Walter & Dotty - A Love Story

Apparently, Dotty must have liked my performance, because when I got to work the next morning I found her red silk panties from the night before jammed into the pocket of my sport coat. I left work early again that day, too.

Life wasn't all rainbows and butterflies, though. On Thanksgiving Day, Tom called Dotty to let her know Laura had gone into labor a month early, and to ask if we could watch his youngest son TJ. Trent loved TJ, so he was overjoyed to have his cousin stay with us. Dotty said we'd be there in 15 minutes, but I made it in 10.

The baby was born undersized, 4 pounds, 14 ounces, but healthy, however Laura almost bled out from a hemorrhage afterwards. Tom was a wreck at the thought of losing her. Dotty didn't show any emotion because she didn't want to scare TJ, but when nobody was looking, I know she hid in our bedroom and cried.

Thankfully, the doctors and nurses were able to pull Laura through. The new baby, Laura Ruth, was named after her mother and grandmother. She was so small I could nearly hold all of her in one of my big hands. It was awesome, and I couldn't wait to hold our own baby when it came in April.

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Dotty

When Laura went into labor month early, I was sick with worry. It had been a high-risk pregnancy, and I knew she worried constantly about losing that miracle baby. It was a relief when the baby survived the early labor. When I heard how Laura started hemorrhaging, though, I fell to pieces inside. I'd gotten my life back on track, but I couldn't have done it without my sister.

In addition to worrying about the baby, she'd also been fretting about her relationship with Tom. He'd been doing such a great job of taking care of her and of family matters like Eli and Natty, involving Laura as little as possible.

She secretly confided in me that she felt awful about being a burden to Tom and didn't want him to resent her for it. She admitted it was mostly pregnancy hormones making her crazy. I assured her Tom loved her so much, he was stuck to her like a barnacle.

I have to confess, I had my own pregnancy hormone issues. When I saw the look on Walter's face when he held Tom and Laura's tiny baby for the first time, my heart swelled, and I started crying. I knew he was going to be the best father in the world to our own little baby. I was only half right, though. He was absolutely a wonderful father, but our baby turned out to be the opposite of little.

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Walter

During the last two weeks of her pregnancy, Dotty was huge. As big as she was, I had to buy a dozen pillows for her to arrange so she could find a comfortable position to sleep in. I was willing to bet if one more person asked her if she was carrying twins, she might grab my pistol and start shooting.

Once she'd started to show, Tom advised me to start rubbing her down with coconut oil every night. I made sure to rub her bottom, because this would more often than not lead to some pregnant sex. We both enjoyed this immensely, and it was about the only thing she was enjoying as we got close to delivery.

After what Dotty went through during labor, I could understand if she never wanted to have sex with me again. Between exhaustion and pain, she was delirious a lot.

At one point she demanded that I go get her ice chips because the ones the nurse brought her tasted like shit. Only ones that I brought her were good enough, apparently.

As she began pushing, she called me 'bastard' for knocking her up and warned the nurses not to have sex with me because while I was good in bed, the babies I made were way too big! I blushed, but the nurses laughed. They all sincerely promised her they would not try to have sex with me.

After 28 hours of labor, Jacqueline Ruth Connor was born - named after both her grandmothers -- entering the world at 16 pounds, 3 ounces. Dotty was exhausted, "It was like giving birth to an airliner," she told, "what was I thinking when I fell in love with a giant?"

I leaned over and kissed my wife. "It's your own fault, you and those eyes of yours. Once I saw them, it was all over for me." Then I kissed my daughter laying on her chest. "You're both perfect," I whispered.

"She's going to be tall, like her father," the nurse said.

Dotty sighed, "At least she'll help me reach things off high shelves." I was relieved she was keeping her sense of humor.

When the nurse took Jackie from Dotty and handed her to me to hold her for the first time, I could barely breathe. She was small in my hands, but then again, I have really big hands. At birth, Jackie was already twice as big as Laura and Tom's 5-month-old, who'd just reached 8 pounds!

