41. Dakota
Dakota
“ A ll right, Miss Piper, if you'll have a seat up on the table, and then you can lie back, and we'll get this thing going.”
The ultrasound tech smiled pleasantly at Piper as she got comfortable—or as comfortable as could be expected on the small table next to the sonogram.
We were going in for one of the final looks at the baby before the big day to make sure that everything was still on track.
We'd gotten pretty comfortable with this, and Piper was already rolling up her shirt to have the goo squirted onto her belly.
“I'm so glad that you guys have a warmer for the gel because, in so many offices, it's just sitting at room temperature, and that feels so cold when you squirt it on my stomach.”
The tech got her going, using the transducer to rub the gel across her skin so that we could get a clear look at the little nugget that was growing inside.
It didn't take long to find them now, considering they were almost full term.
And there, on the sonogram, was the image of our sweet little bean, all curled up in on themselves with their hand up by their face.
They'd assumed the correct position with their head down, nestled deep into Piper's pubic bone.
Or so she told me, and we knew that this was a time when the baby could come at any minute.
Once you hit that thirty-seven-week mark, you needed to be prepared for the baby to come whenever it wanted.
Due dates, after all, were just a suggestion.
Heck, according to my own mother, Montana and I been a full two weeks late, and they were getting ready to evict us forcibly since we had gotten so comfortable in there. Hopefully, that wouldn't be something Piper ran into.
“All right, so, there we have Baby. They are doing great. I'm going to take some measurements of the head to see how we are doing, and we're going to do their length as well so that I can check how big they are from the crown of their head to the end of their bottom.”
Zeke laughed to himself, looking at the screen and nodding along. “One of the other technicians said crown-to-rump measurement, which I thought was great.”
We all laughed at that one.
“Yes, that's one way to say it,” the technician giggled, clicking away on the computer as she took her measurements of the baby.
“I want to see!”
I turned, seeing that Maisie couldn’t see anything from her position on the floor.
This was the only ultrasound that we'd let her go into because it was pretty safe to take her now.
She was starting to get excited about the baby, and she had actually felt them move a couple of times.
It was hard to convince a four-year-old to be excited about something that she couldn't see, so it was neat to see that Maisie had started to get curious about Piper’s belly.
Leaning down, I lifted her up and pointed at the screen. “See. Look there; that's your sibling. They're inside right now, but in just a few weeks' time, they're going to come out, and you'll get to meet them with all the rest of us.”
Her little brow furrowed, like she was trying to make sense of seeing something on the TV that was also still in Piper's body but wouldn't be there forever. It was a lot to ask a four-year-old to process.
“There's a baby in there?”
Piper smiled, looking over at Maisie with warmth radiating off her.
“There is, honey. Yeah, this is gonna be your sibling.
This is a special machine that the doctor can use to look at the baby to make sure they're doing okay, which they are?” she asked with not a small amount of nervousness in her voice.
She was always super worked up about these visits. She had a tendency to think about the worst-case scenario.
“Yes, everything looks great,” the technician replied. “They're right on track for growth. You have a good amount of amniotic fluid, so there's nothing wrong there. And it even looks like they've dropped deep into your pelvic girdle to get ready for coming out.”
“Ugh, you're telling me,” Piper complained. “Every time I walk, I can feel their tiny little head jabbing me right in the cervix.”
We all laughed.
“Well, that's actually kind of how you get this process started. The baby's head sinks down, and it presses on the cervix and lets it know, ‘hey, we're here. It's getting close to time. Do you want to get soft and do your job by getting shorter and wider?’”
Maisie was utterly confused by what the technician was saying now, but she nodded along like everybody else was, to try to seem like she knew what was going on.
“Having a baby is hard work.” I looked down at Maisie, pinching her little chin and giving her a grin as I rubbed my nose against hers. “So we have to make sure that Piper is doing a-okay. You think you can help me with that?”
Maisie perked up in my arms, nodding exuberantly. “Yes, yes, I can help. I help.”
