I thought the hardest part was behind me when I finally gave birth. After years of trying, months of fear, and weeks of exhaustion so deep it lived in my bones, I believed the finish line was in sight. I didn’t know that the real test of my heart was still waiting for me—standing just outside my hospital room, asking for something I never imagined he would.
My name is Hannah. I’m thirty-three years old, and until recently, I believed I was building a quiet, steady life with the man I loved. Michael and I had been together nearly nine years.
We met in high school—he was the quiet boy who sat behind me in chemistry, always offering gum, and I was the girl who never quite understood equations. That turned into homecoming dances, late-night diner fries, and whispered promises in parked cars. We didn’t rush marriage.
We worked, saved, bought a modest two-bedroom home in a sleepy New Jersey suburb. I taught third grade. He worked in IT.
Nothing flashy—just solid. Or so I believed. For three years, we tried to have a baby.
Those years were the hardest of my life. I cried in school bathrooms between classes. I smiled through parent-teacher meetings while my chest ached.
I watched my students draw family pictures—mom, dad, baby—and swallowed the lump in my throat. We did the tests. The injections.
The hopeful mornings and devastating nights. Then one morning, when I almost didn’t take the test because I couldn’t bear another disappointment, I saw the faintest second line. At the doctor’s office, when the words “You’re pregnant” finally came, I sobbed.
Michael held me close and whispered, “We did it, baby.”
For months, that moment carried me. We painted the nursery soft green. I folded tiny onesies on the floor, imagining bedtime stories and scraped knees.
We chose names. We dreamed. It felt like a promise fulfilled.
But somewhere along the way, Michael changed. As my belly grew, he grew distant. Nights out with “the guys” became routine.
He came home late, smelling like beer and smoke. When I asked about it, he brushed it off. Stress, he said.
Work. Becoming a dad. His kisses became brief.
His hand stopped reaching for my belly. When I asked if he was okay, he barely looked up. “I’m fine.
Just tired.”
By thirty-five weeks, I was exhausted in every way. My body hurt. My heart felt stretched thin.
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