Reunited After 25 Years 59

Andrea wasn't quite ready to be released from the hospital when her milk came in. Several days after Daisy's birth, she awakened one morning to find that her breasts were uncomfortably swollen and the right one was leaking a clear, whitish fluid. "Can't I just hold her to feed her?" she asked the nurse.

"I'm sorry." The nurse shook her head. "You may pump your milk, and we'll feed it to her. We encourage all mothers to do that. Their own mother's milk is what's best for premature babies."

The nurse brought a breast pump and showed Andrea how to use it, and Andrea watched in wonder as her milk filled the clear cylinder. She hadn't breastfed Denny and had looked forward to nursing the baby she and Anton had made together.

A couple of days later, Dr. Keller dismissed Andrea from the hospital. Her incision was healing nicely, and she found it much easier to get around than she had before. Before she left, she visited Daisy in the nursery and was finally allowed to hold her for the first time.

Andrea waited as the tiny infant, wearing only a diaper, was gingerly lifted from the incubator and placed against her bare skin. A warm blanket was then wrapped around mother and daughter. Anton stood to the side, happily looking on.

"Hi, sweetheart," Andrea said softly. Daisy's unfocused blue eyes gazed back at her. "Welcome to the world, Daisy. Your father and I love you very, very much, and so do your big brother and sister."

Anton spoke to his new daughter in Russian for a few minutes. "What language is he speaking?" a nurse whispered to Andrea.

"Russian," Andrea whispered back. Daisy's skin felt moist, warm and soft against her skin, and the baby had a fresh but slightly medicinal scent. "I remember the first time I held Denny," she reminisced to Anton. "He was only a few minutes old. After they weighed him, they wrapped him in a blanket and handed him to me. My first thought was how much he looked like his father."

"That must have been...how do you say it?...a bittersweet experience for you, then," Anton said sympathetically.

"Oh, it was!" Andrea agreed.

"I held Dasha right after she was born," Anton recollected fondly. "When she came out, she was all red and wrinkled, and oh, she had such a loud cry! She moved her arms and kicked her legs. The doctor said she was a real zhivoy dusha, a lively one. I held her for the first time, and oh, that was the most precious moment of my life! Nothing compares to that."

Andrea had to swallow a lump in her throat. Daisy lay so very still and silent against her. Would she ever move her arms and kick energetically as her older half sister had?

All too soon it was time for Daisy to return to her incubator, and Anton pushed Andrea to the car in a wheelchair. The ride home was mostly silent. At the house, Jewel opened the door for them. "Oh, sweetie, let's get you right to bed," she told Andrea as she took her daughter's arm. "You look exhausted."

Andrea didn't object as her mother led her to bed. Jewel had arrived several hours after Daisy's birth, when Anton had called her tearfully from the hospital. Since then, she'd rotated her time between sitting at Andrea's bedside and preparing the house for her return.

As she slid between the cool sheets, Andrea yearned for her tiny daughter. At the thought of Daisy, she felt the warm tingle of her breasts filling with milk.

"Anton, would you please bring me my breast pump?" she asked her husband.

"Of course, golubushka."

Andrea quickly filled two cylinders, which Anton stored in the freezer in preparation for taking them to the hospital the next day. Malinka jumped up onto the bed and purred as Andrea stroked her fur.

"You are happy to see Andrea, right?" Anton said to the cat.

Later that day, Sally from next door came to visit. "I won't stay long," she told Anton at the door. "I just wanted to see how Andrea is doing."

"She is resting, but you can say hello to her if you like," he replied.

"How do you feel, hon?" Sally asked Andrea, who'd taken a long nap and was now resting in the recliner. "I brought banana bread."

"Thank you," said Andrea. "I'm all right. It was just so hard to come home and have to leave Daisy in the hospital."

"Oh, I love that name!" Sally exclaimed. "So, tell me about her. How much does she weigh now?"

"About a pound and a half."

"Oh my God, that's so tiny! How much longer before she can come home?"

"Dr. Manning says she has to weigh at least four pounds first."

"And how long will it take for her to gain that much?"

"I don't know." Andrea felt a lump in her throat.

"Thank you very much for coming over, and for bringing bread," Anton said to Sally. "It was very kind of you, but now Andrea has to rest some more."

"Oh, of course!" Sally said cheerfully. "Well, good-bye, and I hope Daisy gets to come home real soon."

After Sally had left, Andrea rose from the recliner and went to Anton. He embraced her and held her tightly, and they stood together silently for a long time, taking comfort in each other's presence.