Life Of A Single Mom

Chapter 23

The closer my due date got, the more impatient I became.
Baby boy wasn't trying to come out for nothing.
And when I say nothing...
I mean absolutely nothing.
Every week I was at the doctor's office. Sometimes twice a week. They checked me constantly, and every single time it was the same answer:
No dilation.
No progress.
No baby.
My final appointment was scheduled for two days after my due date, and the doctor made it clear that if he still hadn't arrived by then, they were inducing me that same day.
Meanwhile, things between me and Micah had gotten worse.
We weren't arguing.
Honestly, arguing would've been better.
We had reached that stage where silence did all the talking.
Walking past each other in the house. Eating in silence. Sleeping beside each other but feeling miles apart.
The closer the baby got to arriving, the heavier the tension became.
A few days before my appointment, we packed up and started preparing to head back to our hometown. At the last minute, we decided we wanted the baby born there instead of where we currently lived.
Well...
apparently, baby boy heard us making plans.
Because halfway through that three-hour drive, labor started.
Full-blown labor.
And baby, those three hours felt like six.
I know that sounds dramatic, but anybody who has ever sat through contractions knows exactly what I mean.
Every bump in the road felt personal.
The crazy thing?
I never said a word.
Not one.
I never told Micah I was contracting. Never told him how close together they were getting. Never mentioned the pain.
I just stared out the window quietly the entire ride.
Partly because I was hurting.
Partly because I was angry.
And honestly, just being around him irritated me at that point.
We finally made it back to my apartment.
Now one thing I can say I did right this time around was keeping my apartment. No matter how serious things got with a man, I always made sure I had somewhere to go if everything fell apart.
And looking back?
That decision saved me more than once.
Micah immediately laid down to get some rest while I started cleaning, showering, and trying to straighten up the apartment.
I even attempted to take a nap.
Attempted being the key word.
Because how exactly do you sleep through active labor?
The contractions kept getting stronger. I couldn't stand comfortably. Couldn't sit comfortably. Couldn't lay down comfortably.
Hell, I couldn't even keep food down.
I was throwing up and miserable.
Eventually, I reached my breaking point.
I walked over and woke Micah up.
"It's time."
The look on his face instantly changed.
First came irritation because I hadn't told him I had been laboring the entire trip.
Then came panic.
Then excitement.
Because after all these months, baby boy was finally ready to enter this crazy world.
We rushed to the hospital.
And while we were heading there, I made a decision that would come back to bite me almost immediately.
I texted Keith.
Just a simple message letting him know I was in labor.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
By the time we arrived, I was already six centimeters dilated.
Everything started moving fast.
Nurses rushed me into a room. Got me changed. Hooked me up to monitors. Called my doctor.
The whole time I was joking through the pain.
I looked at Micah and laughed.
"See? I should've let you keep sleeping. I could've had my home birth after all."
Micah wasn't amused.
He had been completely against the idea from day one.
Partly because this was his first experience being this involved in a birth.
Partly because he didn't want a baby being delivered in the same bed we slept in.
And honestly, that was one of the biggest reasons we decided to travel home in the first place.
Within an hour of getting admitted, it was already time to push.
Everything happened fast after that.
The pain. The pressure. The nurses yelling encouragement.
And then...
there he was.
My baby boy.
Healthy. Chunky. Perfect.
The biggest baby I had ever delivered.
The moment they laid him on my chest, every contraction, every hospital visit, every stressful moment of that pregnancy faded away.
I was in love instantly.
But while I was soaking in that moment, something felt off.
Micah's energy had been strange all day, but now it felt even heavier.
Colder.
Darker.
At first, I couldn't figure out why.
Then I looked over.
And that's when I noticed something that made my stomach drop.
Micah was sitting there...
holding my phone.