By one in the afternoon Molly's contractions had progressed to 30 second contractions, 20 minutes apart. They had already watched three movies and were tired of sitting in bed, so they moved into the living room
Martin was sitting cross-legged on the couch drinking coffee while Molly paced in circles around the living room, her hands on her lower back. Martin wasn't moving, just his eyes followed Molly around the room. She stopped and leaned on the bookcase for support as another contraction hit her. She groaned through the pain and stayed where she was standing for a bit after the contraction had faded.
"Are you alright?" Martin asked tentatively.
"No I'm not fucking alright, I'm in pain." Molly snapped. She looked shocked at the words that came out of her mouth as if she hadn't even been aware that she was speaking them. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."
"I know. What can I do?" He felt so helpless in all of this. He had already done his part in the process by making her pregnant, and now he just had to sit there and watch the love of his life suffer because of it. He felt absolutely terrible.
"I don't know. There's nothing we can really do. This is supposed to get worse, not better, you know." She said with a small smile.
"Why don't we take a bath? It might be nice and relaxing." Martin suggested. Molly thought about it for a second before nodding.
Martin filled the tub with water that was just above room temperature and lit some candles for good measure. If you're going to do relaxing you should do it right, he thought to himself.
They climbed into the tub and cuddled for a while, Molly sitting between Martin's legs and leaning on his chest. He held her as the contractions grew stronger and more painful, and talked her through them.
For the remainder of the afternoon they alternated between walking around the flat, curled together on the couch or bed, and the bathtub as the contractions grew steadily stronger and longer. By 7:00 in the evening it was finally time to go to the hospital, with contractions one minute long, four minutes apart, and had been that way for just shy of an hour.
When they arrived at the maternity ward the nurses whisked Molly off for a few tests and to get her changed into her gown. Once the two of them had settled into their birthing room, with Molly hooked up to fetal monitors, it was another game of hurry up and wait.
It didn't take long for their family to get there. They had decided put off calling them earlier in the day because they didn't want them hanging around the flat or constantly calling them when there would be no new news. But Martin had called them on their way to the hospital, and true to her word, Barbara had a video camera when Martin greeted them in the hallway. She shoved it in his face before he could even say hello.
"Well, how are things going?" she asked.
"Things are going good, I guess. She's been in labour for 15 hours now and the midwife says that she is 7 cm dilated, so there's still a bit of a wait." He replied, side-eyeing the camcorder. He wasn't sure this was going to be a video they would enjoy watching at a later date.
"Can we go see her?" Shannon asked.
"Yeah, come on in."
They all traipsed into the room, and the women rushed to the bed, where Molly was currently resting. Martin hung back as he watched her greet their family. She was smiling, but Martin could see the exhaustion behind her eyes. He couldn't stop worrying about her, wishing he could make the pain go away. Martin's father glanced over at him.
"You alright, buddy?" Frank asked, coming over to sit with him against the back wall. Martin smiled at the childhood moniker and leaned into his father's side, needing the parental reassurance.
"I'm exhausted, and I'm not even the one dealing with all of that." He said, gesturing in the general direction of his wife.
"You'll be alright, don't worry." Frank said, putting his arm around Martin's shoulders and giving him a squeeze.
"I believe you. But I'm not the one I'm worried about."
"Molly will be fine. Women have been doing this since the dawn of man. She's healthy and young, and there are no complications. Things will be absolutely fine."
"Thanks Dad." He rested his head on his father's shoulder for a moment. Their moment was broken by the sound of a camera shutter. Looking up, Martin saw Jenn pointing a camera at them. He was about to say something, when Molly began to groan from the bed. Before he even knew what was happening he was by her side, holding her hand and brushing her hair back from her face. He pet her hair and murmured encouraging things to her as she moaned through the contraction. As the contractions got stronger, her moans became loader. She squeezed Martin's hand until it hurt, but he didn't say anything. He would take any pain right now, as long as it took that pain away from her.
