So We Got Married

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 18

A Year Ago

Abigael brought so much happiness into my life, our lives. I thought my happiness had reached its peak when I married Uri but I was proved wrong by the bundle of joy I rocked every day in my arms. For the first six months of her life I was with her at home.

Abigael was quite the handful. Feisty

. If not for Uri, I would have gone nuts because of the sleepless nights she gave me sometimes. She liked attention and we gladly gave it to her. She had the cutest smile. While holding her, I loved running my fingers on her belly and sometimes held onto her tiny feet. The smell of her clothes and baby oil I used on her were engrained in my system. I was proud to be a mother.

At six months, she was already hanging on things trying to walk her tiny legs. Everything on her way she grabbed and placed in her mouth, giving me the unfortunate task of making sure everything around her was clean and hiding everything that could be a potential danger to her.

Today she had stayed awake almost the whole day. Sleeping for barely ten minutes and waking up to need my attention again. I did not mind but it was extremely tiresome not having the usual breaks between her naps.

At night around 10.00 pm after breast feeding her, she slept of immediately. I let her lay on her back in her crib and went to sleep immediately because I knew two hours later I would have to wake up and attend to her.

I woke up at around 1.00 pm and was surprised Abby hadn’t woken me up crying to be fed or anything

. The baby monitor sat on to the bedside locker. I was not worried because the whole day she had barely slept. She must have been compensating for that. I rolled of my bed and decide to check on her.

I switched on the light over her crib and immediately sensed something was wrong. She was rolled over on her stomach. She had been doing that a lot lately but had never done it while asleep.

I turned her over only to find that she was not breathing. My heart leapt widely as I yanked her off the crib.

“Abigael!” I screamed her name but she did not wake up.

Uri hearing me screaming my daughter’s name shot up from the bed.

“Honey is everything okay, is the baby giving you problems? I can help.”

“Uri, she is not breathing.”

“What?!” Uri leapt out of the bed and came to Abigael’s crib.

He touched her and I saw fear slowly engulfing his face.

“We should take her to the hospital.”

We did not change or even lock the door. I had no idea what was happening, all I remember is that I was scared out of my mind. Something like this had never happened before. Had she been sick and I failed to notice? Maybe this was the reason why she hadn’t slept the whole day. I must have been a bad mother for not noticing such a great difference in her sleep schedule.

She is going to be okay. She has to be okay.

We reached the hospital and rushed out of the car, Uri holding Abby in his hand into the Emergency room. The nurses immediately attended to us.

. We placed our baby on a small sized wheeler.

“What happened to her?” one of the nurses asked.

“I don’t know. I breast fed her around 10.00 pm and she slept of immediately. I woke up at about 1.00pm and went to check on her and she wasn’t breathing.”

“I see.”

All this while she was trying to do CPR to restart her breathing and even doing shock therapy.

“What position does she normally sleep in?”

“Her back but today I found her rolled over.”

“Wait here.” The nurse instructed.

I remained with Uri who pulled me in a hug but did not say a word.

A doctor walked in and few minutes later came out.

“Why, why have they stopped doing whatever they were doing.”

“Are you Abigael’s parents?”

“Yes.”

“Am sorry, but Abigael was a DAO.”

“DAO, what does that even mean.” Uri asked.

“It means Death on Arrival.” I said

“So is she going to be okay?” I asked the doctor.

“I just told you she is dead.”

“I know but how are we going to proceed with her treatment now that she is dead.”

The doctor raised her eyebrow in surprise.

“Honey? Let’s have a seat.” Uri said pulling me to himself.

He sat me on a seat just opposite where we stood before.

“It’s alright I will take care of her.” Uriel said dismissing the doctor.

He took my hands into his and rubbed on top of them in a loving manner. Tears were streaming freely of his eyes and I cleaned them off his face with my left hand.

“She is gone Ella, she is dead.”

I did not want to believe it. When they talked to me my brain was honestly not registering anything except that she was going to be fine and it was all going to be a fake alarm.

“She can’t be dead Uri.”

Uri swallowed hard.

“She is dead.”

I saw the hurt on his face. If he was hurt, it meant she was really dead and this wasn’t just a bad dream I would wake up from. Slowly I rose from my seat.

The nurses tried to stop me but I managed to go past them in the room where my child’s body laid covered. I was going to remove the covers and her limps would be in the air and her face would be covered in giggles and smiles.

I grabbed the sheet and slowly rolled it off her tiny body. She was still and slightly paler than when I had brought her in.

I touched her tiny, fragile fingers. They were now cold.

She was really dead.