Chapter Five: Here Comes Baby
Very much the antithesis to her mother's ordeal, Renesme's pregnancy seemed nearly too good to be true. Instead of growing weak and brittle as her belly grew larger, Ness appeared to grow stronger and even more beautiful than she had ever been. Her skin glowed with a radiance and warmth that nobody could understand and, unaware of her growing strength, she frequently found herself accidentally breaking glasses and tearing clothing. Jake jokingly took to calling his pregnant wife "Mrs. Hulk" behind closed doors, much to Ness's ire.
The other peculiarities of Renesme's pregnancy didn't lend themselves to jokes quite as easily, but they were amazing nonetheless. For instance, Ness rarely experienced any morning sickness or any of the peculiar cravings that usually plague expectant mothers. She didn't even crave blood as much as she typically did, and at times found her thirst to be completely nonexistent. Instead, Nessie's sole source of discomfort was the baby's incessant movement and the resulting pressure on her bladder that was nearly constant. Of course this wasn't too troublesome, given the fact that Nessie was not much interested in leaving her new home and thus always within reach of a bathroom.
In fact, Nessie's insistence on staying home was the only truly noticeable difference between her behaviour as a growing teenager and that as a newlywed mother-to-be. From the parenting books Jake had been reading, he deduced that his wife was "nesting," but that didn't make him feel any better about her sudden transformation into a complete recluse. Worried about his wife's state of mind, he frequently found excuses to invite family and friends to the house. A housewarming party the last week of August, a Labor Day barbecue in September, Monday night football every week in October, and the baby shower in November helped to keep the cabin full of people. Of course it was a little tricky surprising Ness with a shower in her own home, but Jake managed to pull it off with a little help from Alice once the two had made up over their differences with the wedding.
With all of the visitors and entertaining, Jake hoped that Ness would be distracted from the fact that she and her father had yet to reconcile. He had even tried to act as mediator himself, but he failed to get Edward to so much as give Ness a call. Still inconsolable over the perceived betrayal by his only daughter, Edward had actually elected to leave Forks. Bella had explained the decision to Ness during a brief visit. "Your father just needs some time and a quiet place to think. Eventually he'll come to the same conclusion I have and he'll get over it. I promise we'll be back before the baby comes, I wouldn't miss that for the world," Bella promised. She stuck around to try to lift her daughter's spirits, reading to the baby and doing some online shopping for much needed baby stuff using Edward's credit card.
Though Jake was thankful for Bella's effort, he knew that no amount of distraction, by him or anyone else, would be enough for Ness. While she hid her disappointment well, Jake wasn't sure that she could truly get excited about the coming baby without making up with her father. Sadly, as the weeks went on with no word from Bella and Edward, the reconciliation Jake hoped for seemed less and less likely. It was nice, however, to see support coming from the rest of the Cullen clan. Rosalie was once again ecstatic at the prospect of there being another baby in the family, even if the child would be half wolf. After nearly seven years of competing for time with Nessie, Jake and Rosalie had actually become close enough for him to possibly consider letting the blonde terror babysit in the future. As it was, Rosalie showed up at the log cabin every other day to rub Nessie's stomach and make sure she was playing the right music to stimulate the baby.
"We wouldn't want the little angel to turn out like its father," Rose explained in a fake whisper during one of her visits.
"I know that you know I can hear you and I'm not going to dignify that remark with a response," Jake bellowed from the kitchen. Ness could only laugh at the antics of two of her most favorite people. Rosalie had always acted like the perfect mix of nurturing mother, cool aunt, and protective big sister, and now that Ness was living as an adult it seemed like she and Rosalie were on more level footing than ever before. One might say they were embarking on an entirely new type of friendship, which was something enormously comforting during Ness's self-imposed sequestration.
