SM owns Twilight, Ashel-13 owns Bella PoV of Ch1
IPASOY Ch 4
EPoV
You'd have thought, as a medic, that I'd be fine when it came to Bella giving birth. Really, you would. Instead, I became the embodiment of the phrase "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing". I had nightmares about not getting to the hospital in time and having to deliver our firstborn in the car, about pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, foetal distress and emergency C-sections, haemorrhaging … you name it. I imagined pretty much anything and everything possible going wrong. I drove Bella's OBGYN to distraction, the poor woman. Bella was the complete opposite – the picture of calm. She planned, practised her breathing, and shopped for baby clothes, changing mats and all the other necessary paraphernalia associated with very little people.
The day Bella told me we were expecting was one of the best of my life – I was nearing the end of my residency and although we'd had our share of ups and downs, we worked through them and our relationship was stronger than ever. I got home after a gruelling 72h shift and was greeted by the smell of enchiladas and the sight of Bella singing and dancing along to the radio. I couldn't help but smile. I'd showered and changed at the hospital so was feeling more human than at the end of most shifts. I crept up behind her and put my arms around her waist hugging her close and dancing along. It was a lovely moment even without the news that made it amazing. She yelped and jumped slightly, kissed me and wriggled out my arms, before telling me to stay where I was.
She came racing back into the kitchen from our bedroom and paused looking uncharacteristically nervous.
"Hold out your hands and close your eyes" she said.
I did so, frowning slightly and felt a light plastic pen-shaped object being put in my hands. I looked at it, then did a double take. A home pregnancy test with positive reading. I looked at the love of my life who was biting her lip and had tears brimming on her bottom eyelids. There was too much distance between us. I lunged for her and hugged her over and over again, before dropping to my knees and kissing her flat belly.
"I love you, little one." I got back to my feet and told Bella over and over again how much I loved her and how grateful I was for this incredible gift. We spent the night talking, hugging, kissing and worshipping each other. She was nervous about telling me because it wasn't planned. The timing actually couldn't be better – I was almost finished my residency and was going to be a paediatrician in private practise with one of my mentors – it meant more regular hours and limited on-call. Bella was well-established at her publishing company and would be entitled to a generous maternity package. In addition, she could easily work from home as necessary. We'd also moved into our own 3-bedroom house and had pretty much finished doing any alterations we wanted doing. If it were any other couple I'd be sick with the perfection. I know we made our siblings faintly nauseous, a fact that makes me almost unbearably smug.
I went with her for every ultrasound and check-up – we both cried the first time we saw the heart beating inside her womb. At 20 weeks we could count fingers and toes and everything was going perfectly. The bean was healthy, Bella was glowing and growing and looked even more gorgeous than normal, although she kept complaining about being fat. It didn't matter how often I told her she was gorgeous and in no way fat. We'd been arguing about which sex we were having so decided to keep it secret, much to Alice's disgust. I quote: "how do you expect me to decorate the nursery if you won't find out what you're having? How am I supposed to get monogrammed baby clothes ordered?"
My gorgeous and amazing wife started killing herself laughing and somehow spluttered out that "over her dead body would any child of hers have anything so ridiculously over-priced and pretentious as monogrammed clothes or towels and that she wanted anything to be suitable for our second child, whenever we had it". Love that woman. Pregnancy agreed with her. She had some sickness and tiredness, but nothing beyond normal. I was in awe. Despite my neuroses, I loved seeing Bella pregnant and blooming as our child grew inside her.
As the time came nearer, Bella began to be noticeably more nervous but also doing the stereotypical emotional and nesting things – washing baby clothes, organising and reorganising drawers, making sure the nursery was as she wanted it.
Bella's (and Bean's) due date came and went. Bella was hot, flustered and frustrated. She was most definitely fed-up with pregnancy. I did what I could – rubbing her feet, ankles and lower back, constant reassurances, and generally refusing to let her do anything. She was about to kill me to stop with the 'hovering', as she phrased it.
Finally, Bella went into labour – 9 days after her due date. There was s slight scare when Bella's blood pressure rocketed, but fortunately she was already in the transition phase and it dropped back down within an hour once she'd given birth. I hated watching Bella in so much pain, but being there for the process, feeding her ice chips, letting her mangle my hands and being able to cut the cord was a magical experience I'll never forget.
Twelve hours after Bella went into labour, I cried the first time I held my child and walked him over to Bella. I gave her our baby and said "you win, we have a gorgeous wee man. Thank you so much, Mamma".
Bella held our boy and was crying as she said "hi, little man. Welcome to the world".
She gave him his first feed and settled him to sleep. I'd never seen anything so beautiful – Bella was still crying on and off, but otherwise looked so serene, like she was meant for motherhood. I saw them both calm and resting before I reluctantly left to call the masses – I didn't want to let either of them out my sight. We'd decided not to tell anyone that he's arrived until he was here and resting – less stressful for all of us. That didn't entirely work out – when Alice couldn't get through on either of our mobile phones she made the assumption that we were in hospital and did the ring round. I walked into the waiting room to find our families already waiting for us so we'd only have to ring Renee later. They quietly trooped into Bella's room and Bella looked up and tearfully smiled.
"We'd like to introduce Matthew Caleb Cullen, 8lb 12oz, 21" long".
Alice started jumping, Esme sighed and smiled and everyone was generally happy. Matthew stayed asleep for the hand me rounds and they left when the nurse kicked them out. It was lovely. I was really glad we didn't know they were in the waiting room though.
Review? Pretty please with Edward on top?