At that, she held up her little stuffed animal and waved it around by Piper, trying to get her to take it. Piper cocked her head and took the stuffy, pulling it against her.
“What's this? Bear?”
“Bear keep you happy.”
A collective “aww” rang out through the entire room, and even the technician gave Maisie a big smile.
“That's so sweet, honey, thank you. I will make sure to squeeze Bear if I ever get nervous, but if you need him back, you just let me know.”
Maisie thought about it, looking down at my hands where I was holding her and then back up at Piper. “I'm okay for now, but want to sleep with Bear.”
I chuckled and gave her another squeeze. “Of course, you'll get to sleep with your buddy, Bear. We would never dream of letting you go to sleep without your longtime partner.”
Maisie grinned, and the rest of the visit proceeded normally. We got our measurements; we took a few pictures of our little bean all snuggled in their house, and we were given all sorts of instructions about what to do when labor eventually started.
We were right there, getting so close, and I knew that Piper was going to frantically pack the hospital bag and have it waiting by the door now that we'd officially reached the thirty-seven-week mark.
“Okay, but like I said, I don't necessarily want to go straight to the hospital. I found this wonderful birth center that seems so much calmer and more relaxed, and I would like to go there. We've had a look at it and everything. I got the big tour, and I think that's where we'd like to go.”
The technician nodded, wiping the gel off Piper's stomach and storing the transducer in its holder.
“Birth centers can be great, and you'll also have trained medical professionals around just in case anything happens.
Though the chances of that are very slim, so don't let yourself worry. Now that it’s the end of your pregnancy, you might start to notice more and more Braxton-Hicks contractions, but it's also normal if you have none at all.”
Zeke leaned in over Piper, draping his arm across the back of the exam table. “So, how do we know when it's go time and we're supposed to head to the birth center?”
The woman looked up at him with a smile and then met eyes with Piper again.
“Well, the best way to know is when your contractions are about four or five minutes apart, lasting around thirty seconds.
That's when you can tell that labor is truly happening.
Sometimes it takes a long time to reach that point, while for others, it can go rather quickly.
This is your first pregnancy, so chances are you'll be in labor for around twelve to eighteen hours, which is normal for most first-time moms. Though not all of that time is spent in active labor, so don't freak out.
Usually, if the contractions have gotten to the point where it's difficult to speak during them, and you have to tune into yourself to get through them, that's a good sign to head to the birth center.
“You'd also want to come to us right away if your water breaks, because then we only have a limited amount of time to get the baby out before the risk of infection increases.
But again, don't let yourself get too nervous.
That usually isn't a problem, and some people don't have their water break until the very end.
In very rare instances, which are extremely cool, the water doesn't break at all, and the babies are born in the caul, where they're still inside their little sack. I've only seen it a handful of times, but it’s wild. Other times, people confuse their water breaking with going to the bathroom, which is also rather normal. Typically, you know it’s your water breaking if you try to stop it and hold it and you can't.”
Piper was nodding along, taking in the deluge of information, and all I could do was chuckle under my breath as I held Maisie close, who had no idea what we were talking about.
She tugged on my shirt, and I looked down at her. “What water are they talking about? Is there a cup that's going to spill?”
Again, the room broke out in gentle chuckles, and I squeezed her close. “No, honey, it's not that kind of water. It might be hard to understand. I can explain more when we get home.”
She shrugged her little shoulders in a way that only a toddler could manage, and then, as quickly as the question was there, she completely forgot it.
“You’re all set, hun. And hopefully, I won’t be seeing you again, because you’ve had the baby.
” The tech smiled, helping Piper off the table as Zeke assisted from the other side.
“For now, get some rest. It’s important to keep stress at a minimum this late in the game and take some time for yourself. ”
I smiled at Piper when her expression faltered slightly. With the Caroline nonsense, stress was kind of at an all-time high, and we all needed to help Piper manage it. I wasn’t risking the baby or her.
“Don’t worry, pretty girl.” I took her hand, Maisie leaning forward so that she could touch Piper’s belly as I held her. “We’ve got you. Until the end.”