Chapter 22
Tavion ‘Tank’ Briggs
She Gave Him Life
One month later
“Hmmmmmmm,” Dionne let out a loud, broken moan, feeling contraction after contraction rip through her body. She was in the birthing pool that we had set up right in the living room area of the house.
I was inside the pool with her, leaned up, so that my hands could be down on the lower part of her back, massaging the area.
She was tilted over, her fingers gripping the edge of the pool, lying her head down on the side of the pool, in pure pain, and agony.
I felt bad because I knew that there wasn’t shit that I could do to get her out of the pain that she was feeling.
Even though she was in a great amount of pain, she was handling this shit much better than I expected her to.
As eager as I was for my son to get here, I was a little nervous when it came to Dionne going into labor.
I knew how she was when it came to pain.
Earlier in the week, when we’d gone to Tamera, so that Tamera could check if Dionne started dilatating yet, she was damn near spazzing from that.
I just knew that everyone that was going to be in the room with us while she was giving birth, would be getting cursed out, but my wife was taking it like a champ.
Inside the living room, there was my mom, Dionne’s mom, both her grandmother’s, her sisters, and Blake. Her pops was here too, but he didn’t want anything to do with this, so he was outside in the backyard. He was taking a liking to Noire, so he was out there, chilling with her.
All the support that Dionne had in the living room was what she wanted.
She made it clear to all of them that she was scared to give birth, and how she felt like their presence, along with mine, would help her get through it.
So far, it’s been 8 hours that Dionne has been in active labor.
Tamera just checked her maybe ten minutes ago, and she’d finally reached ten centimeters, so she was gearing everything up for Dionne to start pushing.
Dionne woke up this morning around 6. Usually, I was up before her, but today, she got up before me.
I woke up to her sitting at the foot of the bed, head down, moaning in pain.
All week, she had been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions, so when she felt cramping this morning, she thought that’s what it was, and that’s why she didn’t wake me.
I eventually woke up to the sounds of her moaning getting louder, and when I asked her what was wrong, she explained that she was feeling a lot of pressure in her back, and that the cramping was worse than what it had been all week.
Before I could get her phone, and call Tamera, wanting to update her on what was going on, Dionne’s water broke.
From the movies and shit, I expected to see fluids flying out of her in every other direction, but that’s not how it went down. It was a big gush though, but nothing too dramatic. From there, it was a slow leak. Tamera got here in no time, and from the moment she got here, it was on.
I was in charge of getting all the women over here.
Everyone came over, and they were getting in where they fit in, trying not to get on Dionne’s bad side by aggravating her.
We were eight hours into this, and still no sign of our baby yet, but seeing Tamera gear up on the side of the room, I knew that it wouldn’t be long until my lil man was making his entrance.
“Remember what I was telling you the other day. When you feel pressure, that’s when you gotta push. Keep breathing too,” Antoinette told her daughter, as she was in front of her, down on her knees, with a white hand towel in her hands, using it to keep on Dionne’s face. She was keeping her cool.
Dionne didn’t respond back to her. Just continued moaning from the pain that she was in.
“Come on Dionne girl. You got this. We’re all ready to meet little man,” Tamera said, coming over in her scrubs, and her gloves on her hands.
She had Dionne sit back, and I assisted her in leaning into me, putting her back against my chest, and fitting in wherever I could, I put my hands on her shoulders, while I massaged, as she moaned out in agony.
“Come on, baby. You got this. You see I’m right here with you. I may not be feeling what you’re feeling right now, but I’m right here with you, okay?” I spoke into her ear, only wanting her to hear me.
“Okayyyyy,” she cried, making me so fuckin sad to hear her like this, and in so much pain.
She was before me and the only thing that she was wearing was a black maternity bra. Her long hair was pinned up into a claw clip, keeping her hair out of her face. I could feel her body trembling against me because I knew that she was so scared.
I took my hands off her shoulders eventually, and I reached around, putting them on her stomach.
“Like your mom was just telling you, when you feel pressure, that’s when I need you to push. When I just checked you a few minutes ago, I could feel his head. He’s right there, baby girl. You got this, Dionne,” Tamera coached her.
