“Baby number one is breathing,” a nurse announced.
Tears filled my eyes.
Then came the second cry.
The third.
The fourth.
Every cry was a small victory.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
For a moment, the room seemed to relax.
I closed my eyes, exhausted, believing that the hardest part was over.
Then someone said, “Wait.”
The word changed everything.
The medical team became tense again. A nurse moved quickly toward the neonatal area, and another doctor began checking the delivery records.
I tried to lift my head.
“What happened? Are my babies all right?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Then Dr. Hisham returned.
“The seven babies we were expecting are receiving care,” he told me. “But there’s something else.”
My heart began pounding.
“What else?”
He looked at the chart.
“We have identified an additional newborn.”
I stared at him.
“An additional newborn?”
He nodded.
“Your eighth baby.”
I started crying again, this time from a mixture of shock and disbelief.
