Carla arrived at the hospital around thirty hours after she had first felt contractions, and she was already exhausted. She was taken to a private room and was sat on the bed when a midwife entered the room.
"Hi Carla, how are you doing? I'm Amy and I'm going to be your midwife today."
"I'm good thanks." Carla told her before a piercing pain overcame her. She leant forward, breathing in a pattern.
"I'm going to need to ask you a few questions in a bit, is that ok?" She asked, as she got a file and a form that she needed to fill in.
"Yeah..." Carla muttered, pain coming through in her voice.
Amy waited patiently until the contraction had stopped, and came and sat next to Carla on a blue chair beside the bed.
"Is this your first baby?" Amy asked, as she started writing on the form.
"Second pregnancy, first baby." Carla told her, placing a hand on her bump lightly, with Amy nodding in understanding.
"Do you know how long you've been in labour for?" She asked.
"Since about six am yesterday morning." She told her.
"Ok, so quite long. How far apart are contractions now?" Amy asked.
"About four or five minutes apart, I'm not too sure." Carla said.
"Alright, what I'm going to do is measure baby's heart rate." Amy said, getting up and going over to set of drawers in the corner. "When did your waters break?"
"About two this morning." Carla answered.
"That's fine, now I'm just going to place this on your stomach for about half an hour, just measure how baby is getting on." She explained, placing a band around Carla's stomach. "Do you know the gender?" She asked.
"No, I wanted to wait to find out." Carla smiled gently.
"That'll be a nice surprise for you, make it a bit more worthwhile in the end." Amy smiled.
"Right, you've said in your birth plan that you didn't want any pain relief, is that still the case?" She asked.
"Yeah." Carla nodded.
"Ok, so we won't offer anything to you from this point, but if you do want anything for the pain, just ask. Is there anyone you would like us to call?" She asked, as Carla leant over in pain once more.
"My husband. I want him here." She said rapidly, starting to breathe into a pattern.
Amy went over to the machine that monitored the baby's heart rate and checked that was all in order before going back to Carla and gently pressing on her lower back. Carla sighed gently at the relief.
...
"Hello, this is Catherine, a receptionist from the maternity unit of the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital, can I speak to a Mr Nick Tilsley please?"
"Sure, I'll just pass you over" Steph replied, clocking immediately what was happening. "Nick, there's someone that needs to speak to you." Steph told him as he walked from the kitchen towards on of the tables, passing her whilst she held the phone.
"Let me just deal with table 5." He replied, facing the bar.
"It's urgent." Steph urged bringing Nick the phone, as she took the plates.
"Hello, Nick Tilsley speaking."
...
"Hi, I'm Nick, I believe I spoke to you on the phone." Nick said, a bit dazed, still confused about what was going on.
"Oh yes, hello Nick, I'll take you through to Carla, I don't think it's going to be too long now." The receptionist smiled, coming over to the other side of the desk.
They came to the room Carla was in and the receptionist knocked on the door before opening it and keeping it open so Nick could walk through.
"Carla?" Nick asked, upon seeing his wife doubled up in pain.
"Nick, Hi" Carla greeted, giving a small smile, relieved that he had come, giving her hope that he would play a big part in their baby's life.
"What's going on?" Nick asked, as Carla rested her head on her hands, bending over slightly, as another wave of pain hit her.
"She's nearly in the second stage of labour at the moment." A midwife told him, sensing that Carla wouldn't be able to answer her estranged husband at that moment.
"Labour? Carla why didn't you tell me? I could have been here? I mean, how long have you known?" Nick asked her, not knowing where to start.
Nick." Carla called out in pain, ignoring the questions that her estranged husband was firing at her. Nick walked over beside where Carla was leaning and began to rub her lower back. "It hurts so much." She told him.
"It's alright, you're doing amazing." He told her, almost as if he been by her side the entire time.
"Is there anything you can do to stop the pain?" Nick asked the midwife.
"I'm afraid it's too late for an epidural, but you can try that gas and air Carla?" Themidwife offered.
"No, It's fine." Carla said, taking a huge breath out.
"Carla, you're in pain." Nick tried to reason.
"I'm fine." Carla snapped
"Right Carla, pain on a scale from one to ten?" The midwife asked, taking a little control, knowing Carla needed that to stay focused.
"Eight." She groaned, rocking back and fourth in an attempt to move the baby further down.
"And how long between each contraction?" The midwife asked her.
"They're not stopping." Carla told her, pain coming through her voice.
"Alright, lets get you on the bed, and I'll check you over, see where baby is." She told her, as Carla grabbed a hold of Nick's arm as he lead her towards the bed.
