As soon as Hiccup and Astrid were gone in Brant's squad car, Toothless, Gobber, and the rest of Dragon's Roar were loading their things up on the the bus as fast as they could in order to get to the hospital to be there for Hiccup while Astrid gave birth-if that is what was happening. Her water had broken and she was eight weeks from her expected due date: this was scary and they knew Hiccup would need them for support to tell him it would be okay. Stoick and Valka were also shocked about the events of tonight already, and now their son had to deal with this on top of it all. Ruffnut, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Tuffnut were also gathering their things and getting ready to leave. Ruff was Astrid's best friend-there was no way she wouldn't be there for her right now when Astrid was likely to be confused and terrified. Eret wanted to go but he felt it wouldn't be his place given how things were.
"That's everything on the bus, Dad!" Toothless called to Gobber now.
"Righty-o! Load up! The lad needs us," Gobber ordered, they nodded and left the gymnasium.
"Take your own car," Stormfly told the rest.. Stoick and Valka got in their car, the bus pulled away first followed by Fishleg's car, and finally Stoick and Valka behind them.
(Hospital)
Brant had Hiccup and Astrid to the hospital in twelve minutes flat, the whole ride Astrid was crying in pain and Hiccup trying to help her breathe through the frequently coming contractions as well keep track of them for the inevitable question when they arrived. Thankfully between the school and hospital Astrid really only had two contractions-the rest was really just pain and her being uncomfortable or worried. This was something they had feared happening when Hiccup mentioned he was born two months early himself. Upon arriving, Brant parked right out front and opened the back door so Hiccup could get out.
"I run in and get a wheelchair for her," he stated. Hiccup nodded as he crawled out and helped her towards the edge.
"Hiccup, I'm scared..." Astrid said with fearful eyes. Brant returned with a nurse who was pushing a wheelchair put towards the squad car. Hiccup and the nurse carefully helped the Astrid from the back of the car into the wheelchair and pulled it away from the car.
"We'll be taking her up to Labor and Delivery to be checked over and the doctor will decide what to do from there: it's on the second floor-come off the elevator and take a left..." the nurse informed them. "Any guests coming will have to wait in the waiting area," she added.
"Brant, you stay here and inform the others when they arrive. Let them know I'll give them an update when I have one," Hiccup told him as he went behind the doors with Astrid and the nurse. The officer nodded as he moved his car out of the way and then stood outside where the others would show up soon.
(Elevator)
"When did her water break?" the nurse asked.
"About ten minutes ago, and she's only had two contractions so far," Hiccup informed her. The ride up to second floor was short, only a moment or two until Astrid was wheeled out and they entered Labor and Delivery. In there, another nurse was waiting as Hiccup walked alongside the wheelchair holding Astrid's hand tightly, worry consuming him. Astrid was taken into a room and then assisted for changing into a gown behind the curtain, Hiccup could hear her whimpers as he wasn't allowed to see her but at least he could be in the room. When the curtain was moved again, Astrid was laying on the bed while one nurse was hooking up the fetal heartbeat and contraction monitor belts.
"The officer said she is two months early?" the nurse with a clipboard asked.
"Yes, she's thirty two weeks...due March 28th, 2017." Hiccup answered as he returned to his place at Astrid's side.
"So contractions are about ten minutes apart. Pulse and temperature normal for mother, heartbeat for baby is normal as well. No signs of distress, that's good. I don't see the need to do a sonogram with these vitals, we can revisit the idea is something changes. For now, I'd just like to check to see if you've started dilating. Is that okay, Miss. Hofferson?" the nurse asked. Astrid nodded slowly, a little more at ease now hearing things were okay aside from her water breaking eight weeks early. The two nurses adjusted her legs and one sat on the edge of the bed with a glove on, reaching in between Astrid's legs to check.
"Any dilation?" the other nurse asked.
"Very little. About a centimeter-that's not bad though for water breaking twenty minutes ago. I suggest we do antibiotics to reduce risk of infection, a steroid shot to help the baby's lungs, and let her rest for the labor to run it's own course while we monitor. I'll run that by the doctor first," the nurse who had been checking Astrid said.
"Steroid shot for the baby's lungs?" Astrid asked.
"It's to help the lungs be less stiff after delivery so the baby won't have a hard time breathing when it comes out. To say without a doubt, you will be staying here the rest of your pregnancy-I believe you will be giving birth tonight, possibly early morning." the nurse smiled as Astrid nodded.
"I'll have a delivery room prepared right away," said the other nurse with the clipboard before she walked out of the room. The other nurse removed her hand now and then tossed the glove as she went to wash her hands.
