Chapter 7

Two weeks later, Beck and Jade were attending their first Lamaze class.

"It's wonderful to see so many of you here. My name is Gianna Harley, I'm one of the two coaches that teaches this classes. I am a trained doula and midwife, and I have actually delivered dozens of babies. I've been teaching this class with the help of my wife and business partner for about 5 years. Our first year, we coached only geriatric mothers, meaning 35 and older. About two years ago, my 16 year old sister got pregnant and was in need of a birthing class, but she didn't want to go to one filled with mothers in their 30s. She didn't want to be judged. My wife and I decided to start this class for new moms ranging in age from 14 to 20. We wanted to create a safe space for young moms to feel welcome and not be judged by those who felt they were too young to parent properly." The coach at the front of the room explained.

Beck and Jade chose to sit in the back, mostly because Jade was feeling very overwhelmed. She had no idea what to expect. Even as she looked around and saw plenty of other people that were her age and younger, she still felt intimidated and on edge. She felt like birth was such a private experience. Why would she want to demonstrate how she planned on giving birth to 10+ other couples and a stranger who called herself a coach?

"I'd like to start today's class by going around the room and introducing everyone. You can say your name, age, whatever you want." Gianna droned on, and Jade was more than happy to tune her out.

The introductions started with the couple at the very front. Abby and Trey, 16 and 17. Then the couple right next to them: Makayla and Peter, 15 and 17. Tracy and her best friend Paisley, both 16. Carmen and Rory, 18 and 19. Macy and Kyle, 17 and 18. Jessica and Joey, 14 and 16. Zara and her best friend Catalina, 19 and 20. Lucy and Aiden, 18 and 20. Loren and Carter, 17 and 18. Willow and Luke, both 15. Penelope and Zack, 19 and 18. And last but not least, Jade and Beck, both 17.

Once the introductions were over, Gianna started going over what the class would look like and what to expect. Jade mostly ignored everything Gianna was saying. She knew she probably should've paid attention, but that's one of the many reasons she had Beck. She knew he knew she wasn't paying attention. He'd hear all the important information and tell her if she asked.

They'd finally begun the actual class about 25 minutes in. Their first position was sitting crisscross on the floor. For Beck, this position was easy, for Jade, not so much. She had what felt like a ginormous bump in front of her, and it was pressing on her legs. It was not very comfortable.

Once everyone was in the crisscrossed position, Gianna led them through a few breathing exercises. While Jade did go along with the exercises, she thought they were stupid. She already knew how to breathe. She'd done countless breathing exercises and diaphragm trainings for theater and choir. She was a singer, for crying out loud. She had the lungs that showed as such. Even she would admit, though, as she progressed further in her pregnancy, it was getting harder and harder to take a deep breath. The baby was practically sitting on her diaphragm. When she did attempt to sing, which wasn't very often anymore, it always sounded shitty. She had poor breath control, something she hadn't experienced since 6th grade.

Their next position was more comfortable physically for Jade, but much less comfortable emotionally. The mothers were instructed to go on their hands and knees and rock back and forth ever so slightly, while their partners rubbed their back and whispered encouraging words in their ear. Both Beck and Jade knew those encouraging words were probably supposed to be somewhere along the lines of "you've got this", "you're doing great", and "you're almost done", but Beck had different plans.

"This position is how we got here in the first place." Beck whispered seductively into her ear. Jade couldn't help but smirk. Beck was usually very tame in public. He never really said any crude statements or talked about them in such a private way. Jade knew why he'd said what he did, though. He knew it would calm her nerves and ease the thick tension.

They remained in that position for a few more minutes, until switching to another one. This one was probably the weirdest so far. The mothers were asked to sit down on the yoga balls provided, as their partners sat in a chair behind them. The mothers were instructed to bounce up and down slightly, as their partners used their thumbs to massage their lower back. Gianna explained this position would not only help with any painful back labor, but it would also get the baby's head engaged properly in the pelvis. Jade wasn't really paying attention to Gianna, though, due to the pain Beck's thumbs were causing her.