It took Molly another three hours to become completely dilated, and in that time she had sat on a pilates ball to stretch her pelvis, taken a shower and let the warm water beat on her back, sat in bed with Martin behind her massaging her lower back, and she had walked in circles around the room. Various family members came in and out, usually passing the time in the waiting room where the children could be a little bit more rambunctious.
Molly's contractions continued to get stronger and stronger until she could no longer do anything except moan in pain and misery throughout them. Martin often held Molly through the pain, not making a sound when she squeezed his hand too hard, or bit his shoulder to muffle the sound. Her moans just tore through Martin and it felt like his heart was breaking every time. Eventually, while Molly was dozing between contractions, he had to leave the room and just take a breather in the waiting room. Seeing the look on his face, Nathan bought him a coffee and took him for a walk outside. It was late and the world was dark, but the fresh air felt good on Martin's face.
"How are you holding up?" Nathan asked.
"How does it look like I'm holding up?"
"Not good."
"I just want to make it better, but I can't, Nate. Seeing her in so much pain is killing me." He was getting himself a bit worked up now, and tears started to fall down his cheeks without him even realizing it.
"Hey, calm down, buddy." Nathan said, pulling his little brother into a hug. "Nothing is going wrong, everything is happening just like it should be. There's nothing to worry about." He said softly.
In truth Nathan was worried, but he was worried about Martin. If he was having such a hard time just watching Molly have contractions, he didn't know how Martin would react when Molly finally started pushing.
As if on cue, Alice ran out of the hospital, spotted them and waved them back over.
"She's about to start pushing, come on!" she called out. Martin's head whipped around to stare at her for half a second before he was sprinting back into the hospital.
He threw the door to Molly's room open with a bang and was by her side in a second.
"Where'd you go?" she asked. She sounded exhausted.
"Just needed some fresh air. Are you okay?" he asked, smoothing her sweaty hair out of her face.
"I'm alright. I just really want to push, but I have to wait for them to tell me when." She groaned, leaning her head back on his arm. "Oh I really want to push!" Martin looked around the room and saw the midwife and nurses gathering some supplies in the corner. They definitely looked like they were about to get the ball rolling.
Their parents came into the room behind Martin at a more sedate pace. They looked excited, and Barb had her camcorder out again. She had been interviewing everybody all evening, as if she was going to edit it into a documentary.
Looking back on the day, Martin was glad for the video because he didn't remember much from that point on. He remembered a lot of pained shouts and grunts from Molly. He remembered Molly squeezing his hand and arm until he lost circulation. A few days later he even found finger bruises on his bicep. One thing he would never ever forget was Molly screaming that he was never allowed to touch her again. He remembered it taking a long long time, as well. But he didn't remember much else.
However, when that little baby girl was finally born an hour later and placed screaming in Molly's arms the both of them were in tears. Molly didn't get to hold her long before she was whisked away for cleaning, tests, and measurements. Molly looked up at Martin, who was unabashedly sobbing next to her. She pulled him down for a kiss.
"She has your hair." She said. And it was true. That tiny baby had more red hair than she could possibly know what to do with. This caused Martin to sob even harder.
"You did such a good job, Molls." Martin said through the tears. They kissed again, because there was no other way to express the emotions they were both feeling.
It took a while for things to calm down but eventually the new family was left on their own to bond and catch their breath. After counting all of her toes and fingers, Martin and Molly were both cuddled on the bed, with their daughter between them. They didn't speak much, but occasionally one of them would throw out a name idea.
"Elizabeth?"
"No, I got beat up by an Elizabeth when I was a kid. Traumatized me."
"Jane?"
"A bit boring?"
"Jessica?"
"Every little girl is named Jessica."
"Fine then, why don't you suggest one?"
"Alright. Tabatha?"
"Really?"
"Okay fine, um… Ashley?"
"What was that about every girl being named the same thing?"
"Oh whatever. How about Robyn?"
"I… actually that's pretty good."
"You think so?"
"I do. What do you think, little one? Do you like Robyn?" Molly asked, smiling at the little bundle in her arms.
The baby yawned with a squeak and cuddled closer into her mother. Her parents grinned and cuddled closer around little Robyn Melissa Crieff.
