Vanessa was a beautiful woman, which unbeknownst to her would be her ultimate downfall. She lived a fairly typical life, until one day she walked upon the beach, far from home. She passed the palace, and caught the eye of a handsome prince, whose name was William. They eloped, against his parent's wishes, and moved from the castle to their own decently sized cottage on the edge of the ocean. It wasn't splendid by any means, but their love was enough for them. Vanessa grew beautiful flowers in her garden, and William played his flute and gathered seashells for her hair that washed up along the sandy shore. Their life was pure bliss, and after 6 months of marriage Vanessa realized she was pregnant.
The pregnancy went smoothly for the first 3 months. Vanessa and William talked of baby names and nurseries. Then, after she hit the second week of her third month, Vanessa woke up in the middle of the night to a twinge in her stomach. She brushed it off as nothing and rolled over to go back to sleep. She awoke again only a few minutes later with a slightly stronger cramp in her abdomen. She sat up against another pillow underneath her back and rubbed the subtle bump that was forming under her nightgown. After the cramp had eased, she leaned back and closed her eyes. This continued over the next 2 hours with 8 more cramps. They seemed to be getting stronger and more painful. She finally had one that absolutely took her breath away. She turned slightly under the heavy quilt and shook William's shoulder. "William- something's not right. I'm having these cramps, these pains. Something's wrong with the baby."
William shot up straight in bed and turned towards his wife. He was worried to see how pale she was, leaned up against so many pillows clutching what was barely a belly at all. He got up and took her hands. "Let's get you up and shifted." As Vanessa moved her legs towards the side of the bed she gasped and grabbed at her belly again, a new wave of pain hitting her. As she furiously tried to massage her middle, she moved her hands all the way downward under the blanket and then back up again. When her hands moved back upward over her stomach and out from the blanket, both were horrified to see that her hands were both stained red. William threw off the blanket to reveal the puddle of blood surrounding Vanessa. He ran for the doctor, but Vanessa had miscarried the baby.
They grieved the loss of their baby, but went about their daily activities. William helped Vanessa recover physically from her trauma and helped her tend to her flowers. They moved on, they healed, and a year later Vanessa once again became pregnant.
They were hesitant to celebrate her pregnancy at first. They were afraid of attachment; afraid to love something they had so easily lost before. But with each passing day, as Vanessa's shape began to change, as she felt her first kick, as she reached her 4th month and second trimester, they became hopeful and began to fall in love with their child.
It was a hard pregnancy for Vanessa. She was constantly exhausted, and her feet swelled so that she could hardly get around. She grew skinnier as her stomach grew fatter, but she had never been happier. She sewed new dresses to accommodate her bump, and sewed tiny clothes to place in the nursery they were preparing.
At 34 weeks, the Braxton hicks started. She was cramping so often it put everyone on edge. The doctor finally put her on bed rest until she delivered, worried about the frequent Braxton hicks detaching her placenta or causing her to go into early labor. Vanessa was willing to follow his orders, and made do on her bed with William at her beck and call every day.
Three weeks of bed rest came and went. With some relief from the Braxton hicks, Vanessa was beginning to feel hopeful she would carry to the 40-week mark. The doctor checked her every 4 days, and he was encouraging as well.
At the end of her third week of bed rest, the baby shifted downward. The doctor said this was normal and a sign she would go into labor soon. He also said it was good to see the baby head down. Vanessa could barely even make it to the bathroom she was so heavy with child. She was waddling instead of walking, as she continued to feel pressure from the baby's head.
Vanessa was 38 weeks pregnant and laying in bed reading a book when she heard William scream from the garden. She couldn't have known he had been startled by a bird, and jumped up running to help him. Holding her swollen belly in her arms she hurried to the garden, and rushed through the gate. She finally stopped, seeing no danger, and put her hand on the gate to bear some weight as she tried to catch her breath. William, confused, looked up from his work. "Vanessa darling, what are you doing out of bed?"
As Vanessa tried to catch her breath to answer him, she felt the baby begin to shift downward again. The pain seared through her abdomen and the pressure intensified. Right when she felt as if the baby's head was practically out of her, she felt a strange and painful sensation. Lifting her long blue dress, she saw her waters gushing out her onto the pebble path, along with blood. It was too much blood. William stared at her, his mouth hanging slightly open. They watched for a few seconds, in shock. The water rushing from her body slowed, but Vanessa was still bleeding heavily, which wasn't normal before the birth. She hadn't had any contractions yet, and felt only pressure. William picked her up and carried her inside the cottage, and set her on the end of the bed. He grabbed his coat, kissed her forehead, and ran out for the doctor.
