Mom gives birth – then turns to dad and says, ‘I’m sorry’
Eliza burst into tears when she finally heard her newborn daughter let out her first cry. Giving birth to her baby had been exhausting. She was exhausted and could hardly believe it was finally over. The nurse placed the little girl on Eliza’s chest; she could finally hold her baby in her arms. Eliza looked around the room.
“Where’s Ben?”
She asked her husband. Ben seemed to have disappeared. Then, Ben walked into the room. Eliza’s face paled, and she knew immediately that she had to tell him everything. He approached Eliza. She held his hand and said,
“I’m sorry.”
Eliza was still catching her breath after the difficult delivery, but when she saw her husband Ben with her newborn son in his arms, her sense of joy quickly turned to a sense of unease, of great grief. It should have been the start of the perfect life that she had always imagined, but she was ashamed of having lied to get here. Ben handed Eliza their perfect baby boy.
“He looks like me, I can’t believe it,”
Ben said emotionally. Eliza’s heart sank immediately. She knew she couldn’t keep her secret hidden any longer; now he had to know the truth. Tears welled up in Eliza’s eyes, and her voice cracked as she grabbed Ben’s arm.
“Well, I’m so, so sorry, but there’s something you need to know.”
Ben’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“How could you, Eliza?”
Eliza and Ben were a happy young couple. They had recently married, and for both of them, it had marked the beginning of a dream romance. The young couple wanted more than anything to have a big family. It was a dream they both had since childhood. A few months after the wedding, they started trying for their first baby and were excited about the life at home they were going to have together. But something was wrong. The couple watched the months go by and no change happened to Eliza. They knew getting pregnant wasn’t as easy for everyone, but after two years with no signs of improvement, they both started to worry. They had spent so much time dreaming of a family that they never imagined anything could go wrong. The young couple decided to visit the doctor in order to understand what was going on. Could there be something wrong with them, or were they just having bad luck?
The day of the appointment finally arrived, and the couple were happy to be able to allay their fears. Unfortunately, the news they received was far from reassuring. After performing some tests on Eliza and Ben, doctors came back with some disturbing news. They told them that Ben was probably sterile and that they should try to have a child another way. Ben and Eliza were shocked and saddened by this news. The doctors gave them a few options about what to do next and gave them time to think about which option they thought would be best for their situation. Adoption was the one that came to mind for the couple, especially since a friend of Eliza’s had recently adopted two boys. Ben saw the benefits of the idea of potential adoption, but Eliza wasn’t really a fan. She knew she was still capable of having a child and was very attached to the idea of having a biological child.
After weeks of debating this, the couple decided that the best option would be to find a sperm donor, but it was more Eliza’s choice than Ben’s. For Ben, acceptance was difficult. He had always dreamed of having a child of his own and was not ready to give up on that dream. However, he knew the facts and understood how difficult it would be to deprive Eliza of the same joy. The process of finding a sperm donor can be both quick and long. Together they chose the characteristics of the potential donor, and while Ben wanted to send the request, Eliza had already done so when he was at work one day. Ben thought it was a little odd, but he didn’t pay too much attention to it; he was just looking forward to finally becoming a father. Eliza had taken it upon herself to get in touch with the sperm bank, so she was the only person Ben could ask why it was taking so long. Eliza assured him that everything was fine and he had nothing to worry about. Ben was starting to worry about all this but decided to trust Eliza.
A few weeks later, the sperm donor was selected for them, and the couple were able to proceed. Ben was very eager to see what the donor looked like, but the sperm bank employee couldn’t show him. Ben was honestly surprised that Eliza seemed so relaxed during the whole process. It was still their potential child—how could she not want to know and know every detail? Then, Ben finally decided he had to trust Eliza on this. He didn’t want to start bothering her with his own doubts. It was probably for the best that she was so confident about the whole process. They waited a few weeks before deciding to take a pregnancy test, wanting to give themselves as much time as possible to get the best result. Both worried about whether it would test positive.
Luckily for the couple, the pregnancy test came back positive. The young couple was happy. The process had taken them through their savings, and they were happy to know they wouldn’t have to start all over again. But first, they had to confirm that Eliza was really pregnant with the doctor. The couple then scheduled another visit to the doctor and were greeted with positive news. Eliza was indeed pregnant. As the weeks passed, she became even more excited about welcoming their baby into this world. But the same couldn’t be said for Ben. Ben still had some concerns about the baby. What if things got different as the child got older, or that Ben and the baby couldn’t bond together? He kept worrying about all the negative things that might happen, and soon it started to overwhelm him.
