A/N: Aaaand, another chapter out of the way. I spent a little more time trying to get this out because I felt guilty that AlwaysMitchsen was actually sitting and waiting for the update and I was a jerk and took forever to update the last chapter (my words, not theirs). Soooo…here it is…time for a baby! And just an FYI … nine minutes can actually feel like an eternity.
Thanks to the lovely reviewers, they made for a nice ending to a stressful week and I'm hoping that this next week isn't quite as stressful (but I'm not counting on it) before things can get back to a little more normal.
Disclaimer: I don't have anything to do with the actual Pitch Perfect, I just write junk for free.
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The girls were up bright and early the next morning and were checked in and waiting for Dr. Monroe by 8 a.m. The doctor came bouncing in (yes, actually bouncing; was she related to Chloe or something?) around 15 minutes later. She glanced at Stacie's chart and decided to tease her a little, "Stacie Mitchell, hmmm? Seems someone's been busy since their last appointment."
Stacie beamed and held up her wedding band, "Yup, someone made an honest woman out of me."
The doctor smiled, "Well congratulations you two. Now, should we get this party started?"
Stacie nodded, "Let's do this."
The doctor turned and said something to the nurse that they couldn't make out before coming over and palpating Stacie's stomach. When she finished she smiled, "She's already turned and dropped some, so looks like we're good to go."
The nurse held a tray towards the doctor who picked up a needle and slid it into the port on the I.V., "Alright, this is just some prostaglandin to help with the dilation of your cervix." Then she picked up a second I.V. bag as she explained, "And this is Pitocin to start your contractions. We'll start with a small dose and work our way up until we find the level you need to deliver your baby."
Stacie nodded along with the doctor's explanation. When Dr. Monroe paused and looked at Stacie, Stacie asked, "About how long do you think it's going to take?"
Dr. Monroe gave a little shrug, "Unfortunately every case is different. It could be a couple of hours or it could be tomorrow."
Stacie looked at Beca with a frown, "Great."
Dr. Monroe gave her leg a pat through the sheet, "You're going to be just fine Stacie. If the pain gets to be too much we can put an epidural in for you."
Stacie nodded, "We'll see. I was hoping to do this without one."
Dr. Monroe checked over the chart one last time, making sure everything was up to date. When she was satisfied she gave herself a small nod before turning her attention back to Stacie, "Well, contractions from induction can be a little more severe than natural ones, so please let the nurse know if you change your mind."
Beca squeezed her hand, "I'll make sure she does." Dr. Monroe smiled at the two girls before putting the chart back in the slot on the end of the bed and heading out on the rest of her rounds.
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The contractions started getting painful around 2 p.m. and by 4 p.m. Stacie had really had enough of them. Dr. Monroe came by periodically and when she did her exam at 4 p.m. Stacie had only progressed to about 40% effacement and 2.5 cm dilation. Dr. Monroe frowned at Stacie's chart prompting Beca to ask, "Is everything alright doc?"
Dr. Monroe snapped herself out of her thoughts at the question, looking up at Beca and then over to Stacie, "Yes, everything is fine. It's just progressing a lot slower than I'd like. She's not even half way there and I was hoping for at least 100% effacement by this time." She noted something on the chart before turning to Stacie, "How's the pain doing?"
A cramp picked that moment to hit, Stacie's fingers tightening on Beca's hand, making the smaller girl wince. As she breathed through the contraction, Beca gave a weak smile to the doctor, "They've been like this for a couple of hours."
Stacie was panting slightly as the contraction finished, "An epidural would be nice about now."
Beca looked at her and squeezed her hand lightly, "Stace, are you sure you can't hold out a little longer? I'm not positive but what I read said that the epidural could prolong labor, especially induced labor and I've read a lot about them 'failing' on people when they've been in a while." Stacie frowned at her rambling but Beca's pleading look convinced her to hold off for a little bit.
Stacie looked back up at the doctor, "I'll try and make it a couple more hours, but please let the anesthesiologist know I'll be wanting one a little later."
Dr. Monroe smiled at her, "I'll schedule one for 6 p.m. and if you need it sooner, make sure to let the nurse know."