A few seconds after the door slammed, Vanessa experienced her first contraction. She lay back on her bed, unable to find relief. She massaged her belly, and tried to push the baby downward with her hands to accelerate her labor. She closed her eyes and focused on patterned breathing, imagining the joy she would feel when the baby finally arrived.
Her next contraction was even more intense. She slowly got down off the bad and onto the floor, where she squatted, holding the bedpost. She rocked from side to side, shifting her weight between her legs. She massaged her bulging middle and pressed into the top, where she could still feel some fluid buildup above the baby.
She had 8 more contractions by the time William arrived back with the doctor, coming at 5 minutes apart. The last one was easing off when they burst through the door. When she opened her eyes and looked up, she recognized the horror on both of their faces. Dealing with her excruciating contractions hadn't left much concentration for anything else, and she followed their gaze to the floor bellow her, covered in blood and even more water.
The doctor and William lifted her to put her on the bed, but as they lifted her up, she had another contraction, only a minute after the last one. She was writhing in pain, grabbing at her stomach, unable to stop the pain. William sat behind her and supported her sweaty head while the doctor opened her legs out in front of her. He checked her cervix, which was at 6 centimeters. Vanessa was in so much pain she couldn't even lie down comfortably. She begged the doctor to allow her to stand and walk or squat. The position also seemed to be slowing her labor, as she hadn't had a contraction for several minutes.
Finally, 10 minutes after her last one, Vanessa felt her next contraction coming on. She quickly pulled herself over the side of the bed to the floor before the doctor or William could protest. She sank into a squatting position to the floor, and instantly felt the baby dropping as her belly tightened with the contraction. She rubbed the underside of her belly, whimpering as the pain intensified. William moved behind her and massaged her back.
As her contraction began to ease, she felt the baby start to descend once again. As it started moving, she felt another sensation and looked down. Gushes of blood were spilling onto the floor below her. William cried out as she nearly fainted into his arms. The doctor rushed over from the kitchen where he was boiling water and helped William put her back onto the bed. "She's having a placental abruption."
As soon as he uttered the words, Vanessa felt another contraction coming less than a minute after the last one. Her placenta was detaching, and she could feel the baby descending unhealthily fast. She could hear the doctor announcing that she was already at 10 centimeters, and it was time to bear down.
She held her belly in her hands and pushed with all her might. William pulled her hair out of her face and continued to support her from behind. The baby was finally delivered, and the doctor carried it into the kitchen while Vanessa delivered the placenta, along with a pool of blood.
When the pushing was finally over, she and William collapsed together, crying tears of joy. They had their beautiful baby, and Vanessa had made it through the vigorous labor. The doctor walked slowly from the kitchen, holding a small bundle. Vanessa reached her arms out for her baby, but the doctor just looked up at her and shook his head. He walked over and showed them the small baby boy, who was blue. He had been stillborn. Vanessa collapsed into William's arms.
Vanessa lay unconscious for nearly a week. The doctor informed William that the combination of the miscarriage and the placental abruption had left her barren. She would never bear another child.
William and Vanessa never recovered from their loss. Their tears turned to silence, their silence to bitterness, and their bitterness to anger. The flowers in the garden were dead, much like Vanessa's spirits. After 4 months, William returned home to his parent's castle and divorced her. "I must do what is best for the kingdom, and I must have an heir." He married the lovely maiden Regina, who uneventfully carried for him 3 sons and 2 daughters. His oldest grew to be a handsome young man who took after his father and inherited the kingdom when William and Regina eventually died. He was named Eric.
Vanessa could find nothing to console herself. She finally went to the town's witch doctor, begging for fertility and a way to win William back. At that time he was married to the already pregnant Regina, so her request was of course impossible. However, the witch doctor granted her powers in exchange for a price- her beauty. Vanessa traded her beauty and was sentenced to life in the sea with her powers, separated from her own true love and left to wonder what might have been if she had been able to carry a baby. She never truly healed. Vanessa's final attempt to leave her past behind her was a change of name. She used her powers to conjure up a wave and destroy her abandoned cottage where she once found happiness. The sea creatures compared her wrath to that of a bear, and called her after one. She became known as the "little bear", the sea witch, and, most commonly, Ursula.