When another contraction grips my stomach, I curl around my swollen belly and moan.
“What can I do?” Felix asks. It’s the same question he’s been asking for the last seven hours and I’m so over it, I want to punch him.
Of course I need to wait for the pain to subside.
“When the contraction stops, Riley, let me know. I’d like to check your dilation again.”
I want to punch the nurse, too.
Actually, I think I’ve wanted to punch every person that’s come into this room since we got here. I’m not an angry or violent person, but there is a person currently trying to rip my insides open to get out. I’m entitled.
“Riley, did you?—”
“I heard her,” I grit out. I feel him step away and instantly want him closer. Grabbing his shirt, I tug him back to me. “Sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for. I wish I could take the pain for you. Are you sure you don’t want an epidural?”
“Too late, I think,” the nurse murmurs. “Gone yet, Riley?”
She’s been so gracious while I’ve been a fire-breathing dragon all afternoon. “Yeah…”
“Okay, I’m just going to…” She rolls me to my back as she speaks then pulls one leg… “Well. Okay, mom, try not to push on the next contraction.”
“I’m not.”
“You are, Riley. You might not consciously be doing it, but the baby’s head is crowning and we need to get the doctor in here.” She steps away as another pain hits. “Don’t push!”
Easy for her to say. Definitely hard for me to do. “Holy hell. Birthing a baby is fucking hard!”
“You’re doing so great.” Felix grips my hand, presses his lips to my forehead. “I’m in awe, Riley.”
I can’t speak. I don’t think I’m breathing. It’s taking everything I have not to bear down. Except I don’t think I’m doing a good job because when the door opens and our doctor steps in, there is a second of silence before a baby’s wail fills the room.
“Okay, looks like we got here just in time,” Doctor Groves says as he rushes to the foot of the bed.
“You’re too late,” I murmur, my gaze glued to the head sticking out of my crotch.
I wasn’t going to look. Didn’t want to see my insides being stretched beyond recognition. Except this miracle of life that’s taken hours to achieve is too hard to resist.
“Okay, let me check for the cord…” Doctor Groves has his hands around the baby’s head. “All clear. Next contraction we’re going to work these shoulders out.”
“We’re not done?” I know we’re not. Have no idea why I asked and I don’t have time to think about it because pain cramps my stomach and I’m pushing.
Pushing and pushing and then pop. The pain changes and the baby we’ve waited nine months to meet slips from my body surprisingly easily after hours of labor.
“Got yourselves a boy,” Doctor Groves says with a grin. “A big strapping boy. My guess is over nine pounds, close to ten.”
Our boy is placed on my chest, and I can’t take my eyes off him. “Hello, baby.”
“Look what you did, Riley.”
Felix’s voice sounds choked, and I look up to see tears streaming down his face, but the smile tells me how he really feels. “He looks like you,” I say.
“Does he?”
“Yes. A big boy.” I grin.
“We got a name for this strapping boy, mom and dad?” Doctor Groves asks from between my legs. He’s dealing with the afterbirth, and I was so enamored with our son I didn’t notice my body had expelled it.