“Come on, D. You got this sister,” Free said, standing there, holding a camera in her hands because she was on film duty. Dionne wanted this moment on film, and Free had been here, recording everything.
Tamera assisted Dionne in opening her legs, putting her in the right pushing position, and from there, we were ready.
“Ughhhhhhh,” Dionne groaned out in pain.
“Come, Dionne. Push for me. I’m going to count to ten, and keep pushing for ten seconds,” Tamera went on, at the front of the tub, eyes down, paying attention to what was taking place.
“Come on, bae. This the end of the road right here. You did that nine-month bid, easily. Who the fuck you know that was strutting in heels at night months pregnant, effortlessly like you? Come on. You was strong the entire pregnancy. Finish this shit out,” I coached her, and you could tell that my words gave her the push that she needed because she screamed loudly through her pushing, and I could tell that she was giving this her all.
“Best friend, you hear this man? I see how you ended up pregnant,” Blake crazy ass said, standing next to Tamera.
Blake wanted to be the fuckin doctor so bad.
I fucked with her though. She took her role as best friend and god mother seriously.
She was the first person here this morning when I called all the women.
She immediately came in, took the sweater off that she was wearing, changed out of her shoes, so that she could put on the house shoes that she came with, and she jumped right into action on whatever Dionne needed her to be doing.
Dionne was too focused in the moment to pay Blake any attention, so she didn’t respond.
“I think you can have him out within the next few pushes. Take a breath. Just relax until you feel pressure again,” Tamera told Dionne, as she laid back onto my chest.
“Turn your head around. Look at me,” I said to her, and as best as she could, she turned her head around, and I cuffed her jaw, looking her in her eyes.
There were fresh tears that were continuing to fall down her beautiful face. She looked as if she was exhausted and was ready to just get to the finish line.
“You’re doing amazing, baby. I’m so proud of you,” I let her know, and through her tears, she nodded, letting me know that she heard me.
I kissed the tears away, kissed her on her lips, and then she turned back around, and when she felt that pressure, she leaned up, and everybody in the room was counting to ten.
“Oh my God! Dionne, I see the head,” Tommie screamed, who wasn’t standing too far away from the pool.
That was the motivation that Dionne needed to hear because she continued to push through, and in seconds, I saw Tamera pulling… tugging, and then, she pulled out a hairy little boy that was screaming to the top of his lungs.
She held him in the air, showing everyone in the room, and she sat him down on Dionne’s chest, as her back leaned into me.
He showed everyone in the room that his lungs worked well because he cut up.
His little cries were like music to my ears though.
Dionne was crying right along with him, as we both had our heads down, looking at him.
He was tiny, but we already knew from the ultrasounds that Tamera would perform that he was going to be small.
He was coated in that thick, creamy stuff that babies came into the world with.
His skin was a little wrinkled, and I paid attention to his ears, and his fingers, seeing that he was going to be chocolate, just like me, and Dionne.
I took my eyes off him for a moment, just so that I could put them on Dionne, and I rained kisses all on her neck, while continuing to thank her for this beautiful gift.
Still crying, she turned her head, so that she could face me, and she kissed me multiple times on my lips.
“He’s so perfect. Hi auntie man,” Tommie cooed, her eyes watering, as she came to the side with everyone else, so that she could look at her handsome nephew.
“I know you not crying gangsta,” I said to her, and she laughed through her tears, waving me off.
Our baby boy eventually stopped crying, and I didn’t know much about newborns, so I didn’t know what he was supposed to do.
He did, however, have his eyes wide open, and you could tell that he was trying to make out what was happening around him.
The way Dionne had him positioned on her chest, his eyes were able to look up, and they were on me.
It felt like I was looking at the baby version of myself.
Dionne talked about wanting to give birth to a boy that looked just like me, and that happened for her.
His eyes were big like his mama though. A good amount of jet-black hair sat on top of his head, and now that he’d gotten all the crying out of his system, he was chilling. He was cool like his daddy.