Judy Baer - Oh, Baby!

Praise for

JUDY BAER

and her novels

“[A] cute continuation of Baer’s The Whitney Chronicles revisits Whitney and her husband, Chase.”

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews on The Baby Chronicles

“Fans of Baer’s The Whitney Chronicles will enjoy this lighthearted Christian romance.”

—Publishers Weekly on Norah’s Ark

“Million Dollar Dilemma is sophisticated in structure and story, but sweet and accessible.”

—NBC10.com

“Just like Bridget [Jones]…chick-lit readers will appreciate all the components of a girl-friendly fantasy read. Quirky characters…flashes of genuine humor keep even the poignant segments…from becoming too heavy. The results are genuinely enjoyable.”

—Publishers Weekly on The Whitney Chronicles

“Baer has created fascinating characters with real-life problems and triumphs that show readers the details of living out faith daily. Full of humor and infused with God’s truths, this book will allow readers to come away with a happy heart and increased faith.”

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews on

The Whitney Chronicles

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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For Connie G. and Nancy L., because you’re special.

Thanks to doula Tracy Repasky for her input.

Jesus called a small child over to him and put the child among them. Then he said, I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

—Matthew 18:2-4

BIRTH PLAN, Couple #1—

This birth plan is intended to make known our preferences and desires for and during the birth of our child as long as it is a normal, uncomplicated birth.

• I want to move around and change position during labor.

• I prefer dim lights and soft, calming music.

• I prefer intermittent fetal monitoring to continuous monitoring.

• Offer medication only if I am uncomfortable.

• I want my baby placed on my stomach immediately after delivery.

• I would like my husband to cut the cord.

• I want to breast-feed in the recovery room. Do not offer my baby a bottle, even of glucose water.

• Do not offer the baby a pacifier.

• I want a video recording of labor and birth.

• I want my husband and doula present during labor and delivery.

BIRTH PLAN, Couple #2—

Assuming that we will have a normal, uncomplicated birth, this plan is intended to make our wishes known for and during the birth of our child.

• I want to be unconscious as much of the time as I can.

• Rap music. Definitely rap.

• Medication—as much and as fast as possible.

• And massage. I love massage.

• No interns, residents or other Lookie Lous.

• If my husband tries to use his video camera, I want him kicked out of the room.

• Don’t offer my baby a pacifier to suck on. That’s what thumbs are for.

• I want my husband and doula to be present during labor and delivery.

Acknowledgment Thanks to doula Tracy Repasky for her input.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Epilogue

Questions for Discussion

“Be careful, Molly. Dr. Reynolds’s bite is worse than his bark.”

I spun around to see my friend Lissy Franklin hurry past me pushing a med cart. “Tiptoe softly,” Lissy mouthed before turning into one of the birthing rooms on the third floor of the Bradshaw Medical Center.

I took a deep breath and recalled all I’d heard about Dr. Reynolds in the few short weeks he’s been at Bradshaw General. It isn’t pretty, at least not from my professional perspective.

He’s a great ob-gyn physician, no doubt about that. His reputation preceded him from his former position at a large hospital in California. He’s only been practicing medicine in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul for three months and already women are booked weeks in advance to be his patients. I, however, hadn’t had a client who was his patient until today.

He’s cute, too. Gorgeous, actually, with dark hair, impossibly blue eyes and a trim physique that, it’s rumored, comes from running and working out two hours a day. Where a doctor gets time like that, I don’t know, but maybe it helps take the edge off his temper. It’s his personality that gets low points from all the nurses. He demands perfection and settles for nothing less. Felicity, or Lissy as I usually call her, says he can make them cry with a look.

Maybe not all the rumors are true. Fortunately, at least one of my personal experiences with him has belied that opinion.

“I’m so glad you agreed to come to this visit with me,” new mother Tiffany Franks had told me several weeks ago as we sat together in the waiting room of her pediatrician’s office. “I didn’t want to go to the baby’s first doctor visit alone. My husband said he couldn’t take time away from work and no one else was available. I’m still so nervous with the baby.” The baby in question was a solid sleepy lump in my lap, hardly a reason for Tiffany’s anxiety.

A week or two of experience would resolve that. “The doctor will tell you little Max looks great and you will feel a hundred percent better in no time.”

We were examining Max’s chins—all four of them—when a man strode into the office and up to the receptionist’s desk. “Is Dr. Harley in?”

The receptionist looked up at him and her eye-lashes began to flutter like hummingbird wings. “Why…uh…who?”

“Dr. Harley,” the insanely handsome Dr. Reynolds said. “Your boss?”

“Oh, yes.” She blushed. “Do you have an appointment?”

“Do I look like I should?” he snapped impatiently as he opened his hands to show that there was no baby in them.

His legs, however, told a different story. A blond toddler with lemonade curls and sapphire-blue eyes had glommed onto his left leg. She held her teddy bear in one hand and clung to his calf with the other. On his right leg, a little boy proceeded to run a Matchbox car up and down as if his expensive trousers were a vertical racetrack. Two or three other children were creeping closer to get a good look at the man.

“I’ve never seen anything like it!” Tiffany whispered. “He’s like the Pied Piper. The children don’t seem to have any fear of him at all.”