My daughter's eyes were closed, like she was exhausted from the ordeal. She had a little hair, red like her mom's. Then she let out a deep sigh and opened her eyes, and I found myself looking into two beautiful green pools. I gasped.

Dotty was immediately concerned, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong?"

I reassured her, "No, there's nothing wrong, Jackie is beautiful and perfect, but she's got your hair and eyes, Babe. Combined with my height, she's going to be a powerful girl. We're going to have our hands full raising her!"

Dotty closed her eyes and smiled, "You're going to have your hands full, husband, not me. After all this, I'm going to sleep for the next 18 years." Before I could say much else, my wife was out like a light.

Since she'd had an epidural and got really torn up down there, when Dr. Halpern came in, she told me Dotty should stay in the hospital a couple of extra days to recover before starting to walk around. The Doctor looked me up and down, then said, "So Tom and Laura McFarland are your in-laws?"

"Uh, yeah, they are." Laura had recommended Dr. Halpern to Dotty, and Tom had warned me she could be harsh until she got to know me. Like Laura, Dotty loved her, though.

"I'll tell you what I told your brother-in-law, Mrs. Connor's body is not your playground. Given how rough her labor was, it will be at least 8 weeks until you resume conjugal relations." She leaned a little closer to me, "Do I make myself clear?"

I had to laugh, Dr. Halpern was a shade over 5' tall, I was hardly intimidated, but I went along with it. "Doctor, I went without sex for 2 years before I met Dotty, I think I can hold out," I told her, then teased, "I'm allowed to kiss her though, right?"

She looked at me and replied with a slight smirk, "Just as long as you keep your kissing activity restricted to above her waist, you should be fine." She extended her hand, and we shook. "You'd better take excellent care of your wife; she and her sister are two of my favorite patients. Good day, Mr. Connor."

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Dotty

When I'd given birth to Trent, it was 18 hours of labor and he weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces. His father Sonny wasn't in the delivery room, instead, unable to stomach watching me give birth, he hung out in the waiting room. Trent was born at 4:30am, and by 6pm that day I was home.

Having Jackie took 28 hours, and she weighed double what Trent did when he was born. Between the epidural, painkillers, and fatigue, by the time I was recovering in my hospital room, I was a wreck. To his extreme credit, during my labor and recovery Walter seldom left my side.

As I breastfed Jackie against for the first time, Walter stood by the bed and held my hand. Our daughter was a quick learner; she wasted no time latching onto my breast, guzzling greedily. "I don't know which of you likes my boobies more," I teased, adding, "and since I had to work so hard to get your daughter out of me, I'm expecting a bonus from Sednicki Jewelers. Don't you think I deserve one?" Walter grinned, and blushed a little.

Never one to use a lot of words where one would do, my husband merely bent down close to my face and whispered, "Yes,"; the kiss he gave me told me the rest.

He slipped away for an hour or so, and before the day was out, he'd presented me with a diamond bracelet. Once the wide-eyed nurses saw my new bracelet, I suspected some of them might have been jealously rethinking their promise not to have sex with my husband.

Two months later, Dr. Halpern gave us the green light and we made love again for the first time. Walter was incredibly tender and passionate, and his enthusiasm just made me more excited. As a result, by the time we were done, the wet spot in our bed felt more like a wading pool; even as we lay there exhausted, he continued to caress me. If baby Jackie hadn't woken up and started crying, we probably would have gone another round.

Instead, we went into her nursery, and Walter changed her while I sat in the rocking chair, then handed her to me so I could feed her. As she nursed, I said to Walter, "I'm in no hurry, sweetheart, it will probably be a year or two before I'm ready for another. Be warned, after what I went through to give birth to this baby, if I ever get pregnant again, I'm going to expect my jewelry bonus as soon as the test is positive."

The look of utter contentment and joy on Walter's face as he watched me feed Jackie should have been a warning. Thirty-three days later, Walter gave me diamond earrings.