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They broke Stacie's water at 8 a.m. the next morning to try to help speed up the process more. Dr. Monroe was starting to think that they were going to have to deliver the baby via c-section, especially if breaking Stacie's water didn't really speed up the progression. At 3 p.m., Stacie's progression had stalled at 90% effaced and 6.5 cm dilation.
Dr. Monroe pulled herself out from under the sheet that covered Stacie's privates for the exam with a sigh. She double checked the chart and then looked at the two women, "Well Stacie, I think we're going to have to do this the hard way. I'm going to set up a room for 5 o'clock and if you haven't made reasonable progress by then, we'll just go in and take her out ourselves." She finished with a teasing smile.
Stacie just nodded. The epidural helped with the pain, but she still felt the pressure of each contraction and her muscles were getting tired. Beca walked over to the doctor, "She's going to be fine though, right doc?"
Dr. Monroe gave Beca's arm a reassuring pat, "Of course, this happens more than you'd think. It's just a straight forward c-section, we do them all the time."
Beca breathed out the breath she didn't realize she had been holding, "Alright, thanks doc."
Dr. Monroe gave her arm another pat, "No problem Beca."
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They rolled Stacie into the delivery room at 5:20 p.m. and transferred her to the operating table. Beca stood next to her holding her hand as they got everything ready for the c-section operation. Luckily, because Stacie already had the epidural in, she wouldn't need any additional anesthetic. Even so, the anesthesiologist went about his work, checking the epidural drip and making sure Stacie was feeling alright.
Dr. Monroe asked Beca if she wanted a cloth partition up so she didn't see the incision. Beca thought for a moment and then responded, "Well I'd like to cut the cord if that's possible, so I'll probably be seeing something anyway. So I don't think you need to put anything up."
Dr. Monroe nodded and after a last check, took the scalpel off the tray and drew a light incision across Stacie's stomach. Stacie let out a pained gasp, "Owww, am I supposed to feel that?"
The doctor looked up at Stacie and you could see the edges of her mask lift up with her smile, "You should expect to feel some pressure instead of pain."
Stacie mumbled so only I could hear, "That felt a lot more like pain than pressure."
The doctor made a much deeper cut with the second pass of the scalpel and Stacie hissed and then cried out in pain. The doctor suddenly looked up at her with concern, "How bad did that hurt?"
Stacie had tears flowing down the sides of her face as she growled, "Fuck that hurt."
Dr. Monroe looked up at the anesthesiologist and an unspoken conversation happened within that glace because he started moving quickly. The doctor snapped something at a nurse, which Beca quickly realized was, "Get her out, NOW!"
Beca was quickly ushered out of the delivery room as she turned back to watch the anesthesiologist inject something into Stacie's I.V. drip and then rest a mask over her mouth and nose. Beca went to go back to her wife but the nurse kept a firm hand on her side, guiding her out of the room. When the door closed behind them, Beca started to panic, but the nurse calmly explained, "As soon as your wife started feeling pain we realized the epidural had failed for some reason. That made us have to classify it as 'emergency surgery' because she needed to have traditional anesthetics administered. There's nothing wrong, you just can't be in the room for the delivery."
Beca nodded numbly, realizing that things just got messed up and she couldn't see what was happening. The nurse gave her a reassuring pat on the arm as she walked back into the room, Beca catching a glimpse of Dr. Monroe bent over her wife. Beca felt like the walls were closing in on her, she couldn't lose Stacie or the baby, not when they just came into her life. Fuck! This wasn't fair.
Beca paced the hallway outside the operating room in her scrubs, the booties swishing along the floor because she was just too nervous to actually pick her feet up. Nine minutes, five hundred and forty seconds; it feels like an eternity when you don't know what is happening to your wife and baby. Nine minutes of pacing; stopping and staring at the door to the operating room each time Beca passed in front of it, willing someone to come out and let you know everything was alright. Nine minutes after Beca was unceremoniously removed from the operating room she stopped pacing as the most glorious sound she had ever heard came from behind those doors. Nine minutes after being forced to leave her wife's side she heard her daughter cry for the first time and she stopped pacing as tears of relief left tracks down her cheeks.