"Don't worry so much sweetie, these things happen. The little one just doesn't want to wait is all: everything will be fine and we'll be watching closely in case things change. You're in good hands, you sit tight here while I call your doctor or find out who is on call tonight if she isn't available," the nurse informed her gently before leaving the room.
"Gods...Hiccup, I have nothing ready. My hospital bag is at Ruff's house, the nursery isn't ready yet..." Astrid closed her eyes and put her head back against the bed.
"Ssh, relax. The nursery is ready, I took care of it over the last three weeks. Crib is set up, clothes washed, folded, and put away. Things will be ready when we bring Iris home, I promise. I'm sure Ruff can bring your bag here, and I'll have Toothless bring the car seat when it's time to take our daughter home...you just worry about relaxing. I will take care of the rest," Hiccup soothed her as he kissed her forehead. Astrid nodded as Hiccup's phone vibrated in his pocket, he lifted it to see Toothless calling. "Hey bro," he greeted quietly.
"What is going on, we're all here-nurses won't let us in the waiting area..." Toothless said quickly.
"Hang on, I'll explain in a sec," he sighed looking to Astrid, "You okay in here for a few minutes?" Astrid nodded to him as she closed her eyes-clearly tired. Hiccup got up and placed a kiss on her lips softly before leaving the room and heading out to where the door was. Reaching the desk where the nurse was, Hiccup smiled. "Hello, can you please let my friends and family in?" he asked her.
"All of them?" she blinked.
"Yes. They won't be any trouble, I promise ma'am." The nurse nodded to him and hit a button that allowed the door to unlock and open automatically. "Alright, no freaking out and you have to be quiet...come sit down," he offered. They all did so quietly after nodding and waited for him to start. "Astrid is alright, so is the baby. Her water broke fully, she's in labor with contractions ten minutes apart and she's already a centimeter dilated. They are gonna give her a steroid shot for the baby's lungs to not be stiff after she's born, and also put Astrid on antibiotics to prevent infection. She'll be here until she gives birth, nurse is preparing a delivery room for her right now and then Astrid will be moved there," Hiccup explained.
"Any idea what caused the early labor?" Valka asked.
"Didn't really ask. Doesn't matter to be as long as the baby is okay, Astrid is resting now...I'm sure once she's moved to another room you can come visit her in there. Nurse thinks she'll give birth tonight or really early tomorrow morning..." Hiccup informed gently.
"I can bring her hospital bag, she has it in the room she's using at my house..." Ruffnut offered.
"Thank you, she made mention of not having it. I'm likely staying too, so Dad, can you bring me some stuff from the house?" Hiccup asked looking to Gobber.
"Of course laddie. Few sets of clothes, bathroom items I assume?" Gobber replied, Hiccup nodded.
"And I'll get the car seat installed and bring your car here for you," Toothless smiled.
"Thanks...I told her I wouldn't be gone long. I'll keep ya posted. You can wait here if you want or head home, not sure how long this is gonna take," Hiccup shrugged.
"We'll wait for a while," Stormfly smiled and Hiccup nodded to her. "Oh, Brant is keeping the press at bay too. Bastards were waiting outside the school and saw you rush out with Astrid, they all wanna know what's going on with the baby."
"Ain't none of their business. I gotta go back in there, I'll text you and let ya know when you can come back," Hiccup said, they nodded as he headed back in and then to Astrid's room.
"They updated?" she asked him.
"Yeah, they are gonna wait a while too. How do you feel?" Hiccup asked softly.
"Tired...been a long night already," Astrid replied.
"Not to worry, Miss. Hofferson. You can get all the rest you like in the delivery room, it's ready now," said a nurse entering with a smile. Astrid nodded as another nurse came in and they got Astrid in the wheelchair again after disconnecting everything, the rolled her down the hall to one on the left. Everything was in there for when the baby would arrive, the warmer, scale, monitors too. The nurses let Astrid go to the bathroom first before getting her back in the bed-hooking up the fetal heartbeat and contraction monitors again.
"I got a hold of your doctor, Milly Saunders, she will be here within the hour and I will be your nurse until midnight. I'm Nina, not sure who your nurse will be after that but she'll come in when her shift starts and introduce herself to you. Now, there is water and ice chips in the machine just across the hall. Also if you ask one of the nurses at the station for powerade or gatorade, you can have that too-but no food from this point on until after you've given birth. Would you like me to dim the lights so you can rest?" Nina asked softly.
"I'm alright right now..." Astrid shook her head with a smile. "Am...I allowed visitors?"
