One of a Kind

Chapter 8: Rachele

Rachele Roberts was their third baby and long before Jennifer was due, Alex was stressing out. But he wasn't the only one; Jennifer was trying to be healthier and more fit after the slight scare with their previous baby. She wasn't eating as much meat and she was eating some vegetables that before researching them didn't even know what they were. She had organised for her and Alex to go to the birth preparation classes when she got to a certain point and she tried out all sorts of methods to keep herself in tip top shape.

When she was at work she would move around more during her lessons and keep herself standing up. The only time she was sitting down was lunchtime and when she drove home.

She got home one day and decided to take Elsie for a walk in the pram as she was still only young. She got home and after dinner she announced she was going for a walk and went upstairs to get changed. When she came back down Alex caught her gently as she came back down the stairs, 'why are you doing all this?' He asked her softly 'are you frightened?' She shook her head but then changed to a nod with a sigh. 'I am scared' she admitted 'I don't want that to happen again, I mean we're lucky she's here Alex and you know it' he stepped back at his wife's tone and encouraged Charlotte to walk behind him as he followed her out of the door. She turned around to close the door and seemed surprised to see them. She took a slow walk to keep it gentle and went the long way round the block, by the time they got home Alex and Charlotte were exhausted.

Jennifer opened the door and pulled the buggy inside while they collapsed onto the sofa. 'Jeez I'm so unfit' he puffed fanning himself with a magazine, Jennifer walked in and made herself a cup and then sat down beside Alex. He stared longingly at her water as she sipped it absentmindedly, and when she left it and got up to get some of the books she had to mark, he looked at it sneakily and wondered if he would get away with a sip. He waited but then picked it up as she came back in, 'no no!' She exclaimed as he put it to his lips, she dropped the books on the side and took the glass before he could get any. 'Careful!' She scolded and he looked down to the floor 'it's not that I'm trying to kill you but I put my tablet in the water and unless you have stomach cramp caused by pregnancy I don't recommend it. Apparently Joey drank my mums water when she was pregnant with me, it had these tablets in it and he was ill for ages.' He apologised sheepishly and added 'and you don't want to be looking after me Charlotte Elsie and the baby all at once' she nodded in agreement and sat back down. Charlotte looked over her mums shoulder as she was marking and asked her loads of questions about how people can get different marks and so on and Jennifer explained patiently until she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She stopped briefly but it went and she carried on talking and marking.

Later that evening when Elsie was asleep in her cot , they decided to watch some TV together as they didn't do that very often anymore. They settled down in the dimness as Charlotte turned on the TV set and put it onto her favourite program. Jennifer sat in between Alex and Charlotte, and as Charlotte was singing the theme tune to her program, Alex pulled Jennifer gently back so she was leaning into him. She sat forward again and made herself comfortable and went back to sitting with her husband. They all sat in silence and watched, with only the occasional laugh from Charlotte, and soon Jennifer started to drift off but she was kept awake by the sharp pain she had felt earlier. She put her hand on her stomach of which she could just see the curve of in the dim light from the TV, and held it there. It seemed to calm the baby down for a bit but after a while, no matter what she did, she couldn't get rid of the pain. She fidgeted around and Alex put his mouth to her ear and whispered to her to ask if she was alright, she nodded but he continued to watch her as she tried to hide her pain. She took some medication before she went to bed and hoped that it would make her feel better.

She went to sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow but at around midnight Alex was woken by her muffled sobs. He lay there awhile, seeing if it was actually her that was crying and when he was sure it was, he turned to her and put his arm over her waist and draped his arm over her. She cried more and he sat up and leaned over her, 'what's the matter babe?' He asked, concerned, but she just shook her head and wiped the tears carefully from under her eyelids. She just kept crying but eventually he managed to get something out of her as to the cause of her upset. She explained between sobs that her baby felt wrong and he asked if he should call an ambulance, she shook her head dismissively and he laid with his chest pressed up against her side and whispered soothing words to her. She started to quieten down when he laid his hand on her stomach and used a special method that her mother had taught him when she had very bad pains in labour the first time. Eventually though, even this didn't work and nothing would stop her from crying, the pain for her was awful, she felt like she was being tied into knots from the inside and Alex was so worried about her he called Simone. He explained what had happened and she told him she would be right there and sure enough within about 15 minutes there was a tentative knock at the door. Jennifer was inconsolable at this point and he felt torn to leave her but he knew Simone could help her. He led her upstairs where Jennifer was laying and Simone carefully pulled the duvet down so it was under her stomach. Simone talked to her encouragingly as she felt her stomach for anything abnormal and led on to ask her questions about the pain. When Jennifer said it felt like intense labour again, her suspicions were confirmed, 'Jennifer I think the cause of this is a case of Braxton Hicks. There isn't much I can do for you honey, you're just going to have to bear it for a while I'm afraid.' She offered to say for a while as both Jennifer and Alex were worried after their scare with Elsie being so early. When the pain started to die down and Jennifer began to fall asleep again, Alex put his arms around Simone and thanked her. 'I don't know what we'd do without you Sim', he led her downstairs and waited at the door waving until her car disappeared from view.