Chapter Twenty-Three
Penn
We’d been so busy with the changes in our lives that I hadn’t slowed down enough to notice how pregnant I’d gotten.
It wasn’t until about a week ago, when my paternity pants no longer fit, that I realized I was huge.
And now that I had, it was the only thing I could think about.
It was going to be a matter of days before I had to get our baby from inside me to outside, and that was equally terrifying and exciting.
Our little one was a gymnast in training, twisting and turning and kicking all day long. Not only did my mates love touching my belly and feeling our little one so did the kids. They thought it was hilarious.
All of them had experienced pregnancy in their foster home, which made it easier for us because they knew that a baby was coming and that at the end, there would actually be a baby.
That sounded like a no-brainer, except I’d met kids through the library who thought their new sibling was going to just stay inside their parent’s belly forever and were shocked when there was an actual newborn in their home.
I was glad we weren’t going to have to deal with any of that. We were juggling enough as it was.
Saturday morning, I woke up thinking I was going to conquer the world: get laundry done, go to the grocery store to pick up some easy-to-cook foods for the week, and maybe take the kids to the park.
But then, halfway through making breakfast, my stomach tightened.
It wasn’t painful, but it was definitely noticeable.
According to what the midwife taught me, it was a sign of labor, which meant I was staying close to home.
I did manage to get the laundry done with my mates’ help, but that was it.
I didn’t tell anyone that I suspected labor was coming on or had possibly started.
I didn’t want my mates to be hovering or worried.
I just wanted to go about my day. And so we did.
We finished the laundry, played with bubbles outside, and had macaroni and cheese for lunch by request. We played a very modified version of Candyland, where we were mostly just moving pieces around the board and laughing at the different characters.
It was a great day, and even though my stomach did tighten up quite a bit, I didn’t feel anything that my midwife said was “progressing” and required me to call them.
I chalked it up to Braxton Hicks contractions and called it a day.
I’d had a huge burst of energy in the middle of my pregnancy that had long since left, and I was back at the exhaustion stage that I experienced while I was first pregnant. When it came time to sleep, I hopped in bed, closed my eyes, and fell asleep almost instantly.
When I woke, the clock said it was far too early to get up, and I wouldn’t have even contemplated getting out of bed, except I had to pee.
My bladder was far too small for the size of the baby who was sitting on it.
I rolled out of bed and waddled into the bathroom, pleasantly surprised that I didn’t wake up either of my mates.
As I took care of business, my stomach contracted again, and this time it was painful.
So painful, in fact, that I had to grab onto the counter.
Contractions didn’t change that quickly, at least not from anything I’d read, which was far more than I should have for my own peace of mind.
I must’ve been sleeping hard if I missed them intensifying.
When the contraction subsided, I washed my hands and snuck into the living room where my phone was charging.
I turned on the TV with the volume off and watched an old sitcom as I waited for the next contraction to hit.
When it did, I started the timer. Very quickly, I realized I wasn’t just a little bit in labor. I was pretty far along.
I sent a text message to the midwife, who said they would be there shortly, and then I woke my alphas. They were up instantly, no yawning or falling back asleep. They popped out of bed and were ready to go, asking what I needed more than once.
I told them what I needed was for them to keep their voices down.
I didn’t want to wake the kids because if I did, it either meant they’d be in here as I was laboring, or one of my mates would need to distract them.
The latter was fine if need be, but this was better.
I knew a lot of shifters who had their families with them during birth, and I wasn’t opposed to the idea in theory, but, after hearing their stories, I felt seeing their parent in pain wasn’t the best idea if we could avoid it.
By the time the midwife came, forty-five minutes later, my water had broken, and it was taking all I had not to cry out with the contractions. I wasn’t a pregnancy warrior. I didn’t think there was any honor in hiding my pain. It was 100 percent me hoping not to wake the sleeping children.
“You’re having this baby soon,” my midwife, Stan, said.
“Like, soon soon?”
He nodded. “How long have the contractions been going on?”
“All day.”
I could see Freid holding back his lecture. He didn’t like that I hid it from him for so long, but he also knew that I wouldn’t do anything to hurt him and that it was what I thought was best.
“Then it’s definitely go time soon.”
We had already talked about my birth plan in detail numerous times.
It included staying active until it was time to push, and so that’s what I did until I couldn’t walk anymore.
Then I got on the bed on my hands and knees, my head on a pillow.
My mates each intertwined their fingers with one of my hands, rubbing my back with their other and telling me what a great job I was doing as the midwife told me when to push and when to stop.
Holding back my cries took every bit of energy I had, but somehow I managed.
I gave one final push, and our baby’s cries filled the air.
My mates helped clean me up while the midwife weighed and measured our baby, allowing the guys to cut the cord together. Once I was settled into bed, Stan brought our baby to my chest for her first meal. “Congratulations. You have a beautiful baby girl.”
I looked down. She was beautiful and absolutely perfect, from her head down to her ten little toes. Ty and Freid sat on either side of me, watching as our baby drank.
“What should we name her?” Ty asked.
I’d been under the belief that we would know her name when we met her, and I’d been right. A name was floating around my head the second I saw her eyes. “What about Skye?”
“Skye,” Freid tasted the name. “I like it.”
“Me too,” Ty said. “Hello, Skye. We’re so excited to meet you, and any minute now, you’re about to meet your siblings.”
I looked at him. “How do you know?”
“I heard someone in the bathroom. When whoever it is realizes we are up, all of them will be here. Mark my words.”
And he was right. Five minutes later, as the midwife was getting ready to go, four little shifters sat on the bed staring at their new sister.
The children’s librarian had once commented how full our house was going to be, and they were right. But it was nowhere near as full as my heart.