"Yes as long as you stay calm, and they don't get in our way of assisting you. Also they have to be quiet, there are other mothers in labor and sleeping right now. It's about 8:45pm right now, visiting hours end at 10pm, start again 9am." Nina replied.
"Thank you," Hiccup said, the nurse left. "Want me to go get them? My parents, the band, Dad, Ruff, Tuff, Snotlout, and Fishlegs are all here..."
"That's fine," Astrid nodded. Hiccup kissed her gently and headed out of the room and to the waiting area where they all looked at him.
"She's in the delivery room now, resting but awake. You're all allowed in as long as you stay out of the doctor's and nurse's way, don't stress Astrid out, and keep your voices down so you don't disturb the other patients. And you all have to leave at 10pm, can come back tomorrow at 9am. I'll keep ya posted through the night though," Hiccup informed lightly. They nodded and got up to follow him back to Astrid's room.
"Hey girl..." Ruffnut said gently as she went over to hug Astrid carefully.
"Hey, Ruff..." Astrid replied.
"Called it, knew she was going early!" Tuffnut grinned.
"Then I blame you for all my pain right now," Astrid remarked.
"Blame Hiccup, he's the one you got you pregnant..." Snotlout stated.
"He didn't jinx me!" Astrid mumbled out now.
"Alright, easy there firecracker..." Hiccup chuckled as he sat beside her. There was a short silence now as they heard the heartbeat from the monitor, "I never get tired of hearing that sound..." he added smiling. Astrid cringed a bit and held Hiccup's hand, "Another contraction?" he asked, she managed a nod.
"Breathe through it," Valka coached gently. Astrid took a few deep breaths as it passed about ten seconds later, "Good girl, you know the breathing techniques,"
"Thank...Hiccup for that..." Astrid panted a bit as Hiccup poured her a cup of water, she sipped it slowly. This really was gonna be a long night and prayed it went by fast. For about an hour, they all just sat around talking. Hiccup didn't say much to his biological parents for obvious reasons. When 10pm hit they all left with wishes for Astrid to relax and have an easy labor: it was also this time that Milly Saunders, Astrid's doctor had arrived to check her and said everything was going well. After being checked again, it showed Astrid to be about two-three centimeters, and the contractions had moved to being seven minutes apart.
"You're doing really well, Astrid. Moving right along," Milly smiled. "Try to get some rest. I don't think there will be much action tonight," she added.
"Okay, thank you, Dr. Saunders." Astrid smiled with a tired yawn. The woman nodded as she left the room dimming the lights a bit. Astrid took in a deep breath and released it. "Can't believe this is happening..."
"No big deal, our daughter must have just been so excited to know we're back together and she'll have us both, she wants to meet us," Hiccup smiled gently. Astrid leaned over and kissed him gently.
"I'm really glad you're here, Hiccup...and I'm beyond happy that you stopped hiding who you really are...everything worked out and now this...it's like everything fell into place," Astrid held his hand while relaxing. "What made you do it? You...couldn't answer me the day I left...what changed your mind?"
"Couldn't tell you-I don't know. It was...a mix of what you said, even Teddy said. He knows I'm Dusk too-well, everyone does now. Bout two weeks ago, I went to the bar and talked with him...just went from there. I was miserable without you, Astrid and I told myself I'd do whatever it took to get you back, sacrifice anything I had to in order for you to forgive me. I got back home, working on that song...planned all of tonight out, went better than I expected actually. Regardless, you were right...I was afraid but then...I realized that the people who really care will stand by me no matter what," Hiccup told her.
"That's right. It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, Hiccup-I fell in love with what's in here," Astrid said with her hand over his heart. "I just want you to see that too. As long as you don't change what's in here, then I will always love you. Like I said...I didn't love Dusk-not saying he's not awesome or nothing, but...didn't love him, his money, his status, anything. I love you, your heart, Hiccup. I wanted you to see that you didn't have to hide for people to like you because they don't matter. I love you as you are, Gobber, Toothless, the band does too."
"I'm an idiot, I know...I'm sorry I made you wait so long for my answer-but hey, on the bright side...I did keep my promise to you. As soon as Heather was out of the way-I told the world who I love and plan to be with forever. You, Astrid." Hiccup leaned in and kissed her deeply. "Now get some rest, gonna need your energy to push out the baby." Astrid nodded as she got comfortable and closed her eyes taking a relaxing breath. Hiccup was sitting in the chair provided for the father, the one that could be made into a bed-he sighed contently and closed his eyes, entering a light sleep.
