Chapter 33- She's Staying in There
A/N: Every week I say that I am going to work myself ahead, and lo and behold, I still end up posting late on a Thursday night. Enjoy.
"Robin! I have a surprise for you!" Barney exclaims as soon as he is in the front door.
A surprise? Robin wonders what he could have this time. The last time he said those words he brought her favorite restaurant to her.
Barney enters the bedroom with a woman in tow. Robin can't help but let her mind wander. What the hell was he doing bringing a strange woman here?
"Uh, Barney, who is this?" Robin questions politely, trying not to show how thrown off she is. She hates these kinds of surprises.
Barney, on the other hand is proud of himself. He has this wonderful surprise for Robin, and he can't wait for her to find out about it.
"This is Shelia," he announces. "She is a childbirth instructor. She agreed to do a private class for us. Isn't that great?" he says with a smile on his face.
"Uh, Shelia, nice to meet you," Robin says with a saccharine sweetness completely unlike her. "Can you excuse us for a minute?"
"Sure, I'll be out in the living room," Shelia responds, and walks out of the bedroom quickly, closing the door behind her.
Robin waits until she no longer hears her footsteps before ripping into Barney, "Barney, what the hell were you thinking?"
He is shocked by her reaction. He wasn't expecting that reaction at all. He was expecting her to be excited, and happy that he found someone to help. "You're upset?" But now that he thinks about it, he could tell she wasn't happy the moment he introduced Sheila.
"Of course I'm upset," Robin laments. "You brought someone over without warning me. I am basically in my pajamas here. I look horrible."
"You look beautiful, you always look beautiful," and it's true. She has always looked beautiful to him. Even long before they hooked up for the first time. "And I don't see what the big deal is." He doesn't see what the big deal is. He can tell it's not just about her looks.
She groans in aggravation. "The big deal is that this is not something you just surprise a person with, Barney. This is something we should have decided on together. And not just who the person is, but what their philosophy is too."
"Philosophy? There are philosophies on childbirth?" He is really confused. There is more than one way to have a baby? "I thought there was only one way to have a baby, you pushed and the baby comes out."
Robin rolls her eyes. "You have got to be kidding me. Did you read those books?"
"I tried. They were boooring!" he brushes off in his usual manner.
"They were boring?" she questions, starting to fume in anger.
"Yeah, I mean, I don't really need to know that stuff," Barney argues. "I don't really have to be there."
"You don't have to be there?" Robin shouts "You are the one that did this to me, and you don't have to be there?"
Oh shit, he thinks, she is pissed. She is really pissed. He is digging himself into a hole, and for once, he can recognize it.
"Uhh… I think I am going to go tell Sheila that we are going to reschedule."
"That is probably a good idea," Robin replies snarkily.
Seriously, what was he thinking? He walks out into the living room, and finds Shelia admiring the view.
"Shelia, we are going to reschedule. I will still pay you for today. Thanks for coming over."
"Sure. Just let me know what works for you," she responds as she walks over to the door and lets herself out.
"I will."
Where did he go wrong? He thought that Robin would love the idea of starting the birthing classes. Yes, he probably should have told her about it, but how was he supposed to know that she wouldn't like the surprise? How was he supposed to know that she would get so opinionated. He sulks back into the bedroom, hoping she has had enough time to cool down, so that he can at least apologize for what he did wrong.
"Robin, what did I do wrong? I don't want you to be mad at me, and I'm sorry for whatever I did wrong.
"You made a decision on your own. That's what. I know you were trying to help, but these are decisions we need to make together as a team, and if only one of us is making that decision, it should be me," she explains. "After all, I am the one that actually has to do this."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know it matters that much to you," Barney apologizes.
"Of course it matters," she mutters before starting into a rant. "I haven't even decided what I want out of the experience, but I do know I want you to be there." Part of him does want to be there, but a part of him is really scared about it.
"You want me to be there?"
