Chapter Thirty-One - Lilibeth
Lilibeth
I threw the sheet off of me and sat up in bed. Misty jumped up and meowed softly, so as not to wake up Caden, I was sure. Reaching over, I scratched under her chin, then ran my hand down her back.
“Seems neither of us can sleep, huh?” I whispered, before standing. My hand instantly went to my back as I waddled toward the bathroom to go pee for what felt like the hundredth time.
Quietly shutting the door, I turned on the light and let my eyes adjust. A hot shower sounded good right about now and would maybe relax me a bit. After using the toilet, I started to pull off my pajamas…and felt a pop in my lower pelvis, then a release of a bit of pressure.
I looked down to see fluid running down my leg.
“Oh. My. God.”
Turning, I carefully walked to the bathroom door, opened it, and made my way back to Caden. Once I got to his side, I gently shook him.
“Caden?”
He let out a soft little moan.
“Caden, I need you to wake up. Now.”
His eyes popped open, and he quickly sat up. “What’s wrong?”
Smiling, I said, “My water broke.”
Scrubbing his hands down his face, he moved to get out of bed. “Okay. I’ll get you another one.”
I stared as he shuffled across the bedroom, destination unknown.
Then I realized where he was headed. “Caden, not my drinking water. My water, water. The baby?”
He stopped and paused for a moment, then spun around and looked at me, a shocked expression on his face. “Wait—what? Your water broke?”
I nodded and let out a soft, excited giggle.
Caden had insisted we have a few trial runs for when the moment happened.
He timed himself getting everything to the car, ran down his list of people to call, and made sure he had clothes set aside and ready.
Just earlier tonight, we’d actually gone ahead and put my bag in Caden’s truck, because he was worried we’d forget it.
When he didn’t say anything, I chewed on my lip. “Are you okay?”
“Did you say your water broke?”
“Yes, about two minutes or so ago. I was going to take a hot shower because I couldn’t sleep.”
Suddenly, Caden jumped into action.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” he asked, as he rushed past me and to the bathroom. “You have to get dressed! We have to get dressed! Wait, where’s my phone?”
I pressed my fingers to my lips to keep from laughing. “I don’t think it’s in the bathroom.”
He came flying back out and pointed to the outfit for me that was on the chair by the window.
“Get dressed, Lilibeth! Do you need help?”
“Nope, I can get dressed.”
“Are you having contractions?”
I was about to say no when my stomach started to get super tight. I put my hand on it and drew in a deep breath. “Pretty sure that was a contraction.”
Caden stopped getting dressed, one leg in his pants, the other still out. “We need to time it! Where’s my thing?! The thing to time the contractions!”
I frowned as I watched him trying to move around the bedroom with one leg in his pants and the other out.
“You can use your phone.”
“No, I have the stopwatch and the notebook. Where the hell are they?!”
Turning to the bedside table, I picked up his phone, then reached for the stopwatch and small notebook he had sitting right beside them.
“These?”
He’d turned on the bedroom light and was now dressed from the waist down.
“Yes! Where’d you find them?”
I pointed to his nightstand. “Right there.”
He took the stopwatch and hit the start button. “Lili, you need to get dressed. I’m going to call the doctor’s office.”
As I dressed, I listened to Caden on the phone.
“About five minutes ago, maybe a bit longer. Yes. No. Yes.” He pulled the phone away from his mouth. “Any more contractions?”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
“No, not yet. Yes, we’re leaving right now. She will? Okay, perfect. Yes, I’ve got everything she needs in the car already. Will do. Thank you so much!” Caden poked his head into the bathroom. “What are you doing?”
“Brushing my teeth?”
His mouth fell open. “Brushing your teeth?”
“Yes, Caden. I’m going to be panting and breathing heavy, I don’t want bad breath.”
“Oh. Well, if you’re brushing your teeth, I’m going to brush as well.”
I chuckled, then rinsed my mouth.
“Let me braid my hair really quick,” I said, doing a quick braided pony while Caden brushed his teeth.
“No more contractions yet?”
“Nope, but water is still leaking out.”
Caden frowned. “I better put some towels in my seat!”
We were soon in the truck and on our way to Granby, where the hospital was located.
“Did you call Gatlin?” I knew he was second on the list after the doctor.
“Fuck.”
Reaching for his phone, I looked for Gatlin’s name and stopped. “Ooh! Another contraction.”
“Mark the time you started in the notebook!” Caden said. He reached for the stopwatch and started it. “Almost thirty minutes apart. We’re good.”
“You may be good, but it’s starting to get uncomfortable.”
