“Weird things can happen.”
“No, I know how first-time babies are. This is supposed to go slow. My body doesn’t know what it’s doing.”
“What if it does?”
“No, there’s no way.” She gritted her teeth and shut her eyes as another contraction hit her. They were lasting longer now, and she was hooked up to a graph that measured how hard they were. They looked really intense on that piece of paper.
“Then at least let’s ask for something to distract you.”
“I want the damn epidural,” she muttered.
“You sure?”
“Very. Fuck this.”
“All right then.” I placed a kiss on her forehead before getting a nurse.
“We’ll do a check before we call the anesthesiologist,” the nurse said. “I’m sure she’s fine, though.”
“She’s in a lot of pain.”
“Poor thing. First-time moms can take a while.”
“Between you and me, I have a feeling this is going faster.”
“All the first-time parents say that. The baby will be born when it’s ready to be.”
I understood that it was very easy to fall into habits of first-time parents. Maybe I just wanted this to be over. I took a deep breath to calm myself and then walked into the room with Grace to keep her levelheaded.
Soon after, the nurse walked in to wash up and put gloves on. Grace grumbled about having to get checked, but only gripped my hand as it happened.
I figured both she and I would get relief when it was over with and she got the medicine she needed.
What neither of us expected was for the nurse to freeze.
“All right, change of plans.”
“What’s wrong?” Grace asked. “What’s happening?”
“It’s time to push, my dear.”
“What?But I?—”
I resisted the urge to say “I told you so,” but the nurse didn’t stay long. She didn’t even let Grace finish her question because she was calling all kinds of people into the room.
I’d never seen people filter into a place so quickly. I thought I would be used to the unexpected after everything that had happened over the last few months.
I didn’t think I would ever get used to it.
“I seriously can’t do this,” Grace said as she grabbed my hand desperately. “I wanna go home.”
“Grace, you’ve got this.” I hated that she even had to be here. I hated that she had to be in pain at all, but this was always coming ever since we found out she was pregnant. I wished I could’ve taken it from her, but all I could do was be supportive.
“I don’t think I do.” Her eyes were wide and she looked terrified. I didn’t blame her for being that way because I was too.
Dr. Anderson came in, laser focused on what was going on. I held one of Grace’s legs as she bore down. There was nothing I could do but tell her how strong she was, even if it didn’t help.
After this, I would be changing every fucking diaper. I’d wash all the clothes. She’d done enough.