"Of course I want you to be there. I know you like to pretend that pain doesn't bother you even though it does, but it is not going to get you out of this. This is your daughter being born. You don't want to miss it. You are going to be mad at yourself forever if you aren't. Besides, I have to be there, so you do too. This is one of those times that we need to work together, instead of being lone wolves."
"You sure about that?" he asks carefully.
"Absolutely. I don't care how ridiculous you end up acting, or the stupid things you say during, I want nothing more than you there beside me," she says with a smile. She has returned to her normal calm nature. "I want you to be there to help me through it. We made her together and I want to bring her into the world together." In a strange way, that makes sense to him.
"Alright. I'll be there. And I'll even let you pick the birthing classes."
Robin giggles at his way of admitting his guilt. Typical Barney. "Thank you."
"So what did you want to do for a childbirth class?"
"Well, I don't want to be singled out. I want to be the person in the back of the class that can crack jokes. I want to take it seriously, but have fun at the same time, and I can't do that if we are just the only ones with the teacher."
He can't believe that he didn't think about that. He hates learning stuff. Ted's Robin 101 class was torturous enough. Of course he wants to be able to be the one to crack jokes. It would be awkward to be the only one with the teacher. It was bad enough with Ted, but with a stranger yet? And this is a much more personal topic than that was, although Robin might disagree with him on that one.
"How about we take it online?" Robin asks, breaking Barney out of his thoughts.
"I guess that could work. I get what you mean about wanting to crack jokes though," Barney replies.
"So you are ok with that?" she asks.
"Yeah."
"Great, I will find one tomorrow, and we can start it tomorrow night after dinner."
"I found a great one," Robin responds to Barney when he asks her at dinner about what she found. "I called the doctor's office, and she recommended it. It teaches a little bit of everything, which is great, since I have no idea what I want."
"Great, are you ready to start it then?"
"Yeah. Let's head back to bed. I have it all set up."
When they finally get all snuggled into bed with pillows surrounding Robin, they start the class. He isn't sure what to expect, but the first thing they see is a video on the screen. Robin clicks to start the video, and for the next ten minutes, they watch a video montage of different women giving birth. Barney isn't sure how to react. There are points he wants to look away, but it is almost like looking at a disaster area, you want to look away so much, but for some reason, you just can't. He wasn't excited about being in the room with Robin yesterday, and after this, he is even less excited.
"Oh god. I did not need to see that." he complains. She doesn't respond. "Robin? You ok?"
"Not excessively, no," she replies. She almost looks sick. Yes, he is freaked out about the video, but Robin is the one who could always handle anything.
"What's wrong? It wasn't that bad," he lies, trying to comfort her.
"Yes. Yes it. I can't do this," she cries.
"Yes, you can."
"No I can't. I can't do that. She is just staying in there. There is no way that I can do this whole labor thing. I'll just keep her in there forever."
"Come on Robin. You are awesome." He now understands why he has to be there. He has to be there to get her through it. To remind her how awesome she is. "You will be able to do this. Your body is going to help you through it. You just have to take each day at a time, and learn as much as you can here."
"I don't know. You ok if we stop for the night?"
"Yeah. We can do this later. We have time."
10/30/14
This week was our first childbirth class. Now, we had to go a little bit untraditional on this, because I can't leave the house, so we finally chose to take an online class. Our class started off by watching a video of a live birth. Let's just say that I am horrified. I have no idea how I am ever going to be ready for actually having the baby. For some reason, I have been completely ignoring that part.
I still haven't decided what kind of childbirth techniques I want to use, so I picked a class that focuses on a few different ideas. Hopefully, my husband will be open to the conversation and we can discuss how we want to have our baby.
Tomorrow is Halloween, one of my favorite holidays of the year. I used to hate Halloween, but I have grown to love Halloween over the past few years. Sadly, there is no Halloween for me this year, since there is no point in wearing a costume if I can't leave the apartment. I even saw some really cute costumes for pregnant women, but I guess I will have to pass. I can't imagine how different next Halloween will be, since she will be a part of it.