Suddenly, he made some very drastic decisions. As the months passed, his worries only increased, and he began to lose sight of what really mattered. He found it difficult to spend time with Eliza and often felt left out and neglected. Then one day, he made a strange decision—a decision that would lead him to distance himself even further from Eliza and the baby. Ben decided he had to find the sperm donor. He felt that meeting the person would allay his worries about what the child would become when he grew up. Ben became so obsessed with the idea that he started doing some private research based on the information they got from the sperm bank during selection. Ben knew he had to keep this a secret from Eliza because he knew she wouldn’t approve of knowing the donor.
When weeks of private research yielded nothing, Ben decided he would go to the sperm bank for more information. However, the bank insisted they could not provide any information as they had specific instructions not to share the identity of the donor. But that would not be enough to stop Ben. It seemed that the rejection from the sperm bank only made Ben even more obsessed with finding out the truth. Luckily, as the due date approached, Ben became less obsessed with fathering the baby. Eliza was now in her last trimester, and Ben knew caring for her and their unborn baby was far more important than worrying about paternity.
But unfortunately, an unexpected problem appeared in the life of the couple. Eliza’s health deteriorated during the last months of her pregnancy. She had lost a lot of weight and energy, and the doctors feared for her life. They explained to Ben that her weak condition could make her and the baby vulnerable to all kinds of illnesses. Eliza would need constant care. Ben took as much time as he could to stay home. He took charge of admitting Eliza to the hospital and continued to care for her until the day of her delivery. It was a stressful time for both of them. Eliza had to work a lot on herself to manage stress so as not to further complicate her condition, and for a while, it seemed to work. But was that really the end of the troubles?
Although Eliza had an early labor at 8.5 months, the doctors were happy that she got through the last weeks of her pregnancy without getting sick. Ben was relieved but still a little anxious. He understood that childbirth was not a sure thing for his wife because she was very weak. All he could do now was to hope for the best. Ben waited in the waiting room, anxious to hear news from the doctors. The doctors ended up performing a cesarean on Eliza. Finally, after two hours, a doctor came to get Ben. The doctor told Ben that his wife was fine and that everything had gone well. However, Ben couldn’t see Eliza yet as she needed absolute rest at this point. Ben was very saddened by this news; he just wanted to make sure Eliza was okay.
To cheer Ben up, the doctor promised they could do something else for him. As the nurse was about to take the baby out for basic exams, they were able to make a quick stop to let Ben hold his child. As he finally hugged him, his eyes lit up completely. He took the child carefully as he had been asked to do. Ben didn’t even know the sex of the baby yet. He and Eliza wanted to find out together, but he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to see his baby. So he held the child in his hands and asked no questions about gender. The baby was calm, and Ben was madly in love with him. The doctor, however, forgot that Ben and Eliza were unaware of the baby’s sex and inadvertently mentioned that the baby was a boy.
Ben was overwhelmed with emotion. It didn’t matter anymore that he wasn’t the biological father; the child in his arms was his son, and Ben already loved him more than anything. To Ben’s immense surprise, the child even looked a lot like him. He and Eliza had chosen the donor traits to make him look the most like him, but he had never expected it to work so well. The baby was taken for basic birth exams, and Ben followed the medical team so he could look out the window. Ben quickly went to her room, ready to share their happiness together. But when he entered, he was completely surprised when he saw his older brother. His eyebrows furrowed. Had Eliza called him to share the good news, and why was his brother there before Ben? The atmosphere was a bit weird. The mood in the room was so strange. Ben’s brother could barely look him in the eye, and tears streamed down Eliza’s face. It was obvious that Ben had missed something over the past few months. He demanded to know what was going on. She told Ben,
“I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you earlier, but I just couldn’t.”
Ben wanted to know what it was all about, and he was trying to contain his anger as much as possible. Ben’s brother started to explain. Eliza had never submitted a donor preference choice. She just wanted a child from Ben so badly that there was only one other option she could think of. She then tried to choose Ben’s brother as the sperm donor to get the closest possible genetic match. Ben’s brother, Joshua, had needed a lot of persuading, but he had finally agreed because he could see how insistent Eliza was about it. That’s why the selection process had taken so long. Eliza and Joshua knew Ben would never agree, so they couldn’t tell him beforehand.
Eliza was completely convinced that Ben would be crazy for her to do this behind his back, but in reality, Ben was overjoyed. Yes, he certainly wouldn’t have approved of it if they had asked him at the time, but now, after holding his child and knowing that it was actually his blood in some way, everything felt right. And right from then on, Joshua was very present in the life of Ben and Eliza’s son, whom they named Josh. Joshua remained only an uncle figure, which suited everyone. Eliza and Ben are happy with how everything went. They take advantage of every second to raise their son, Josh. Everything worked perfectly.