(Eleven Hours Later; 9am)
Throughout the the night, a lot happened. Around midnight, the nurse came in to check on Astrid-who had complained of being in a lot of pain, the cause was the fact her contractions had become about five to six minutes apart and she jumped to four and a half centimeters. However, she wasn't dilated enough to receive the epidural-she just had to breathe through them the best she could and of course Hiccup was there to help her through. Also at this time is when they met the nurse who be there until 9am-Maxine Gonsalez. Astrid managed to fall back to sleep around 1am, Hiccup stayed up til 2am in case she needed anything. When 4:30am hit, Astrid's contractions were every three to four minutes but the dilation was only to five centimeters. Dr. Saunders had said if she got to six, they could give her the epidural for pain.
By 5am, Astrid was sleeping again-so was Hiccup, being absolutely exhausted. He'd been getting texts til 2am from Toothless and the others asking if Astrid had the baby yet. He told them to go to sleep and he'd let them know after 6am because he needed some sleep. The hours ticked away to 7am where a lot of progress had been made: Astrid was having contractions almost constantly and she made it six and a half centimeters so at that time she was given the epidural-this helped her to relax a lot and she was able to sleep more. Hiccup updated the others, letting them know Astrid got the pain relief but it wasn't time to push yet. The most they could do was just sit there and wait for the labor to go on it's own-the doctors didn't want to speed it up in case it caused distress to the baby.
At 9am-almost on the dot, Toothless, Gobber, the band, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs were all back at the hospital. Ruffnut brought Astrid's bag, Gobber brought one for Hiccup. Stoick and Valka showed up around 9:20am-again, Hiccup didn't say much to them more than 'Hi' and a glance of acknowledgment of them being there.
"Why does our daughter have to be so stubborn?" Astrid groaned, she was tired even though she'd slept quite a bit.
"Babe, I'd like to remind you whose child this is. A Hofferson and a Haddock-she's gonna top both of us in stubbornness," Hiccup chuckled a bit, then the door opened as the nurse came on.
"Good morning, Astrid. Lizzy Campbell. I was supposed to be here at 9am to relieve Maxine, I'll be your nurse until 6pm tonight. Would you mind if I checked you, your last one was at..." she trailed off looking at the clipboard, "7am?"
"I don't mind, and yes, that's correct," Astrid smiled at her.
"I'll have to ask the rest of you to step out a moment?" the nurse said as Astrid adjusted herself with Hiccup's help and the others nodded leaving the room so it was only Hiccup, Astrid, and the nurse. Lizzy did her thing and smiled at the two. "You're moving right along, Astrid. You're at eight centimeters," she beamed.
"Thank Thor," Hiccup sighed out happily, Astrid was almost there. The nurse removed the glove, wrote down the information and left the room as the others returned.
"Not yet?" Ruffnut asked.
Astrid shook her head. "I got another two centimeters to go still,"
"Almost there," Valka encouraged. For the next hour, it was talking about what was next for Hiccup and Astrid-likely it was to be the wedding to plan after Iris was good to go home. The doctors warned that because she was eight weeks early she might have to spend a little time in the hospital's Neonatal Unit. At 10:30am, Hiccup noticed that Astrid seemed to be in a lot of pain-even with the epidural.
"Babe?" Hiccup asked.
"Hic...it hurts, a lot of pressure..." Astrid whimpered a bit.
"Do you feel like you have to push?" Valka inquired, Astrid nodded slightly, "She might be fully effaced and ten centimeters now. I'll get the doctor for you," she offered and sped out of the room.
"Easy baby, deep breaths..." Hiccup soothed, not more than two minutes later-the doctor and a nurse rushed in with Valka behind them. Milly put on a glove and sat on the edge of the bed as she reached under the blanket while keep Astrid covered from others and looked to the nurse.
"It's time. I'm going to need everyone to clear out unless you're the father or medical staff," Milly announced.
"Good luck, Astrid. You can do this!" Ruffnut encouraged.
"Let us know when little Iris had made her appearance," Stormfly beamed as they all cleared out and headed for the waiting room. The next few moments went by so fast as Hiccup watched the doctor and nurse prepare everything, he was instructed to encourage Astrid. Her legs were propped up in the stirrups and the nurse ready to take the baby right away when it was out. Astrid was told to push and hold it for ten seconds every time she felt a contraction. This went on for close to thirty five minutes before a loud wail was heard through the room.
"And here she is, little Iris Haddock!" Milly announced proudly. Astrid cried, Hiccup did too as he kissed his fiance's sweaty forehead-he didn't care. Their daughter was here, finally, after twelve hours of labor and half an hour of pushing, Iris had been born! Now everything relied on their little girl's health, they only prayed it was alright and they'd be able to take her home soon. The two of them couldn't be happier though that she was finally there with them.