this is me trying: taylor swift + joe alwyn

twenty seven

The day went on and these contractions got slightly closer together. They were about 45 minutes apart now, and lasting slightly longer, probably about 30 seconds each. They did start to get a little more painful as well, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle yet. Joe was being amazing through all of this. He would always rub my back whenever I had a particularly bad one, and he asks me if I need anything at least once an hour.

We had just finished dinner and we were in the middle of getting ready for bed when I got another contraction. My toothbrush fell right out of my hand as I grabbed onto the counter in front of me and clenched my face tight. This was a bad one. I took deep, stuttered breaths through the pain that lasted about 30 seconds.

"How are you doing?" Joe appeared in the bathroom right as the contraction ended.

"I'm okay, things are moving along, just... slowly." I complained. I know labour doesn't always go quickly, but I didn't expect it to go this slow. It had been about 6 hours since my first contraction and barely anything had changed, they had only become slightly more painful.

"I'm sorry you're so uncomfortable." Joe frowned as he picked up my toothbrush for me.

I thanked him and took the toothbrush from his hand then begun to wash it, "this isn't just uncomfortable, it's a whole new level of discomfort. I just want this baby out of me."

"Why don't we go to the hospital earlier? Maybe we go when your contractions are 10 minutes apart rather than 5?" Joe suggested as he grabbed his own toothbrush.

"Why? So I can be in pain at the hospital? I'd rather suffer at home and only go to the hospital when it's absolutely necessary. You know how much I hate hospitals. I would have this baby at home if I could but the idea of that is slightly terrifying."

"Well maybe doctors could speed up the process?" Joe asked as he started to brush his teeth.

"Labour will take as long as it takes, all they can really do is give me drugs but I already decided I don't want any so there's no point in going." I said.

"Are you sure you aren't gonna get an epidural?"

"Yep, I'm positive. I wanna do it all natural." I smiled as I pulled my hair out of the messy ponytail it had been in all day.

"Alright if you say so." Joe said, slightly shocked.

It took a while to finalise my decision about an epidural, but I ended up deciding I wanted to feel the pain. And I know that probably sounds weird, but for some reason the idea of pushing my baby out of me and not being able to feel it freaks me out. I am very worried about the pain though. Some people say it's not as bad as everyone says it is, but 90% of people say it's the worst pain they've ever felt in their lives. I decided I was going to be optimistic and believe the small amount of people that said it wasn't that bad. It can't be that bad right?

"Alright let's go to bed I'm exhausted." I mumbled, barely being able to stand anymore. We had a long day of doing nothing.

Joe and I both got into bed and I turned to lay on my side, which was pretty much the only way I could lie semi-comfortably.

"I can't believe we might actually be a family of three tomorrow." Joe smiled.

"Woah- family of six thank you very much." I defended, making sure to include the cats.

Joe laughed and got himself comfortable, "Do you really think the baby's coming soon?"

"I know he's coming soon. I can say with almost 100% certainty that by this time tomorrow night I won't be pregnant anymore." I said, placing one hand onto my bump.