Chapter 7: It's almost time
Carter and Abby got to the hospital and went straight up to OB. Dr. Stevens admitted Abby got her into a room and hooked up on a fetal monitor so that they could monitor the contractions. It was 3:30 on February 24th when the whole process began. Carter was doing a half pacing half sitting routine, nervous and worried he didn't know how to handle what he was feeling right now.
"John sit down," Abby said from the bed as she watching him pacing again, his restlessness was not doing much for her disposition right now. She knew he was worried she was too a little bit but there wasn't a whole lot that either one of them could do about it right now.
"You need anything, want anything?" He asked moving back beside the bed as he sat down in the chair there. Sitting wasn't what he wanted to be doing.
"I'm fine; just relax a little would you please." She said, "everything is going to be fine." She added that more for her benefit than for his.
He didn't know what to say, she seemed so calm right now, but he knew that would change. "Okay." He tried his hardest to sit still and relax for her. With each passing minute watching the monitor he just couldn't sit there anymore, "I'm going to go find Dr. Stevens." He said standing up and kissing her on the head, "I'll be right back."
"John, honey please don't harass the doctor." Even with everything that was going on right now Abby had this weird unexplainable wave of calmness over her right now. She wasn't sure where it was coming from, but it seemed to her that she was handling things right now.
"I won't," he said, "I just want to know what her plan is."
"She'll come and tell us when she gets the chance." Abby said as she grimaced now as another contraction came, "give me your hand." She said as she reached for Carter's hand to hold onto to give her something to focus on while it happened. Maybe taking those Lamaze classes was about to pay off.
Carter held onto her hand as his eyes caught the monitor once again. Abby's contractions were coming at a steady pace about every five minutes or so and from the looks of it they were starting to get some steam behind them.
At about 4:30 Dr. Stevens made her way into Abby's room. "How are you doing mom?" She asked as she picked up the strip that had been printing out of the fetal monitor looking it over.
"Hanging in there." Abby replied, "how's it look?"
"Well it's looks like we've got something going on here." She said with a soft smile as she glanced over at Abby. "Baby seems to be doing okay, nice steady heartbeat."
"That's good." Abby relaxed a little more.
"We looked over all the ultrasound results, baby's lungs look good," she said looking at Abby and then at Carter, "I'm just going to do a quick exam see where we stand there."
Abby sighed, this was the part that she dreaded but hey it could very well be one of the last times she had to have it done. She situated herself in the bed and waited while the doctor did her thing.
"You're dilated to five and I'd say about seventy-five percent effaced." Dr. Stevens snapped off her gloves.
Carter looked at the doctor and then at Abby. "Can I talk to you in the hall?" He asked her still worried about Abby and the baby.
"Yes sure Dr. Carter." Dr. Stevens said, "Abby do you want an epidural?"
"Oh god yes please," She gave her a half smile with her answer. "Can I have one now?"
"I'll get anesthesiology up here and they can put one in." She patted Abby's arm, "you try and just relax get some rest."
"Easier said than done." Abby replied.
"I know." The doctor smiled back. "If you want to get up walk around until they get here that's fine too, you won't be able to get out of bed once the epidural's in."
"I know," Abby answered, "I might do that."
Carter had walked out into the hall waiting for her, he was concerned about all of this but they seemed ready to let Abby have the baby even though to him it just didn't seem right, it seemed to early.
"You have concerns Dr. Carter?" Dr. Stevens asked as she walked out into the hallway with him. You could see the worry written all over Carter's face.
"Isn't it a little early for her to have the baby?" He asked no sense in beating around the bush with her.
"No," She replied, "I can understand your concerns and your worries. But I can assure you that if we thought that it was to early we would have tried and stopped it. The ultrasounds look good Carter considering everything else that is going on. Baby's lungs appear to be fully developed, mom is doing okay, baby's handling the contractions very well it should all just be a matter of time before the baby is here."
