One crisp morning, Agnes began to experience unusual symptoms that left her perplexed. A visit to the town’s doctor revealed the astonishing truth – Agnes was pregnant with not one, but three babies! The doctor’s face displayed a mix of disbelief and concern, aware that this was an incredibly rare and risky situation for a woman of Agnes’s age. However, the doctor, a compassionate soul, was there to support her through this unexpected journey. As the news spread through the town, reactions were a blend of amazement and concern. The pregnancy didn’t come without risks, and Agnes was very aware of that. So when there was a slight change in her pregnancy around 35 weeks, she didn’t hesitate to call her specialist. Suddenly, she found herself rushing to the hospital, unsure about what was going to happen next… Doctors rushed in and out of the room as they prepared her for an emergency C-section. Agnes’s heart raced as she thought about her babies. She couldn’t believe she was about to be a parent all over again, only now she wasn’t so young anymore, and that put her and her babies at risk. Hearing her first two babies cry was like a warm blanket. Agnes felt a tear roll down her cheek as she looked at her husband’s eyes filled with joy. But suddenly her happiness was overshadowed when she heard her doctor saying something very worrying… But why did Agnes have an emergency C-section? What was going on with her babies? And what did the doctor say? Agnes knew something wasn’t right when she woke up feeling extremely nauseous for the third morning in a row. She was throwing up as soon as she woke up, and it was hard for her to keep her breakfast down. Throughout the day, the nausea usually went away, but it was still a very strange symptom.  Since she was already seventy years old, she was very cautious about her health. She didn’t want to risk getting sicker, and all that throwing up could also cause her to become dehydrated. So, Agnes set up an appointment at the town’s doctor’s office for that same day.  When it was time to leave her house and go to her doctor’s appointment, the nausea had luckily cleared. She had really been dreading waiting in a busy waiting room while trying not to throw up, so she couldn’t be happier. When she arrived at the doctor’s office, she quickly walked over to the waiting room and sat down. When she sat down across from her doctor, she suddenly felt very nervous. She didn’t know why, but there was just a lot of nervous energy in the room. “Good afternoon, Agnes. Long time no see!” the doctor said with a smile on his face, clearly trying to lighten the mood.  “Ah, yes,” Agnes answered. “I hoped to stay away longer, but I have been dealing with a nauseous feeling in the morning.” The doctor nodded and asked her a few other questions while he typed in everything she said onto his computer. “I have to admit,” the doctor said. “It sure sounds like… well..” Agnes waited patiently for the doctor to finish his sentence. “It sounds a lot like you might be pregnant…” he eventually said. “Could that be a possibility?” Agnes was stunned. She couldn’t believe her doctor actually asked her that. The doctor clearly saw her confused look and continued. “I know this sounds unbelievable, but…” “I don’t see you going through menopause registered in the system here. Are you sure you went through one?” Agnes paused for a second. She was beginning to doubt herself and suddenly realized the doctor could be right. “Now that you say that, I actually don’t believe I’ve gone through menopause yet..” There was a silence in the room after that. Agnes’s heart was beating in her chest at the thought of her having more children. She never in a million years thought she would get pregnant again after her third child was born almost forty years ago. “We should have your blood drawn to know for certain that you are pregnant.” The days after the doctor’s visit were horrible. All Agnes did was sit by the phone and wait for the hospital to call with the results. Her nausea wasn’t getting any better, and she began to get flashbacks to her other pregnancies, making it very hard to believe this could be something else.  