At that point, Carla felt so vulnerable, but having Nick there helped a little. She knew that he would want to help, be involved. She felt less alone.
Carla sat on the bed, with Nick taking her hand. "Do things feel a little more intense? Does it feel like baby's moved down further?" The midwife questioned, putting on some gloves.
"I don't know, it just hurts." Carla explained, positioning herself on the bed.
"Ok Carla, your ten centimetres now so you should get the urge to push down soon. It's natural and nothing to be worried about, alright. Now, I'm just going to take a quick listen to baby's heartbeat and make sure that it's doing ok." The midwife explained as she put a Doppler on Carla's stomach.
For Nick, hearing his baby's heartbeat made everything sound more real.
...
"I need to push." Carla told the midwife with pain and distress in her voice. She wasn't used to this much venerability, it was almost as if that intensified the pain.
"Ok Carla, just do what your body's telling you to do." The midwife advised, with Nick taking a hold of Carla's hand.
"Well done Carla, that's it." The midwife said in encouragement.
"It hurts." Carla cried, panting.
"You're doing so well." Nick encouraged her, planting a light kiss in her hair.
"I can't do it Nick, I can't." Carla panicked, looking at him directly in the eyes.
"Yes you can, I know you can, you've gone through everything else so far. This is the last little bit and then you get to be a Mum." He smiled at her.
...
"Right Carla, I can see the top of baby's head now so I need a really big push on the next contraction." The midwife explained.
Carla did as she was told, gripping Nick's hand tightly, not that he cared. Twelve hours ago, he had no idea that he would become a dad today. He watched Carla go through excruciating pain so that they could have a child. She was letting him in to something so private and he felt guilty for ignoring her, blocking her number - because he was stubborn. But he didn't want to focus on that, there were two more important things to think of now, Carla and the baby.
"Baby's crowning now Carla." The midwife announced, as Carla pushed once more. "Carla, stop and breathe for me." The midwife told her.
"What's wrong?" Carla asked her in distress.
"Is everything ok?" Nick asked.
"Everything's fine, now Carla, little tiny pushes now to gently ease baby out." She instructed.
"That's it Carla, good girl. Now one more big push and you'll have your baby."
Carla gave one last effort and her baby was placed immediately on her chest.
"Oh my gosh" Carla said, tears spilling down her face, a mixture of relief and joy. "Hey baby." She greeted, giving the baby a small kiss on the head. "What have you got Mummy?" The midwife asked, smiling.
"It's a boy!" Carla exclaimed, looking up at Nick, who was in sheer disbelief. He was a dad.
...
Nick went outside to get some fresh air while Carla and their baby were getting checked over. His phone rang, and the caller I.D. revealed it was his mother calling. He sighed as he answered the call. He had been away from Manchester for about eight hours and thought that he better let someone know where he was. They would find out he was a father soon enough, he thought he would break the news to Gail sooner rather than later.
"Nick where are you? Steph said you had to dash off. I came to look for you in your flat but..." She began, before being interrupted by her son.
"I'm a Dad." Nick blurted out, not knowing how else to say it.
What?" Gail replied. "I don't understand."
"Half an hour ago, Carla gave birth to my little boy." Nick explained, in disbelief himself.
"What? Are you sure it's yours?" Gail asked quite flippantly.
"Mum, of course he is!" Nick snapped, wanting his mother to have some respect for the mother of his child.
"Well I mean, knowing her, she could have slept with anyone ." Gail thought out loud, much to Nick's annoyance.
"She didn't, he's mine." Nick told her, calmly.
"Why didn't you tell us that she was pregnant?" Gail asked him.
"I didn't know." Nick replied sadly.
"How did you not know? I'm going to swing for her. How could she not tell you that she was pregnant with your child!" She replied angrily.
"She tried to tell me. She tried to, I ignored her and my unborn child." Nick revealed, running his hand through his hair.
"Oh Nick." Gail sighed sadly.
"He's beautiful Mum." He told her, nearly in tears.
"So when do I get to meet him?" She asked hopefully.
"I don't know, I want to give Carla some time and space before I start pressuring her to let people visit." Nick explained.
"What do you mean? I want to see my grandson!" Gail exclaimed, almost shocked at the lack of an invite to see her newest grandson.
"Mum! I want to bond with my son and make sure that my wife is ok before you all come up and meet him." He snapped, before explaining to Gail.
"Are you two back together?" Gail asked in disbelief. "Are you seriously giving her another chance after all she's done?"
"She's the mother of my child. I have so much respect for her, and I think you should too and until you do, you definitely won't be seeing my son." He told her, before putting the phone down, not letting an argument with his mother get in the way of how happy he was at becoming a father, despite it being a massive shock.