That eased Carter's mind somewhat but not really enough to make this any easier. He wasn't sure what he wanted right now, half of him wanted to be in there with Abby helping her best he could and the other half wanted to run and find a second opinion find someone who could get that baby to wait in there just a few days longer.
"I know that this is stressful right now," The doctor said as she tried her best to reassure the man who was about to become a father, "but you have to trust us right now, know that we are doing the best that we can for Abby and your child."
Carter sighed now, it was easy for her to tell him to relax, but that was the love of his life and his baby in there. Both of whom he wanted to keep with him in this world and the threat of anything going wrong, knowing everything that could go wrong just didn't make it any easier.
"Let me give you a little bit of advice." She said to him, "you need to stop thinking like a doctor right now. I know it's hard with everything that you know, all the thoughts of what could and what might go wrong, but she's in good hands. Just be supportive of her right now, help to keep her comfortable and focused. That's all you have to do right now, it's your only job. You do that and we'll do the rest."
He just shook his head, while it might have sounded like good solid advice, it was a lot harder to do that everyone thought it was. Being on the other side of the fence didn't give him that great of a feeling right now. He knew things were not in his control, and that's part of what was unsettling.
He turned and walked back into Abby's room. She had managed to get to where she was sitting with her legs dangling over the edge of the bed. "Feel like walking the Abby?" She asked him trying to keep things light right now and cracking bad jokes.
"Walk the Abby." That put a small smile on his face. "Yeah I think I can manage to walk you. But we'd been unhook you cause I am not taking all that with us." He pointed to the fetal monitor that she was attached to right now.
"I whole heartedly agree." She reached over pulling the connecting cables from the monitor, "I think you might want to hold onto these so that I don't trip."
"Ha," he let out a little laugh, "guess you do come with your own little leash."
"Oh that was mean." She said with a smile, "but yeah I guess you could say so."
Keeping things light was her way of not focusing on the potentially bad things that could happen and right now she just needed to stay relaxed.
"Okay speed let's go." He said putting his arm out, "shall we take a late afternoon stroll around this lovely department." He said with a smile, "maybe we shall raid the nurses' station for lovely snack treats."
"Look at you thinking about food, that's my man." She said with a grin as they started off down the hall. They weren't the only couple out strolling the halls but they seemed to be the only two who were cracking jokes between each other.
Abby had to stop walking every few minutes when the contractions hit but she was riding them out, trying to be a trooper for everyone. She just wished now that the epidural man would get there so she could have some relief from the intense pain; it was growing with each contraction.
"You want to head back to the room?" Carter asked Abby looked like she was starting to tire out from the walk they had been taking.
"Yeah I think that might be a good idea."
"Alright my dear." Carter said as they started back for her room. It took them a few minutes to get there. "Want a hand getting up into the bed?"
"Actually I think I need to use the bathroom first." She said sighing, it wasn't going to be an easy task for her with the monitor connections and everything attached to her.
"Okay."
Well thank god he didn't ask if she needed help with that one. Abby slipped inside the little bathroom in there to do her business as Carter waited by the bedside to help her get back into bed.
Once she was settled back in they continued to wait Carter held her hand and then rubbed her back where it was sore, trying to do the little things that he could to help make her comfortable, focusing on Abby seemed to make things a little easier than they had been.
Abby was happy to see the epidural man when he came into the room, once it was in place and the pain eased up a little bit she might be able to get some sleep. It took him a little while to get it in but once it was in, Abby was a much happier camper.
"Why don't you pull the bed out there and try and take a nap Carter." Abby said curled up on her side now her eyes heavy, the pain of the contraction had let up. She could still feel them but they didn't hurt like they had been. "I think that's what I am going to do for a little bit."
Carter pulled the small bed out, turning the chair in there into a place where he could cat nap. Glancing up at the clock it was now a little bit after midnight. They could both use some rest and he knew that they would wake him up if something happened.