Finally, the phone rang. Agnes took a deep breath before answering and listened carefully. “Miss, we have the results back. You are pregnant.” Agnes felt her stomach drop. How will she inform her husband about this? He was almost seventy-eight! How will they ever be able to care for a newborn child… When their first ultrasound was due, Agnes was filled with anxiety. She knew being pregnant at her age came with a lot of risks. As the doctor took the ultrasound, she carefully watched his expression, trying to figure out what he was seeing. But as soon as his eyes widened in shock, she knew something was wrong. “What’s the matter?” Agnes asked, filled with worry. “I… I… There…” the doctor stammered. “One moment, please,” he eventually said as he stood up and walked out of the room. A few moments later, he returned with another doctor by his side. “Do you see what I see?” he asked his colleague. The other doctor had the exact same reaction. “Uhm, miss, how do I say this? You are having triplets.” Agnes gasped and grabbed, Greg’s (her husband) hand. Her heart raced, and she began to get lightheaded. “How can this be?” she said, right before passing out. When Agnes woke again, she hoped it was all a dream. But it wasn’t, and she had to come to terms with that. It was already a high-risk pregnancy because of her age, but now that she was having triplets, it was even riskier. So, the doctor referred her to a high-risk pregnancy specialist, Dr. M. Omma, who would monitor her every three weeks for the rest of her pregnancy. During her pregnancy, Agnes felt anxiety every time she went to check-ups. They had to do various tests to see if the babies were healthy, like genetic testing and taking medication to prevent complications. It was, all in all, the most stressful pregnancy she ever had. Luckily, it was almost over. With triplets, and twins also, it was common to give birth prematurely. Because of this, they told Agnes to stay in bed from the moment she carried the babies over 32 weeks. It was important for the babies to stay inside the womb as long as possible. But there was a feeling Agnes couldn’t ignore. Around 36 weeks, Agnes had a feeling something was wrong. Usually, her babies were very active, kicking her around twenty times in ten to fifteen minutes. But around 36 weeks, she noticed it was a lot less. She began to worry, and immediately called her specialist, who wanted to see her right away. Agnes and her husband rushed to the clinic, where they did an ultrasound and a lot of other testing. When Dr. M. Omma returned ten minutes later with the test results, Agnes could see something was really wrong. “Agnes, it’s a very good thing you came here as fast as you did.”  “We’re going to have to do an emergency C-section on you,” the doctor said. Agnes gasped. She had hoped for a natural delivery but knew this was for the best. She only hoped they weren’t too late already. “Yes, of course. When can you do it?” she asked, hopefully. “The room is ready in thirty minutes, so we’re going to prep you in about five,” the doctor said as he paged more doctors into the room. “It’s going to be alright. We’re going to take good care of you.” Agnes squeezed her husband’s hand, who hadn’t said a word yet. “Are you alright?” she asked him. Agnes could see her husband was full of nerves, and so was she. They were becoming parents all over again, and at the ripe age of seventy, and seventy-eight! It was something neither of them had ever expected to happen. And now that it was time to give birth, the reality was setting in. After five minutes, the room was full of doctors. They discussed what type of anesthesia they should do, and eventually chose regional anesthesia, as it was better to monitor. Agnes’s heart raced as she felt her lower body going numb. It was now almost time to meet her new babies. She had never had a C-section before, so she had no idea what to expect. They wheeled her into the operating room, providing her husband with a blue suit, hair net, and shoe covers to wear. Agnes chuckled as she looked at her husband in his blue attire.  The doctors were saying all sorts of things, giving Agnes all the information about the procedure. But she was too excited and worried to even listen. All she could think about were the three little babies she was about to meet. Everything went by super fast, and before she knew it, the first cry was heard. Agnes’s heart filled with joy at the sound of her baby’s cry. Now, only two more had to be taken out. Agnes couldn’t see a thing because of a blue sheet they hung up, which was common during a C-section. So she kept her ears on high alert, listening to every sound the doctors made. One more cry was heard, and Agnes felt a tear roll down her cheek. Only one more, she thought as she squeezed her husband’s hand. She listened carefully when the doctor suddenly said something that worried her. “Uhm, Dr. M. Omma, could you come here, please? You have to see this.”  “Is everything alright?” Agnes asked worriedly. She waited for a response, but nothing came. Suddenly, she felt herself getting tired, and her eyes began to get really heavy. Her ears began to ring, and the sound of her husband sounding alarm was only vaguely heard. Then, it was all black. Greg looked at his wife, pale as a ghost, lying passed out on the table. Suddenly, he was hushed out of the room by two nurses, who told him to wait in the waiting room. “What do you mean? I want to be by my wife and kids!” he yelled, but yelling only made things worse. A third nurse guided him to the waiting room, where he left Greg all alone with only his worries as a company. What was going on with his wife? Was she going to make it? He thought back to what he saw in the operating room and felt his stomach turn. He had never seen Agnes so pale before, and she didn’t look good at all. He knew something was wrong; otherwise, they would have let him stay in the room. He paced the waiting room, anxious for an update. It felt like it took them forever to come back to him, but finally, the doors opened. Two nurses came into the waiting room and toward Greg. “We’ve transferred your wife to the recovery room. You can see her as soon as she wakes up, which will be in about thirty minutes,” one of the nurses said. “Thirty minutes?!” Greg exclaimed. He wanted to ask what had happened, but the nurses had already walked away. Greg couldn’t believe it. How could they make him wait thirty minutes? This wasn’t going to happen. He walked to a floorplan hanging on the wall and searched for the recovery rooms. “Floor three,” he mumbled as he walked toward the elevator. Nothing could stand in his way of seeing his wife again. Determined, he walked through the hospital’s hallways. He didn’t even have to be sneaky about it, no one suspected an old man to be doing something he shouldn’t. But that was just what he was doing. It didn’t take him long before he found the room Agnes was in, and when he entered, he was shocked. Agnes was still asleep, with various tubes and other machines attached to her. And the most shocking of all, their babies were nowhere to be seen. An eerie feeling washed over Greg as he sat beside his unconscious wife. Then, a nurse suddenly walked into the room. “Excuse me, you shouldn’t be in here,” she said to Greg. But Greg didn’t want to hear it. “Where are my children?/” he demanded. “And what is going on with my wife?” The nurse nervously looked from Agnes to Greg. “Sir, please come with me for a moment,” she finally said.  Greg hesitated, but he followed her anyway. Maybe she was going to bring him to their babies. Once they were in the hallway, she turned to Greg and began to whisper. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but you deserve to know. There were some complications with the third baby.” Greg’s stomach dropped. “Complications?” he asked confused. “What kind of complications? Is my child alright?” The nurse nervously looked around her. “Your child is…–” she began, but she was suddenly interrupted by Agnes’s doctor walking around the corned. “Ah, Greg. Just the man I was looking for!” he said, looking awfully happy. “What are you smiling about? Where are my children?!” Greg angrily demanded. At this point, he was beginning to lose his temper. No one was talking to him or telling him the truth, which was something he didn’t appreciate. Never had a hospital treated him this badly in his seventy-eight years on this earth.  Suddenly, he heard a faint sound coming from the room Agnes was in. “Greg?” she said with a crackling voice. “Greg, is that you?” Greg immediately rushed into the room and grabbed his wife’s hand. “Agnes? How are you feeling?” he asked her worriedly. But there was only one thing on her mind. “Where are our children?”  Greg sighed and looked at the doctor for a response. “You should rest,” the doctor said, completely ignoring Agnes’s question. Now Greg really had enough. “She asked you something, doctor. Aren’t you going to answer?” he asked irritatedly. “If you’re not going to tell them, I will,” the other nurse suddenly said. The doctor was clearly taken aback by the nurse’s sudden remark. He looked at her in a way of saying, “Don’t you dare,” but the nurse clearly didn’t care. “Greg, as I said before,” she began, “There have been a few complications.” Greg and Agnes listened carefully. “That’s enough,” the doctor suddenly said as he grabbed the nurse by her arm. “I want to speak with you outside.” He pulled the nurse outside, but she managed to yell, “NICU,” as he closed the door. Now, Greg knew where his babies were, and he was determined to see them. He exchanged a look with his wife, who immediately knew what he was about to do. Agnes knew