BRITTANY
The sound of the blood pressure cuff filling with air startles me awake. My eyes fly open and I see Jason looking at me with concern, worry, and a touch of fear. “I’ll be fine,” I say to reassure him.
My doctor put me in the hospital and she’s about to begin inducing my labor. I’m two weeks overdue and my blood pressure skyrocketed yesterday. It seems I’ve gained too much weight with this pregnancy. A thing I blame Jason for, of course.
“I know you will, baby.” He takes my free hand and holds it as the cuff squeezes my arm.
“Ow.” I moan, as the thing hurts my arm. “This sucks. I don’t know how my sister did it six times already.”
“She seems to be able to pop them out pretty damn easily, doesn’t she?” he asks as he looks up when my doctor walks in. “How is she, Doc?”
“We’re about to start her up. You ready?” she asks him.
He nods and I frown. “I’m not. I mean, I am, but then I’m not.”
She pats my shoulder as she smiles at me. My doctor is about fifty and the mother of four and grandmother of three. I like her a lot. I have complete trust in her. But I’m still scared as shit.
She looks at Jason and asks, “You have your focal points picked out for her, Jason?”
He points to various things around the hospital room. “There is my first one. Over there is the second. I have ten picked out in case it goes pretty long.”
“Well, I’m only going to let her go for ten hours. If he hasn’t made his appearance by then, I’ll have to do a C-section. And if her blood pressure goes much higher, I’ll have to do one then, if that happens. Let’s keep our fingers crossed we can have a natural delivery.”
“We,” I say with a laugh. “I wish I had someone to share this with.”
Jason’s eyes droop as he pulls my hand up to his chest. “Believe it or not, pudding pop, I’m feeling terrible, too. I’ll be right here with you for every little pain. You squeeze my hand whenever you need to. I got you, baby.”
“Maybe I won’t be so grouchy once I get this kid out of me,” I say. “I’m sorry if I’ve been a bitch.”
My doctor surprises me as she looks at me. “Thanks for the apology, Brittany. I was wondering if you were ever going to give me one.”
“I meant Jason, but I guess I owe you one, too. I’m sure I’ll be kind of shitty to you through this little process too, so I’d like to apologize in advance.” I give her a smile.
She presses some buttons and the bag of clear liquid starts to drip into my IV. She smiles back at me and says, “Yeah, you’re about to really hate me.”
“Is it really that bad?” I ask as I wait for the first pains to start.
Jason looks at the older woman as he says, “I’m sure it’s not as bad as some woman make it seem. Isn’t that right, Doc?”
She just shrugs and walks out of the room. I look at him with a frown. “She’s making me nervous.”
“Me too,” he says, then runs his hand over my forehead. “But you don’t need to worry at all because I have the back massager and the tablet for you play with to keep yourself distracted. Plus, you have me to keep you happy.”
“And you do make me happy.” I watch him go to pick up the television remote.
His ass looks so good in his jogging suit. I picked it out for him to wear just for this occasion. I figure if I have his hot body to look at, then I’ll recall why I did this to myself.
The tight T-shirt hugs his abs and pecs while accenting his magnificent biceps. When he sits in the chair next to my bed, I run my hand over one of them and moan a little.
“This morning was the last chance we had to make love before the baby comes and then it’s six long weeks without it,” I say.
I’ve been worried about him going without sex for that long. I haven’t seen him do a thing to make me think he wants anyone but me, but those doubts flutter through my mind now and then.
“Don’t worry,” he says as he stands up and makes me lean up so he can fluff my pillow. “I can wait. I can see that look on your face, you know. I can almost read your mind, pumpkin.”
“I’m sorry for being distrustful, I really am. I’m trying, Jason.”
A little tightness moves around my back, then across my stomach. He looks at the machine that maps my contractions. “You had one. How was that?”
“Not bad at all. I think I can handle this just fine. Maybe I’m a natural, like Maddie.”
“Maybe you are,” he says with a grin and a kiss to my forehead.
***
JASON
Nine hours later and many contractions into her labor, my wife is begging for a C-section.
“No more! I can’t take anymore, please, Doc!” she begs as she holds onto her doctor’s arm.
With a shake of her head, the doctor says, “You are virtually minutes away from having this baby, Brittany.” She looks at me. “Where is the focal point she should be focusing on, Jason?”
“She won’t listen to me,” I say as I plead my case.
“You have to make her.” She pulls her arm out of Britt’s clutches and leaves the room. “I’ll be right back with an epidural.”
