2am

In the dimly lit hospital room, Sam was in Tom's arms and both were fast asleep. At 31 weeks pregnant, Sam was well and truly exhausted and every muscle, bone and ligament in her body was aching, though that wasn't helped by her constant bed rest that she had been on for seven weeks. She went for a short work two or three times a week but other than that she spent her time reading, writing her essay and planning how she was going to cope after running every eventuality of what could happen after the birth through her mind.

Tom awoke to movement and realised that his sleeping wife was fidgeting in his arms. She looked a little red so he pressed the back of his hand, gently against her forehead and realised that she was slightly getting warm. He pulled the bed sheets off of her to help her to cool down a little only she began to fidget again and then she opened her eyes.
"Ugh... I feel awful." She whispered sleepily as she rubbed her bump intensely.
"What kind of awful?" He asked quietly.
"Ill awful." Sam stated.
"As in flu?" He queried but Sam shook her head.
"I feel sick and my stomach's churning." She moaned as she pressed her head back onto Tom's chest. Slowly, Tom reached behind him and pressed the button that would bring medical attention to them within minutes because he didn't want to take any chances. "You don't think this is..." Sam trailed off as she couldn't even bring herself to say the words.
"It's a possibility." He admitted. "But it might just be a stomach bug." He added while an oncall consultant, Ella Dawlish -whom they were familiar with- entered the room.

"How can I help?" She asked sweetly.
"Um, Sam's feeling sick. We're not sure if it's a bug or early labour." Tom stated.
"Right, Sam can I just palpate your abdomen please? I promise I'll be gentle." She said softly as she rubbed some of the antibacterial gel into her hands and approached her bedside.
"Yeah, sure." Sam said quietly as she turned onto her back properly and then reluctantly pulled up her extra extra large hoodie that she always wore to bed up. The consultant gently felt around Sam's bump to get a feel for her uterus and the positioning of the baby that was lowest in the uterus - Baby A - before she rubbed some more gel into her hands and Sam pulled her hoodie down.

"Right, you're not contracting at all yet and Baby A's head isn't engaged, however that's not to say that we can rule early labour out. So I want to keep a very close eye on you, because this is a high risk pregnancy, I'm going to introduce your obs to every 15 minutes and I know it's very early in the morning but it's purely for you and your babies' benefit." Ella explained.
"No, that's fine." Sam nodded nervously.
"And of course, it could just be an upset stomach which is common in pregnancy so no need to panic yet, I'm just being cautious. I'll tell the medical team to be on standby just in case, and if you do begin vomiting, push the button so we know okay?"
"Yeah, will do." Tom replied.
"Okay, just take things nice and easy and most importantly, we need mum to stay calm otherwise you could cause the babies some distress so some deep breathing may help. Dad, you need to make sure that she's as comfortable as possible okay." She directed the last part at Tom before she left the room.

"I'm so sorry Tom."
"What for?" He asked confusedly.
"This. I... I could've done more to prevent it being this early." She stated.
"No, of course you couldn't. Sam this isn't your fault. Look at me." He ordered as he put his finger under her chin and twisted her face to look into his eyes. "You have had the best possible pregnancy; you've been eating really well, you've done everything that you've been told to do and you've tolerated bed rest a lot better than I thought you would." Tom stated. "You've kept our babies in there a lot longer than most people thought you would. You're 31 weeks Sam, you have done so, so well so do not blame yourself one bit. Because this is not your fault." Tom stated firmly.

"I... I need the toilet." Sam admitted.
"But you've got the cathet- oh right." He nodded in understanding as he slid off of the bed.
"Now Tom." She said pleadingly as he fiddled with her catheter bag at the side of the bed.
"C'mon, just leave it in." He said because he knew she had limited time as he helped her out of bed and then held the catheter bag in his hand. He escorted her to the ensuite toilet and laid the bag on the edge of the sink before he left the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Seconds later, he heard the unfortunate side effects of Sam's troubles so he pushed the button and Ella soon returned.
"What's- is Sam in there?" She asked worriedly because if she listened hard enough, she could hear the sound effects too.

"Yeah." Tom nodded.
"Right well, just with her nausea I wouldn't have thought that it was necessarily early labour, but with diarrhoea, it increases the possibility because that is a more common symptom of early labour. It's like the digestive system is emptying and the body is preparing labour." Ella stated solemnly.
"So what happens now?" Tom demanded.

"Well we can't be sure that she is in labour unless she starts having contractions so if that happens then we will give her seem drugs to try and stop the labour, however we need to make sure that it is labour before I can do that." She explained. A few minutes later, they heard the toilet flush, the taps run and then Sam came out and leant in the bathroom doorway. "Sam, how're you feeling?" She asked curiously.
"What do you think?" Sam grumbled.
"Oi." Tom warned.
"It's alright, it's just her hormones." Ella stated quietly. "Sam, you need to be honest with me here, you haven't taken any laxatives have you?" She asked and Sam shook her head. "And have you had your show?"
"No." Sam replied.