Suddenly the door to the operating room opened and the same nurse that led her out motioned her to come back in. She whispered to Beca as she pointed to a table at the side of the room, "Mommy is doing fine, they are closing her up right now and will take her back to the room when she's awake from the anesthesia; but I think someone is waiting to meet you over here."
There were two nurses already at the table when they were joined by the nurse that brought Beca in. They were wiping down this precious bundle, moving her arms and legs, doing something with her hands and feet and then they were wrapping her up in a little pink blanket. Beca watched everything with awe in her eyes and then suddenly got very nervous as the nurse walked over to her, holding the little wrapped bundle out to her.
Beca looked up at the nurse with a little fear in her eyes, but the nurse just smiled and held the baby out to her. Beca carefully put one hand behind the baby's neck and then slipped her other hand under her bottom. Then instinct took over and she brought the baby close to her breast and snuggled her in her arms. She started rocking back and forth as she looked into her daughter's eyes, a huge smile plastered on her face.
She brought a finger up to caress a soft cheek as she started talking to her, "Well it's about time we got to meet you. Sorry your other mommy isn't here right now but you were kind of rough on her. She's going to have to recuperate a bit before she can see you. Would you like to know your name little one?" Beca waited just a second and the baby seemed to give a small gurgle, indicating that she would indeed, like to know her name. Beca laughed lightly, moving her finger to the baby's hands, feeling the tiny fingers trying to grab hers. She sighed, "Well, we finally decided on Isabella Susanna Mitchell."
The nurse came over and waited until Beca stopped to look up at her. She looked apologetic as she said, "I'm sorry but I'm going to have to take her again. We need to head to the nursery and finish up her examination. You are more than welcome to come along and watch and hold her when she's between tests."
Beca quickly nodded as she handed her little angel to the nurse. The nurse gave her a knowing smile back and headed out to the nursery. Beca took a quick glance over her shoulder at her wife. She noticed the anesthesiologist talking at Stacie, trying to bring her out of the anesthetics. Beca took one last look and followed the nurse to the nursery.
Beca watched as they weighed and measured Isabella; smiling as the little girl fussed a little when they put some drops in her eyes. Beca asked what it was and the nurse explained that it was a little silver nitrate solution to help prevent infections. Beca thought she should try to remember that because Stacie might find that interesting (Beca seemed to remember something about silver nitrate being mentioned one day when Stacie had come home looking like she had contracted some disease with black spot all over her hands). Then one nurse came over and had her start doing some of the paperwork for the birth certificate. She smiled at the information; her little girl. She wrote down her name, Isabella Susanna Mitchell and then sighed, reading the rest; her daughter was born at 5:55 p.m. and weighed 9 lbs 15 oz and measured 21.5 inches (Stacie being the dork scientist she was would probably go around telling everyone that she was 4.5 kg and 54.6 cm just to annoy Beca with that damn metric system).
The nurses finally finished their exam and as the nurse pushed the portable bassinet holding little Isabella to Stacie's room she explained that they had taken a little longer than normal to give the mother a little extra time to come out of the anesthesia. They got to the room and Beca stopped in the doorway to take in the sight of her beautiful wife. Stacie was sitting up and looking a little anxious, but her face lit up like it was Christmas when her eyes locked with Beca's. She whispered, "How is she?"
Beca just stopped the nurse and picked their little girl up, quickly moving to the side of the bed and cuddling Isabella to her chest, turning her so that her momma could look at her for the first time. Stacie reached out carefully, two fingers lightly brushing over Isabella's face while tears glistened in her eyes, "She's so beautiful."
Beca nodded, "You did good baby. I think it's about time this little one was held by her Momma, don't you?"
Stacie just nodded enthusiastically as the tears flipped off her cheeks. Beca let Stacie take their little girl and Stacie instinctively nestled the little girl into the crook of her arm, leaning over her with pure love and adoration in her eyes. Beca nudged Stacie's hip, causing the taller girl to shift over slightly on the bed without moving her eyes away from the little bundle in her arms. Beca's expression turned into a soft, loving smile as she slid her hip up onto the bed and slid her arm around Stacie, her head resting on her shoulder as she looked down in awe at the two girls that were her life.