“Thank God!” Britt shouts. Then she starts breathing all hard as she motions for me to come to her.
I do what I’m supposed to and give her my hand. It’s kind of bruised already, but it’s my job, after all. “Okay, buttercup. Let’s just breathe through this thing. Relief is on its way.”
Her eyes go wide as she looks up at me and screams, “Something’s happening!”
The nurse who’s been standing in the corner watching the machines looks at Brittany. “What is it?”
“A burning down there. A very bad burning,” Britt yells.
The nurse pulls back the sheet and then I go a little dizzy. “That’s a lot of blood.”
“Crap!” the nurse says. Then she looks at Britt. “I need to get the doctor. Do not push!” She gives me the stink eye. “Don’t let her push.”
“Okay,” I say, but there’s not an ounce of conviction in the word.
She grips my arm and looks at me with a sternness in her face. “Don’t let her push!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
With that same look the nurse gave me, I look at my wife. “Britt, now you listen here …”
Her mouth goes into a circle as she lets out a horrible noise. “I have to push, Jason! I have to!”
Sitting on the bed, looking at her, I place my hand on her stomach. She looks at it like she’d like to rip it out of the socket and possibly beat me with it. “Britt, you can’t. Wait for the doc. Then this is all going to be done.”
“You don’t know, Jason. I need to push.” She closes her eyes and I snap my fingers in front of them to make her open them again.
“You look right here, baby.” I point to my eyes. “I got you. Do you hear me? You just keep your eyes right on mine. Okay, good. Now do you remember when we were in Bora Bora and you needed to listen to me about that shark?”
“There were two of them,” she says as she pants like a puppy who’s just run a mile.
“I know. And I got you out of the water safe and sound, didn’t I?”
She nods and grits her teeth. “And that dumb lady was giving us a biography lesson all the while.”
“Yes, she was,” I say as I watch sweat pour down her face. “And you were so brave. You are so brave, Britt. And you’re about to bring our son into the world. I’m so damn proud of you, baby. Do you know that?”
She looks like she’s about to cry. “And I’m damn proud of you, Jason. You’re the best husband ever. I know you’re going to take good care of me and Levi.”
“Garret,” I correct her. “Remember we decided on Garret?”
She groans a loud groan. “Ow! It hurts not to push!”
Her eyes close, so I touch her cheek and she opens them again. “But you have to wait. So when did Garret get thrown out?”
“A little while ago. I forgot to tell you. Levi is his name now.”
The machine next to her is going crazy as it records a very long contraction. I glance at it for only a second and see some high marks on the piece of paper. It has to be a bad one.
“Well, Levi is a great name, pumpkin butt.”
The door opens and the nurse and doctor come in. Both are pulling on gloves as they come in. The doctor says, “What do we have here?”
One look has her draping another blue sheet over Brittany. Several more people come into the little room and Britt looks at me with scared eyes.
“You got this, baby. You do,” I say then kiss her forehead.
“You can push, Brittany,” her doctor tells her. “With the next contraction, you can push.”
“Thank God!” she says, then her face goes red as she looks at me.
The way she squeezes my hand lets me know she’s having a lot of pain. But she just makes a loud groan and pushes hard.
“Okay,” the doctor says. “Probably two more, then he’ll be out. He’s a little bigger than I thought he was.”
The nurse mumbles. “Ten pounds, easy.”
I look at the doctor. “You said eight.”
She nods. “I did. That’s not the case, though.”
My hand is squeezed again and I look back to find Brittany going red again as she pushes. “You are doing so great, baby.”
Relief spreads across her face. “It’s almost over. I feel it.”
The doctor looks up with a smile. “Shoulders are out!”
The nurse adds, “One more push, Britt.”
My wife’s eyes go glassy as she says, “I love you, Jason. I always have and I always will. I love you more than you’ll ever know.”
“I love you more than you’ll ever know.” I kiss her hand as she goes red again and makes a growl. Then I hear a weird slurping sound, followed by a loud cry.
“He’s here,” I tell her. “You did it!”
The doctor holds up our son and I laugh like a crazy man as I see how big he is. Brittany’s eyes go huge. “That came out of me? I carried that little linebacker around inside of me.”
“You did,” I say.
I find tears falling out of my eyes and my nose is running and I’m crying as I look at our son as he cries, too. Then I look down at Brittany and find her crying too.
Seems we’re a bunch of crybabies!