Chapter 14
September finally made an appearance. Which means, means I'm two weeks from my due day. Over the last few weeks, Callie and I have been getting things around to prepare for the baby's arrival. It's definitely been a busy one for us.
I now find my self sitting on my bed with Teddy, watching a movie. We had a fairly busy day today, between working on the baby's room, getting the final touches done before having to deliver. I also spent a of my time, rearranging our living room furniture, which was normal for women to do in their last month. Teddy thinks that I had over done it today, because the last couple hours, I've been cramping off and on. So help relax my cramping muscles, Teddy decided that we should kick back, relax and have a movie night. Plus since I'm getting closer to delivery time, she thought that watching a movie would help me get my mind off the birth. Which has been scaring the shit out of me, as the days got closer. So here we are, trying to watch a movie, but I just couldn't get comfortable enough to watch.
"Good fucking God." I groan, changing positions once more.
"Dude, stop moving, Teddy snaps.
"I can't help it Teddy, I haven been trying to get comfortable the last 20 minutes. No matter how I sit, I can't get comfortable. This baby really needs to hurry up and get here. I want him out already." I growl. Shifting positions once more.
"Give it time, Arizona. She still has two weeks left. He will be here when she's ready."
"He should be ready now." My voice coming out a little whiny. "He literally dropped into position two weeks ago. What the fuck is taking him so long."
"She will be here when she's ready, Zo. Chill out. God, glad I'm only three months along right now, you've been so whiny lately. and you look like you're uncomfortable." She laughs.
"I am fucking uncomfortable." Changing positions again, "And It shouldn't be up to him. He's not that one who has to deal with getting kicked in the ribs or dealing with the puking every hour on the dot. I swear, my morning sickness has lasted this entire pregnancy. I have been puking since day one. Dr. Capshaw said it would go away, but it hasn't. Pisses me off."
Teddy couldn't help but laugh.
"It's not fucking funny, Teddy. It's awful and it fucking hurts getting kicked in the ribs. I'm so fucking uncomfortable, I can't sleep anymore. It's like he has radar. Everytime I go to fall asleep, he starts wiggling around or kicking at my ribs. Oh yeah, and the other day, when Callie and I were hanging out, he literally lodged himself up into my ribs. It hurt so bad that Callie thought I was in labor just because of the way I was breathing."
"Part of being pregnant, Arizona. Just going to have to deal until he makes his arrival. Now shut up and watch this movie?"
"Oh screw the fucking movie. Besides, I hate horror movies. I hate you for making me watch this." I say crossing my arms.
"Oh Stop pouting." She tells me. "Besides, Michael Myers is the best."
"Shut up." I growl. "You're not the one who's fucking uncomfortable. and fuck Michael Myers."
"No, but still..." She giggles. "Did Callie say when she was coming over?"
"Yeah, I talked to her earlier. She said she will be over tomorrow morning. She apologized for not coming today. She doesn't want to come over now, because of how late it is."
"Everything good between you two? and it's not that late. It's only.." Teddy looked over at the clock. "It's only 8:45."
"Yeah, I know. But to Callie, that's late. and it's been ok. I guess. We have been trying to work through it."
"Good. I'm glad. I'm glad to see that you're making an effort, despite the fact that you still like to chew her head off every chance you get. But glad some conversations are civil between you two."
"Yeah..yeah." I say, shifting my position once more.
"So, any names for the baby yet?" She asks, changing the subject. She placed a pillow behind my back to see if it would help me get comfortable.
"Thanks. and Yeah, a couple."
"Oh I want to know." It seems that Teddy's more excited about the baby coming than I am. I mean don't get me wrong, in some ways I am, but I really didn't want a kid at 19. I wanted to get through college first before having any. But as Teddy's said, god works in mysterious ways.
"The best one that comes to mind is crouch goblin." I snark sarcastically. Teddy let's out a laugh.
"You can't call her that." She says. I still don't have any idea what the baby will be yet. With everything that I went through, and the emotions I delt wiht, I didn't really want to know. Teddy thinks I'm having a girl, so she's always calling the baby 'she.' I on the other hand, think it's going to be a boy, so I'm always saying he.
"Why not? He's my baby. and he would be making his way out through my vagina." I tell her. I was about to say something else, before I felt something pop within me. My eyes grew wide when I felt a lot wetness between my legs. "Oh fuck."
"What? what's..." before she could finish her sentence, Teddy jumped off the bed. "What the fuck? Why is the bed all wet?"
I turned my head to face her, and just gave her a blank stare.
"Arizona, what's wrong?"
"My water just broke." I tell her. My voice came out shaky. I'm so not ready for this.
"Ok, umm..don't panic, we will get you to the hospital. Have you felt any contractions?"
"Not Ye.." before I got my words out, a small contraction creeped up on me. "Ohhh." Even though it was slight, it still kind of hurt. I'm now kind of wondering if those cramps I had feeling earlier, were actually really light contractions.
"What? Was it a contraction." I shook my head.
"Ok, let me go get Tim. I'll be right.."