"I'm really grateful for all of your visits Aunt Rose," Ness admitted while Jake was busy taking out the trash. She couldn't admit it to her husband, but Ness was worried that her pregnancy was making her entire family a nervous wreck. Well, everyone except for Rose. It seemed as if Edward's disapproval and Carlisle's anxiety had rubbed off on all of the residents of the Cullen house. Ness could tell that her uncles and even Alice feared for how the Volturi would react if they found out, and the fact that they couldn't know what to expect from the child did even less to assuage concerns. Rose could see this apprehension in her niece's eyes but tried to reassure her.
"Everyone was terrified of you when Bella was pregnant, but I had faith in you. I knew you would be a little miracle and a second chance at life for all of us, and I was willing to help your mother fight for that. You need the same faith, and you need to be willing to do whatever it takes to protect this baby because it will be a miracle too. You're about to be a mother, Ness, and it's about time you embrace that no matter what anyone else might think." As Rosalie ended her little pep talk she found an uncertain smile making its way across Ness's face. To bring her point home she added, " And while Jake and I might not agree on much, we both still have faith in you and know you're going to be great."
That notion helped Ness to stop worrying about her pregnancy all the way up until she found herself experiencing that first contraction in the dead of night two days after Christmas. It was ten days before the due date Carlisle had projected, and the news had taken everyone by surprise. It had been snowing for an entire week before, ensuring that Ness received the quiet holiday with Jake she had been hoping for. The snow was less of a godsend, however, when it meant Ness couldn't get to the Cullen Manor for the delivery according to plan. The roads were completely impassable by car and Ness was in too much pain to make the trip on foot; the only other option was a cabin full of Cullens. Carlisle had enlisted everyone's help in carrying his equipment to the reservation. It would have been quite the sight to behold if any humans had been daring enough to brave the storm, but luckily none were out or probably even awake as the coven set up the equipment in the newlyweds' bedroom.
As Nessie's contractions slowly grew closer and closer together, the screaming became almost too much for Jake to bear. He had seen people in pain before, been hurt beyond recollection, and caused a great deal of pain to others (though he had his doubts about whether vampires could really feel pain in death), but never before had he dealt with anything like this. Renesme's cries cut through him like a knife and it was all he could do to see her in the sterile-looking hospital bed and hold her hand through it all. Of course they had opted for Carlisle to deliver the baby; being hands-down the best doctor in Forks and also the only physician in the world who had any idea of how to handle a birth as special as this one made him the only sound choice.
But even still, Carlisle was at a loss for any means of alleviating Nessie's pain. Just as Ness's pain proved beyond unmanageable, all of his high tech equipment proved rather beyond unhelpful in monitoring things like Nessie's accelerated heartbeat and amplified blood pressure. Her high temperature had only increased with the intensity of her labor pains and meant that any drugs Carlisle had to offer would burn off before they could take any effect. "There's nothing I can do to fix this! The longer she stays in labor, the higher her temperature will become and the less effective my drugs will be - all resulting in her increasing pain. I'll be out of morphine soon and I'd have to bite her down to her spine just to even attempt administering an epidural and there's no guarantee that it would be any more effective as a means of alleviating her pain," Carlisle frantically whispered as he tried to asses the situation. Though Jake knew that the doctor's theorizing was all simply an effort to help Ness, he couldn't help snarling at the thought of anyone biting into his wife.
"You're just gonna have to come up with something else Doc," said Jake in a pleading voice. But Ness, being the only other person in the room who actually understood her predicament, had already resigned herself to the fact that she was giving birth to her baby without the help of modern medicine no matter how long her labor lasted. And it lasted. Eventually Ness lost track of how long she had been in labor, the pain eliminating all sense of time and space from her mind. It was all she could do to grip Jake's hand, and much to everyone's surprise, Jake barely winced when her squeeze broke a finger and it healed. Repeatedly. Jake's grip never slackened as the bones in his hand broke and healed over and over again because he was so aware of the abundantly worse pain his wife, the love of his life, was suffering for their child. ""I'm so sorry Nessie. I'm here baby. I love you. It will all be okay," Jake whispered like a mantra or prayer though he wasn't even sure if she could hear anything.