"Okay, shall we get you back into bed?" Tom suggested.
"No, I wanna stay here." Sam stated.
"You want to stay in the doorway of the toilet?" Tom repeated.
"I mean it." Sam stated firmly.
"Alright, let's do this your way." Tom stated as he glanced at Ella for some sort of help because his wife was being hormonal.

7am
Mr T had already arrive for his shift and he had just been informed about the potential labour for Sam. Thankfully for her, the upset stomach had subsided within a few hours but in an attempt to prevent labour, she was on her elbows and knees on her bed with her bum up in the air and her head hung between her shoulders and she looked like an absolute idiot. It wasn't just to prevent labour, it was more comfortable for her too because the pressure on her cervix was greatly reduced.

"Right, how're we feeling?" Mr T queried as he used some of the hand sanitiser.
"She hasn't had a bowel movement for about two hours now." Tom stated because he knew that Sam was focusing on taking deep breaths with her eyes closed. "That's a good sign isn't it?" He asked optimistically.
"Um... Not necessarily, however I hear Sam hasn't had any contractions at all so far so that's good." He stated.
"So isn't there anything else we can do, other than wait?" Tom asked impatiently because he had been up since the early hours of the morning with his snappy, and now untalkative, wife.
"I'm afraid not. I mean, usually we could perform a fetal fibronectin test however because this is a multiple pregnancy, the result won't be accurate at all." Mr T stated.
"But-"
"Aaahhh." Sam suddenly arched her back as she tucked her head under and screwed her eyes shut.
"Sam?" Tom quickly jumped besides her bed. Mr T did the same but he placed his hand on Sam's bump and felt the texture of her abdomen. After a few seconds of her holding her breath, she began taking deep breaths once more and looked worriedly between Mr T and her husband.

"That wasn't a false labour contraction; you are going into labour." He stated solemnly and Sam closed her eyes in disbelief. He pushed a button for a nurse to come whilst Tom gently rubbed Sam's back for comfort. "Right," he began as the out of breath nurse entered - everyone was alerted about the potential birth and was on their toes to help. "I want you to get 500mg of intravenous tocolytic and another 1000mg of turbutaline now." He ordered and the nurse ran off. "Right Sam, one of those drugs is going to try and delay labour as long as possible, and the other is a prenatal corticosteroid which will help your babies' lungs to develop a little more before they're born okay?" He explained as Sam reluctantly got into a position where she was lying back on her back on the bed, being propped up by pillows.

"This is too early isn't it?" She croaked.
"No no no no no, Sam it was only a matter of time before this happened, you have done everything you can for your babies, now you just have to hand it over to your medical team and trust me, we I'll do everything we possibly can to deliver your babies safely." Mr T stated as Tom held her hand. "Now I just need to inform a few people and make sure that everyone and everything is ready, but I'll be back soon." He stated before he jogged off.

"This is really happening." Sam whispered and Tom gave her hand a squeeze.

6pm
Sam laid in a large hospital gown in her now, usual sized hospital bed with her bump exposed to the world though she had so many different monitors on her bump held on by straps that you could hardly see any skin. There were eight in total as they tried to keep an eye on the heart rate of each baby however the task was proving to be very difficult for Mr T. She had IV fluids going into her to keep her balanced from the diarrhoea and she also had her catheter in; she wasn't really allowed out of bed at all. Sam had Tom sitting on another chair on side other side as Mr T returned with the verdict.

"Well, it looks like the the tocolytic has worked; it's successfully delaying your labour." Mr T stared and Sam and the anxious soon-to-be father broke into grins. "We just have to wait and see, but when your contractions start again, we will have to go for the c section before the babies get distressed and that could be within hours or within a couple of days." He stated.
"Thank you." Sam said gratefully.
"You're very welcome." Mr T smiled. "Now, just so you know, your medical team of 46 are all in the hospital, awaiting the birth and NICU are ready for the Kent octuplets. And speaking of awaiting, there is a very large crowd of photographers and journalists outside the hospital entrance with cameras demanding news on the octuplets. Now obviously, nobody from the hospital will make an official statement without your permission, but I just thought that you should know." Mr T explained.

"I bet you feel like Kate Middleton." Tom joked and Sam gave a small smile.
"Right, we're still going to keep you on 30 minute obs throughout the night, and make sure that if there's any changes, you press the button okay?" Mr T asked.
"Yep, that's fine. And I really do appreciate it. I'm sorry I was a bit snappy earlier." Sam apologised.
"Oh, trust me. I've seen and heard a lot, lot worse." Mr T smirked.
"I can imagine." Tom muttered and Sam raised her eyebrow at him.
"Well, I'd better be getting on, but I'll be back to check on you shortly." Mr T stated before he left the room. But how long would Sam's contractions be postponed for? And would her babies survive?

Thanks for reading, please review :)