"No, don't leave." I ordered, cutting her off. Even though the contraction was small, I still felt scare to be by myself now that labor has actually started. "I'm scared." Teddy came over to the side of the bed I was sitting on.
"I got you." She tells me. "Tim! Are you able to move?"
"Yeah, give me a minute. Just waiting for this contraction to pass." I say as I exhale.
A moment later, Tim enters the room.
"Why are you shouting?" he asks.
"Arizona is in labor, babe. Her water just broke a couple minutes ago."
"Ok, What can I do to help?"
"Just go get the car." Teddy says.
"Yeah, right. The car." He says as he ran out of the room.
"You ok now?" She asks me.
I exhale again before answering. "Yeah. I think so." I grabbed a hold of Teddy's hand for support.
"I got you, I'm right here. Tim went to get the car."
"Tim, you better get this fucking car moving." I scream as another contraction starts to rip through my body. The contractions are now more harsher than the ones I was feeling at the house. "and Please try not to fucking wreck us either." when I noticed he was weaving in and out of Seattle's down town traffic.
"I'm going as fast as I can, Zo." He turns to look at me, "Breathe in, breathe out."
"Turn around and watch the fucking road." I barked. "God, this hurts."
"I know, Sweetie. Just hang in there, were almost there." She says running her hand through my sweaty hair.
After what seemed like forever, we finally made it to the hospital. Once we arrived, the nurses at the front desk hustled around to get me checked in. It didn't take all that long for them to get me into a room. The other nurses that were signed to my case, moved fairly quickly to get me hooked up to a monitor and an I.V. The contractions started to come every five minutes. The pain was definitely picking up.
"Ah, Arizona, I wasn't expecting you for another two weeks." Dr. Capshaw says as she entered my room.
"Yeah, well my little leech had other plans." I say.
"I'm going to check your dilation really quick. Can you open your legs up for me?"
"Yeah." I tell her, widening my legs enough so she could check me.
"Alright, you are actually at 5 c.m. right now."
"I'm dilated to 5? I only been here maybe a half hour."
"Were you feeling any contractions earlier on in the day?"
"No. Just cramps is all."
"Well then, there ya go. The cramps is how labor starts out, then as it progresses, they turn more into contractions, and hurt way worse."
"Oh joy." Teddy just threw her head back and laughed at my enthusiasm.
"I will be back in an hour to check on you. I have four other laboring Moms to check on as well. So just hang in there, it will all be over here within the next few hours. Hopefully. I'd tried to rest up if you could. You're going to be exhausted by the end of the night." She turns and leaves the room. I threw my head back onto my pillow and sighed. Oh this is going to be a long night.
"When is Dr. Capshaw going to come back and check me?" I ask Teddy. It's been an hour since I was last checked, I have been getting antsy and wondering how how I'm progressing.
"She should be back in soon hun." Just about that time, the Dr. came back in to check my progress.
"Well you made it to 7 cm, that's good. Means you only have three more to go. I'd say in the next 3 hours you should be well on your way to delivering." She says snapping off her gloves.
"Good, I'm ready for this to end." I turned my head to look at Teddy, "Could you call Callie. I'd like her to be close by in case I need her."
"Yeah, of course. I will go to that now. Try to get some rest."
"I would if these contractions would stop coming so fast."
It's been another hours since I was last checked and just as I was about to fall asleep, another contraction rips right threw me. This one was even worse.
"Oh my god this hurts." I say, trying to breathe through the pain.
"I know sweetie, just breathe, okay." I do my best not to think about the pain, but no matter how hard I tried, nothing helped.
"How we doing in here?" the Dr. asks walking into the room.
"Fanfuckingtastic." I say through gritted teeth.
"Ok, Arizona, I'm going to check you to see how much progress you have made."
"Ok." I say after the contraction came to a stop. I opened my legs so she could check my dialation.
"Alright, you still at 7 cm. So it maybe another hour or so. Give or take."
"Are you fucking kidding? I've been at 7cm for the last fucking hour. He needs to hurry up."
"He will, Arizona. Just relax." Teddy says sitting beside me. Doing what she can to show her support, but with the pain ripping through my body every few minutes now, it's making it really hard for me to relax.
"Teddy, shut up please. Stop telling me to fucking relax. You're not the one who's laying in this bed, in fucking pain."
Twenty minutes later, I start to feel a lot of pressure down there. I smack Teddy's hand to get her attention.
"What? What's wrong?" she asks, her voice sounding very concerned.
"Oh god." I cry grabbing the rails of my hospital bed "Teddy, call the Dr. please." I say between each breath. I'm officially starting to panic. I did my best to breathe through the pain, but I couldn't.
"Why? Everything ok?"
"I feel like I have to fucking push, so if you could, please stop questioning me and push the fucking button already." I growl. "Oh my god, this hurts so fucking bad." I scream. Teddy reached over to push the call button. "I need an epidural, can I get an epidural?"
"Let's just wait and see what Dr. Capshaw says, Ok?" She says, rubbing my arm.
