29. Capri
capri
. . .
*Note: Listen to ‘This Woman’s Work’ By Maxwell reading this chapter.
The minute we made it to the hospital I was rushed into a room. When the doctor checked me, he told me that I was already eight centimeters dilated and couldn’t get any drugs. It took Meer and Blair both to get me to unhand him when he told me that I would have to continue to experience this pain.
“I want my mother, Meer… I want my mommy!” I screamed out through the pain that cruised through my body.
He rushed out the room and Blair took his place, holding my hand and wiping my forehead. “I feel like I have to push, Blair… I feel like this intense feeling of pushing.”
“Hold it, Capri… let me get the doctor,” she ran off and it was just me and Peach. She wrapped her hand in mine and wiped my forehead as I continued to breathe.
“Suga, you can do this. Breathe in and breathe out… you are so strong, okay?” I had tears coming down my eyes because it was how she and her father constantly poured into me.
She was only doing what she had watch her father do to me so many times. “Alright, let’s give you a check.” The doctor came back with Meer and my mother on his ass.
“I’m here, Princess,” my mother came into the room and stood next to Peach.
Meer got on my side with Blair as the doctor flipped the bed out and I put my legs into the stirrups. “Alright, I’m going to need you to push dur?—”
“Arghhhhhhh!” I pushed hard with all of my might.
My hair stuck to my forehead as I pushed and Meer and my mother held my hand. Peach was standing on a chair next to me, and every so often I would feel her wiping my forehead.
“Come on… give us a good push… Dad, do you want to see this?”
You might as well had called Meer the doctor because he pushed all the nurses out the way as I continued to push. “Suga, she got so much fucking hair… I see it.”
He was so excited and as exhausted as I was from pushing, I needed to get my baby girl into this world. I prayed so hard for her and she was right here, almost into the world and I needed to get her there.
I’ve gone through so much when it came to my life, and God blessed me with her. He blessed me with her father and sister first, but he made sure she came right after. Rayce Ann was my angel baby, the little girl that would continue to change me and her father’s world. She didn’t know she was healing her father.
She was giving her father a second chance at something he missed. She was allowing her sister to witness her coming into the world. Peach would think about the day her sister was born and never forget it.
Rayce Ann was healing our family. The Infernos had been on autopilot for years and now they were finally living. We had lost so much and she was restoring hope for us. New life was being born into the Inferno blood line, and I was the woman making that happen.
“Come on Shelly-Ann, you got this baby… come on, give us one more push,” my mother coached as she looked at me with tears in her eyes. “You’ve always had this, mama… you can do this.”
Blair kissed my forehead as she helped me lean up and I gave one more push, I was pushing so hard my feet were balled-up as I needed to get this little girl out. “Pri, you got this… come on.” I heard Erin’s voice and watched her stand next to Blair.
I took a deep breath as I looked into Meer’s eyes. We didn’t break eye contact as I pushed and looked at my forever. The man responsible for this, but the love of my life.
“Oh fuck, Suga…. fuck.” His voice broke as I fell back onto the bed when I felt them pull her out of me.
They put her on my chest as they wiped her clean. Blair moved out the way as Meer came next to me, kissing me all over my face. “I fucking told you that you were pressure. You did that shit without any medicine, Suga… you my fucking wife, you know that.” He continued to kiss me as I felt depleted.
Gathering enough energy, I looked down at the head full of hair that laid on my chest. I looked over my shoulder and Peach had tears in her eyes. “We did it, Peach.”
She hugged me and kissed me. “You gave me my baby sister, Suga Mama.”
I held her face toward mine as she kissed me. “Big fuckin’ mama,” Erin laughed as she stood there and clapped. “You did that shit, Pri.”
“Next time you second guess yourself… please don’t,” Blair laughed as she kissed me on the head. “I love you.”
My mother was a ball of tears as she looked at me and her new granddaughter. “Princess, you did it. I knew you could do it… my beautiful, Granddaughter.”
The doctor instructed Meer on how to cut her chord while the nurses got her weight and everything. I laid there looking at Erin and she wiped the tears from my eyes.
“You’re a mommy, Capri.”
“I’m a mommy,” I whispered as tears fell down my face, not believing that I had a daughter. Giving birth had been something that scared me my entire pregnancy. I was so scared of what could go wrong that while I was in labor it never crossed my mind.
I was worried about getting my daughter into this world, and nothing else mattered. The nurse instructed Meer to remove his shirt and he sat in the chair beside me. She opened the blanket that Rayce was swaddled in and put her on his chest. He held her and looked at me with tears coming down his face.
“Thank you, Suga.” His voice broke as he kissed the top of her head, and looked over at Peach. “Come here, Peach.”
“I love you, Quameer.”
“I love you, too, Capri.” Peach jumped down and ran around the bed. He pulled her into him and kissed her on the head, as she kissed her sister. “My girls,” he said as he looked me in the eyes.
“Those Infernos girls… a new generation of you and Sim,” Erin smiled at us, as we were lost in each other’s eyes.