her husband through and through. He was very stubborn, once he set his mind to something, he would do anything to make it happen. And right now, that was seeing his kids. It was like a primal instinct had set in, and he would do anything he could to protect them. The doctor and nurse were having a heated conversation down the hallway, so Greg quietly sneaked away without being seen. He looked up where the NICU was on a floorplan again and went on his way. His heart was pounding in his chest as he turned every corner, hoping not to bump into someone. He was now a bit more nervous than before, as Agnes’s doctor had probably noticed him not being in the room by now. That meant he could have paged his colleagues to be on the lookout. Finally, he reached the NICU, but there was one small problem. He couldn’t just enter the room on his own. He needed a keycard to enter the NICU wing, which probably only doctors and nurses had. He sighed. How will he get to his children now? He looked around him, trying not to look very lost. Then, someone suddenly tapped him on his shoulder. Shit… was he busted? Greg turned around and saw a nurse standing behind him. “You must be Greg,” she said with a hushed tone. “We’ve been waiting for you. Come this way.” Greg was unsure at first, but there was something very friendly about this nurse. He followed her to a side door, and she used her keycard to get inside. Once inside, Greg realized they were in the NICU wing. “Why are you helping me?” he asked the nurse. “Samantha was there with you in the operating room, she told me everything that happened and how she didn’t like the way the doctors were acting. So, she told me she was going to get you.” Greg nodded. Samantha must have been the nurse who spoke to him in Agnes’s room, he thought. Then he turned his attention back to the nurse in front of him. “Do you know where my babies are?” he asked her hopefully. The nurse nodded, but she didn’t seem as happy as Greg about that. “Can you bring me to them?” he asked the nurse. She sighed in return. “I can bring you close to them,” she answered. “But there will be a glass wall between you guys.” Greg frowned; he didn’t understand what she was saying. Why would there be a glass wall? The nurse understood his confusion and guided him in the right direction. “Here they are,” she said, as she stepped aside. Greg stood in front of a glass wall and saw two little incubators with his children inside. There was one pink blanket and one blue, prompting Greg to realize he didn’t even know his kid’s genders yet. “But where’s the third incubator?” The nurse looked at the ground. “I don’t know..” she said. Greg knew he couldn’t get angry with this nurse, as she had absolutely nothing to do with what happened to his children. That was the responsibility of Agnes’s doctor. “Don’t worry. I will get to the bottom of this,” he said. Just as he said that someone behind him cleared his throat. “Greg, you shouldn’t be in here,” Agnes’s doctor suddenly said. Greg angrily turned around and looked straight into the doctor’s eyes. It almost seemed like he was ready to throw some punches, but he didn’t. “Where is my child?” The doctor sighed. “If you’d just waited in the room with Agnes, then you would’ve already known by now. But we had to search the whole hospital for you, Greg. You can’t go on a scavenger hunt on your own. After I spoke with Samantha, I realized I was in the wrong here.” The doctor continued. “While delivering the babies, I noticed some abnormalities. The first two babies came out of the womb perfectly healthy, but when we got to the third baby, there was something seriously wrong… That’s why he’s not in the same room as his brother and sister.” “His umbilical cord was wrapped around his body, restricting his movements. That’s why your wife experienced a sudden change in activity right before delivering the babies.” Greg didn’t know what to say. “How is he doing now? I presume it’s a boy?” he eventually asked. Agnes’s doctor smiled. “Let me show you.” Together, they returned to Agnes’s room, where she lay with the child on her chest. “He needed skin-to-skin time. In about ten minutes, we will bring the other babies,” the doctor said as he patted Greg on his shoulder. “Congratulations, now enjoy your little ones.” Then, the doctor left the room. Greg sat down at the side of Agnes’s bed and looked at his son. He smiled at his wife, who smiled back with a tear in her eye. “You did it,” Greg whispered. Agnes chuckled. “We did it,” she said. They named their children, Tom, Grayson, and Amber. They all grew up happily and healthy together—the end.