"Everything ok?" Dr. asks walking into the room a moment later.
"I'm feeling a lot of pressure. Its feel like I need to push. Can I push? I really have to push, please let me push." I say with tears in my eyes.
"No, No. Don't push. Let me check you really quick."
"Can I at least get an epidural?" I ask.
"Hang on. Give me a minute. I need you to open your legs for me a little bit, can you do that?"
I nodded. I tried to open my legs a little more. but with all the pressure I was feeling, made it hard for me to keep them open.
"Ow..ow..ow." I cry. "Please..just let me push already."
"Not yet. Arizona. I need to check, but in order to do that I need you to keep your legs open for me. Teddy, can you help keep her legs open so I can check her."
"Please just hurry up and check me already. I can't take this pain much longer." I was clenching the bed rails so hard now, my knuckles started to turn white. After checking my progress, Dr. Capshaw finally said the most famous words. "Alright, Arizona, you are now at 10 cm. So we are going to get everything set up for delivery." My heart started to race. I felt like it was about to beat right out of my chest. "I'll be right back."
"Wait..Can I get an epidural first?"
"I'm sorry, honey, but it's way too late for that." She says, leaving the room to inform the nurses that it was time to deliver.
I was finally dilated to 10 cm, but the thought of delivering naturally scared the shit out of me. "Teddy, I'm really scared." I admitted, turning my attention to her. "I don't know if I can do this."
"Yes you can. You've got this." she says, trying to sooth me.
" No, I can't. Callie. Where's Callie. I need Callie, Please go get her for me. I really need her here."
"Yeah..Ok. Ok." She says standing up, "I'll go get her."
Five minutes later, both Teddy and Callie entered the room. Callie rushed over to me and grabbed ahold of my hand.
"Hey, I'm here. I'm here." She says, stroking my hair.
I looked deep into her beautiful brown eyes, "It hurts Callie. It really hurts. I don't know if I can do this...ow." I cry out. Callie bent down and nuzzled her nose into my hair.
"I got you, Arizona. You're not going to do this alone. I'll be right here the entire time."
"I'll give you two the room." Teddy says as she excuses herself.
"Callie, I really need to push."
"We need to wait for Dr. Capshaw to come back in. She should be back in soon."
After the Dr. got everything all set up, it was finally time to start pushing.
"Ok, Arizona ready to deliver this baby?"
"Fuck Yes." I say through gritted teeth.
"Ok. So what you will need to do is, on the next contraction, put your chin to your chest, and push. ok. Can you do that?"
I nodded my confirmation. A minute later, another painful contraction rips through my body, so doing what Dr. Capshaw had told me to do, I put my chin to my chest and pushed as hard as I could. "Yes..Yes..that's it. Again. Push again." "Ahhh.." I screamed as I gave her another hard push.
"Ok, baby's head is crowning, give me another one." I hear her say. I gave her another hard push.
"GEEETTTT HHHIIIMMM OOOUUTTT!" I shout.
"Alright, thatta good girl." She shouted. "Ok, hold Arizona, I need you to stop a minute ok. Baby's head is finally out. Can I get suction please?" I laid back for a minute so she could suction out the baby's lungs. I already felt tired after several pushes.
"You are doing an amazing job, Arizona." Callie says, running her hand through my matted hair.
"Alright, Arizona, baby's lungs are all clean, you ready to give me a few more pushes?"
"No. I'm too tired." I state.
"I know you're tired, hun, but I need just a couple more pushes, then you will have a beautiful baby. Ok, ready?"
"uummmHmmm.." I hum.
"Alright, and... push." I leaned forward once more and pushed through the pain. "Yes, that's it, that's it. Last push, come one. You got it."
"You got this babe, come one." I hear Callie coach. After another push, my baby's cry fills the room.
"Good Job, Arizona. You did it. You now have a beautiful son. Congratulations." I lay back as she lays the newborn across my chest. Then the nurses took him from me so they can get his weight and length.
Callie leaned down to whisper in my ear. "You did an amazing job, Arizona. I'm so proud of you."
"Thanks." I whisper back. "My fucking god, that hurt."
Callie let out a chuckle.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to put you through this." She says apologetically.
"It's fine. I can honestly say, it was worth it. I mean look what we got out of it. We got a beautiful baby boy."
"That we did." She says, smiling. "I'm going to go see our boy." She walked over to the baby warmer to get a closer look at our son. After the nurses cleaned up the newborn, took his weight and length, they wrapped him up and laid him in Callie's arms. I couldn't help but smile. Watching her with him, made my heart skip a beat.
""Hey buddy, it's Mama. Oh, yea, you're just so handsome. Yes, you are. Want to go see Mommy. Come on. We'll go see Mommy. God, he's so beautiful." she says, bringing him over to me. She laid him gently in my arms.
"Oh, yeah. He is definitely beautiful." I say, agreeing with Callie.
"So.." Callie says, "Does our son have a name?"
Looking at the bundle of joy in my arms, then looking up at Callie, I finally answer….