When the doctors had warned Kitty that labor would be considerably harder now that she was older, she knew that they were right, but they hadn't even begun to do the pain justice. It was so much worse than she remembered with Eric or Laurie and Red could vouch for that because he was getting yelled at, cursed at and his hand was getting squeezed worse than ever. He was afraid of his wife. He had never seen her so violent before and he felt bad because he was the reason she was knocked up in the first place. But he knew that when the baby was there, she would forget about the pain and be the happiest woman in the word and that's what kept him going, which, in turn, made him the happiest man alive. This pregnancy had really mellowed Red out. He was a lot less hard on Eric and his friends. They were a little worried that once the baby was born, everything would go back to normal, but they would take it if they didn't. They enjoyed the new Red. It suit him to be the happy father-to-be.
Luckily, the parents-to-be didn't have to worry about the health of this baby because, unlike what the doctors had warned them about, their baby wasn't too early. He, or she, was only a week early, which was rare for late in life babies. Usually they were anywhere from one to two months early. Being a nurse and having seen premature babies, it made Kitty happy that she wouldn't have a preemie baby because she had seen quite a few of those in her days at the hospital. But that didn't make the contraction pains hurt any less and the yelling at Red only got worse as the contractions got painfully closer together.
"Reginald Forman, you're going to hell for getting me knocked up," Kitty yelled at her husband as yet another contraction hit her. Right as she screamed the insult at her husband, all seven of her kids walked into the room. They all looked at one another, scared of the woman lying in the hospital bed. Seconds later, the contraction ended and Kitty looked over to the door and tried her best to smile.
"Hi, Mom," Eric said as he walked closer to the hospital bed cautiously. Kitty rolled her eyes.
"Stop acting like I'm dying," she said as she waved all of her kids into the room. "I'm just having a baby," she added as she laughed almost a sarcastic laugh and eyed her husband angrily. She knew she was being irrational, but she was also about to push out a baby from a very small space. All the kids walked in as cautiously as Eric had. Donna placed the vase of flowers she had gotten onto the table next to the bed. They all stood there awkwardly, waiting for someone to say something. Almost as if on cue, another contraction hit. Kitty gritted her teeth and squeezed the hand she was holding of Red's. She contained herself from saying anything explicit in front of her kids. She didn't want to do anything she would regret later. When the contraction ended, she looked over at Eric and said, "Eric, honey, will you go get the doctor. These contractions are getting closer and closer," she said. She had been through two deliveries herself and helped plenty of other women to know when it was time to start pushing and that time was now. Eric nodded his head and left the room as fast as he could. He immediately found Kitty's doctor and they came back in. Doctor Marshall came over to the bed Kitty was laying in checked her vitals. Everything seemed to be normal.
"Okay, Mrs. Forman. Eric just told me your contractions are getting closer," he said as he picked up the chart the nurses had filled out. "I think it's time to push," he added. "Kids, you can wait outside." The kids all looked at each other, expressions of excitement and worry on all of their faces. They then walked out of the room and left Doctor Marshall, Red and Kitty in the room. Minutes passed as they heard screams of pain from Kitty and then reassurances from Red as he wiped her brow with a cold washcloth. Ten minutes passed like this until the door opened and Red came out, sweat dripping down his face.
"Well?" Eric asked. "Do I have a little brother or sister?" he asked. Red looked up all of his kids, as Kitty had long deemed them, with a look of elation.
"Why don't you come and see?" he asked. All the kids immediately stood up from the seats they where sitting in and walked into the room to see a happy Kitty holding her bundle of joy in a gender neutral blanket.