After 16 long hours of labor, when the day had ended and the sun had already set, Carlisle finally began to see some progress in Renesmee's condition. "I believe the baby is beginning to crown," he informed Ness and Jake after what seemed to be his hundredth check of Renesmee's dilating cervix. As a sigh of relief left Jake's mouth, the whisper of stirring vampires coming from the next room informed him that his wife's family had also heard the news. The blanket relief was quickly eradicated by the sound of yet another painful cry from Ness. "Your contractions are much closer together now, Ness. The baby is ready and it's time for you to start pushing," Carlisle said in a voice that epitomized his famed bedside manner. Whether Ness was listening or not, no one could say, considering her cries - along with the sound of the bones in Jake's hands breaking - reverberated throughout the bedroom once more.
Yet, Ness interrupted her own cries by asking a question in a hitherto unheard and quite raspy voice. "Are they here?" she asked as her eyes fluttered around the room.
Jake cringed at the thought of disappointing his belabored wife with the answer to her question, knowing that (though every Cullen had tried to speak to Bella and Edward) no one had managed to convince Ness's parents to return. While Bella admitted that she wanted to be present for the birth of her grandchild, she also confessed that she couldn't abandon Edward in his despair. The two were still holed up in some unknown place while Bella attempted to assuage Edward's anger and grief. Seeing the look on Jake's face, Carlisle felt a familiar sense of compassion for the young man, who had already suffered so much at the fault of the family he created. Deciding to break the news himself, Carlisle took his granddaughter's face in his hands and stared into her scared eyes as he said, "Your mother and father love you, but they aren't going to make it here in time. You have everything you need to bring your baby into the world right here and right now. You're strong enough to do it my dear, you are wonderful and your baby will be wonderful. Just take a deep breath and, when I say so, I want you to push."
Upon hearing Carlisle's calm words and clear instructions, Ness immediately began to feel more at ease with the entire situation. Whether that had anything to do with her uncle, Jasper, being just behind her closed bedroom door, she did not bother to wonder. Instead she simply remembered who she was and focused on what she needed to do. "Okay Grandpa, I'm ready when you are," she breathed as she steeled herself for the coming contraction and her first push. Carlisle smiled, having not heard that particular title come from his granddaughter in quite a while. No sooner could his smile take shape before it was time for Ness to finally push.
"Alright Renesme, push" he commanded, his tone just a calm and nonchalant as if he were asking her to do a simple favor.
And so Renesme pushed. She clutched her husband's hands and let out a growl to rival the very best of Jacob's. But the whole ordeal proved rather anticlimactic as it needed to be repeated over and over again throughout the night. It seemed as if Nessie's strength was leaving her with each push, but it wasn't due to the exhaustion she should have been exhibiting in the wee hours of the morning. She was, in fact, wide awake and entirely alert throughout the entire process and the only indication of her being at all physically different was the fact that for the last two contractions she had completely avoided breaking Jake's hand. "Man, I guess you're losing your touch babe. My hand is completely healed for the first time since your water broke," he joked in an effort to lighten the mood.
While Jasper had been doing his best to minimize the tension throughout the night, everyone still had their own thoughts and worries to contend with. Nobody had to be told that a labor lasting this long was uncommon. As Rosalie flitted between Ness's bedside and the living room where the rest of the family waited, Jacob could see the frozen faces of Esme, Alice, and the others each time the door opened. But it seemed as if his attempt at levity had at least struck a chord with his belaboring wife. In that exact moment Ness gave her final push and a surge of warmth erupted into the room.
"It's a girl," announced Carlisle as he cleaned the baby off and immediately began taking measurements. Jacob kissed Ness as she lay back with eyes gle aming having heard the cries of her first child. Carlisle returned from the other corner of the room carrying the baby girl, his initial curiosity satisfied for the time being after having assured himself of the child's good health.
"Can I hold her," Ness asked breathlessly as she reached out from under Jake's embrace.
"Of course, my dear. She is in perfect health," answered Carlisle as he placed the crying baby in it's mother's waiting arms.
"Beautiful," said Ness and Jake in unison as they gazed down on the little miracle they had unwittingly created.