I decided to help clean up the ocean without knowing truly what was in there.
Mum had come home just as we had gotten back from the doctors, she came home with me and the triplets, wanting to keep an eye on me, I knew she could see I was on the edge of a breakdown, she dragged Toby with her as dad had to go to work and good thing she did as I was a mess. While Toby watched over the triplets mum hugged me as I cried in her arms.
“They will all be fine, we can deal with this, this was not your fault Ruby, don’t blame yourself for this, you are already an amazing mother, you’re so brave and strong, we will all do what we can for Jaxon, he won’t go without, he will be fine. The whole family will learn sign language, hearing aid or not, it will be ok,” Mum cooed at me, calming me down slowly.
Why could life never be easy? Just for a moment.
Telling Dante was hard for me but he seemed to take it in his stride, signing up for sign language classes and researching everything about bringing up a child with partial and complete deafness.
As time went on Jaxon was given a hearing aid and he now reacted to noises a lot better, though not perfectly still. We were learning with the kids as we learnt sign language, using books and videos.
I was utterly in shock as all my friends started to learn it too, they took to it well, doing everything they could as they were just as much family to the triplets as we were, I teared up the first time they all started to sign their first few words.
Life was chaotic as I finally went back to work, luckily for me, I had plenty of family and friend who would happily look after the triplets. Dad had become the softest when it came to the triplets, you couldn’t get them away from him if he got his hands on them. Max was definitely his favourite, though he loved them all.
Riley still had her daddy in the palm of her hands, she was daddy’s little princess and you could see the love in his eyes for all his kids. I’d never felt happier with him than I was right now.
“I needed this,” I groan taking a sip of wine. After speaking with Ella we had decided it would be time to stop breastfeeding fairly quickly as the triplets just took every ounce of energy from me and they were beginning to hurt badly, not able to keep up with them. I had pumped my last load of milk today and I had been looking forward to having a drink, just half a glass of wine.
“You look like you needed that,” Amelia giggles drinking her own.
All our friends had gathered at Amelia and Cain’s as they had the bigger house where we could set the kids up in different rooms with monitors while we had a nice evening together.
“Just be careful, that will go straight to your head,” Tasha laughs.
“Give her a break, she needs it, she has triplets…” Cain smirks.
“I heard that Dante wants more,” Tess sniggers.
“Don’t you start, he’s driving me crazy already, wants a huge family, right now, three is enough, as much as I love them all, I’m so fucking tired,” I groan.
I did love them all with every inch of my heart, but looking after three newborns was hard work and Dante was at work most of the time. I had had to go down to part-time in the club, luckily Luke, Alex and Tess were able to take some of the slack for me, I did most of the paperwork from home.
I was lucky enough to have so many people around me willing to help while Dante worked as working with triplets was definitely a challenge, once you were done sorting them all out it was like you had to start all over again, I barely got a moments peace.
“He’s still working then? I can’t believe he didn’t take time off,” Colby rolls his eyes.
“He’s a workaholic, plus Benji keeps him on a tight leash,” I sigh. I respected Benji and I loved my husband but them working together sometimes made it harder as it made Dante feel obligated to help his dad.
“He took two weeks off… two weeks… Damn Ruby, Colby took like three months off,” Tess says holding Colby’s hand.
“Different line of work Tess,” I shrug, knowing his work was difficult.
“And being the son of a CEO of a company should mean he gets it easier, they have plenty of people working under them, he could have got a stand-in,” Tess scoffs.
“Seriously Tess, no one is perfect, he does his job well and that’s why his father’s company is so much more powerful right now, he’s on his way to taking over for Benji too, Benji is dealing with divorcing his wife Isabelle for being an adulteress bitch, Dante’s worried about him. It’s not like I’m all alone every day with the triplets struggling, I have all of you helping me,” I sigh.