By the time we arrived in Granby, Caden’s entire family had been called, as well as my parents. My mother had texted me to ask whether they should come. We did a group text and told our families not to come just to sit in the hospital. Caden would call everyone once the baby was born.
“You doing okay?” I asked Caden, as he pulled up to the hospital.
He looked at me and smiled. “Yep! Let me go get someone to help us.”
Less than a minute later, a nurse rolled a wheelchair out. Caden opened the door and went to lift me out, when I laughed.
“Caden, I can get out of the truck.”
“Hang onto her, though,” the nurse said. “We don’t want her to slip and fall.”
I sat down in the chair and smiled up at Caden. “I’m okay, you can go park the truck.”
Looking uncertain, Caden asked, “Are you sure?”
“She’ll be fine while you park the truck. Labor and delivery is on the sixth floor, as I’m sure you know.”
Caden sprinted back to the truck and peeled out.
“I’m so sorry about that.”
The nurse laughed. “He’s actually pretty calm. Some of these dads come and they’re absolutely freaked out.”
I drew in a deep breath. “Oh boy, here comes another one.”
“Time apart?”
Looking at my phone, I swallowed hard. “Ten minutes now.”
“Okay, we’re going to get you straight into a room. Is this your first?”
I nodded. “It is. I thought labor was slow with your first.”
“It usually is, but you could stay at ten minutes for a good bit. Let’s get you upstairs and comfortable.”
I wasn’t sure how Caden did it, but he was up on the sixth floor in time for them to bring me into the room. The nurses got me changed and in bed with all the monitors hooked up.
“Here comes another one,” I said, as I started my breathing.
“How long has it been?” Caden asked, opening the notebook.
“I had a contraction when you were parking the truck.”
Caden’s face went white.
“Dad, why don’t you come and sit down right here, while we get Mom all settled?”
Caden let one of the nurses guide him over to a sofa.
Dr. Lawrence walked into the room with a wide smile on her face. “Hey there, Lilibeth and Caden. How are things going?”
I nodded as I breathed through the last of the contraction.
“Coming faster now?”
The nurse answered her, while I lay my head back on the pillow. That one was painful.
“We talked about an epidural. Is that still possible?” I asked.
“Let’s take a look and see how far you’re dilated.”
According to the doctor, I was fine to get the epidural, and before I knew it, I was resting comfortably. Caden was now sitting in a chair next to me, watching a movie on the TV.
I had dozed off, but woke when the nurse came in to check on me. She did a quick examination and then popped back up. She smiled and turned to Caden.
“Dad, you good?”
He gave a thumbs-up. “All good here!”
She smiled and slipped out of the room.
The door opened again, and a few people entered the room, including Dr. Lawrence. She sat down and did an exam. When she lifted her head, she grinned. “We’re going to get you to start pushing.”
“What?” Caden asked, jumping up and nearly knocking over his drink that was sitting on the floor. “It’s time? We’re pushing?”
Dr. Lawrence laughed. “You’re not pushing, but Lilibeth will be.
After that, I lost track of time. Very quickly, I was exhausted, thirsty, and so ready for the baby to just get out of me. They’d turned the epidural off so that I could feel when the contractions were coming so that I could push. The pain wasn’t too bad, thank goodness.
After another round of pushing, I fell back against the bed. “I can’t do this anymore! Can you just take her out?”
Caden leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Hey, you’re doing amazing, Lili. So damn good. We’re almost there.”
Turning to glance at him, I felt tears welling up. “I don’t think I can do it.”
He gave me that smile of his. The one that made me weak in the knees…and was the reason I was sitting here in so much pain.
“You can do this, Lilibeth. I know you can. I also know you want to meet our little girl just as much as I do.”
I nodded as he wiped a tear away.
“You’ve got this, Lili. I’m here, I’m right here.”
Dr. Lawrence looked up at me. “We’re so close, Lilibeth. I think we just need one more big push.”
“O-okay,” I said, as I grabbed Caden’s hand, leaned forward, and pushed with everything I had.
“Wow. Umm…ouch. You’re kind of hurting my hand, Lilibeth.”
All eyes went to Caden.
“I mean…she’s stronger than she looks.”
“Keep pushing, Lilibeth. We’re almost there!”
Another push with all my might, and I felt a strange pop in my lower pelvis.
“That’s it! Your baby girl is here! Dad, want to cut the cord?”
I dropped back against the bed, and Caden was wiping the hair from my sweat-soaked face.
“You did it, baby! You did it.”
“Caden?” Dr. Lawrence asked.
“Yes! Yes, I want to cut it.”
Our little girl’s soft cries filled the air, and when they placed her on my chest, I couldn’t hold back my tears.
Caden was also crying and saying something to the baby, but I was too focused on her to hear anything or anyone else.