"Ow, Beck. Not so hard." She said, quietly but still with the same amount of fire she would've used if she was speaking normally. Beck tried to ease up, but it wasn't working. His fingers were still jabbing into her kidneys. Eventually, she'd had enough and told him to stop touching her. Jade had stopped bouncing on that stupid ball and was now still. She was clearly mad at Beck, so not only did he stop touching her, he also scooted his chair back a little to give her some space. He could tell she was getting annoyed with this class. He wasn't annoyed so much as he was just really uncomfortable. He could tell the other dads were too.

The last position of the day was by far Jade's favorite, but that wasn't really saying much, considering she'd hated the others. In this position, both people were standing up. The mother wrapped their arms around their partner's neck and placed their head on their partner's chest. The partner wrapped their hands around the mother's waist, and rubbed their lower back. For Jade, Beck rubbing her back actually felt nice, considering it was still sore from his thumbs. Apparently, this position was supposed to be used during a contraction. The mother could pull down on their partner's neck if they didn't find it comfortable to stand during a contraction. Unlike the other positions, Jade actually saw herself using this one. Breathing into Beck's chest and smelling his scent calmed her, and Beck rubbing her back felt nice. With all of that said, Jade was still beyond annoyed with the class.

Finally, after about 5 minutes in that position, Gianna announced that that was the last position of the day, and asked if anyone had questions. Luckily, if anyone did have a question, they kept it to themself. Beck and Jade were the first ones to the leave class, opting out of socializing with the other couples.

Once in the car, they talked about the whole experience.

"I hated that." Jade said, as straightforwardly as possible.

"Yeah, it was really weird. I was super uncomfortable." Beck voiced, agreeing with her.

"I don't think we should go back."

"Ok. If you don't want to, that's fine by me."

"Literally the only position I tolerated was the last one, and that's really only because you rubbing my back felt good after you jabbed your fingers into me." Jade didn't care to admit she enjoyed smelling him.

"I'm really sorry about that. I was nervous and I had clue how I was supposed to do it."

"Needless to say, I don't think I will want you doing that during the birth."

"Speaking of the birth, have you decided how you want to give birth? We haven't really talked about it for a couple weeks, but even then, you just told me how many options there are."

Jade was quiet for a few moments, making sure she was sure about her decision.

"I definitely want a hospital birth. I think I want to try a natural birth, but be open to an epidural if I really want it."

"Ok. Which hospital?"

"University. It's a county hospital so it's the cheapest."

"Ok, so we actually checked a few more things off our to do list. We should probably deal with the school situation next. We need to figure out what we're gonna do about our senior year."

Even though the baby would be born in the summer, sometime in late July, early August, they still had to figure out how school was going to work out. There was a chance Jade would not be physically or emotionally ready to go back to school in August. They had to figure out how she could do her classes online or have Beck bring her the work she'd missed, so that she could start her senior year on time, and graduate with everyone else. Then there was child care. Jade was already dreading having to give her baby to someone else. She knew it was necessary to seek out childcare, in order to go to school, but she wished it wasn't. What if something happened to the baby while she wasn't there? What if the baby reached and milestone and she and Beck weren't there to witness it?

"We'll probably have to find either a babysitter or a daycare once the baby's old enough. The crappy thing is, the baby's not even here yet and I'm already dreading having to give our baby to someone else while we go to school. What if something happens while we're not there?"

"I don't think I'm gonna like it either, but it's the only choice we have. We need to finish high school on time. We can't do that if we have to take care of the baby all day."

"I know, but still. It just sucks. What our baby has abandonment issues later in life because we left them at daycare everyday?"

"Jade, when we drop our kid off at daycare, we won't be abandoning them. We'll go back and pick them up. I'm sure everything will be fine."

"I'm just scared, Beck." Jade admitted, sounding like she was on the verge of tears.

"I'm scared too, babe. I know this is all new territory for us, but I'm sure everything will be fine."

Jade didn't respond to Beck's encouraging comment. She was too caught up in her own head. She knew he was probably right, but that didn't stop her from worrying. She supposed it was just her maternal instincts kicking in. She couldn't help but worry about every little thing.