A Story To Tell | Book 1

.22.

At the hospital, Ms. Pam stayed by my side through it all. She didn't have to get in her car and follow behind the ambulance, but she did. And although she was my nosy neighbor who wanted to know everybody's business, I was thankful for her.

I'd been crying and hollering from excruciating pain. The doctors tried calming me down, and there seemed to be nothing they could do to make me feel any better.

I'd used Ms. Pam's phone to contact my parents and they wasted no time getting to the hospital to figure out what was going on.

We were all huddled up in the tiny hospital room, awaiting the nurse who'd tended to me since I first got in. And ever since my mom got here, she'd been bothering me about why I hadn't said anything sooner. Of course I couldn't give her an answer, but it was making the pain even more unbearable now that she was bothering me about this situation. It was clearly the wrong time. But considering the fact that she kept asking me if I was pregnant from "that married man", it made me regret calling her to let her know what was happening.

Someone had finally come in and hooked me up to an IV and I thought I was going to die. The IV had me feeling nauseous and as if I was going to pass out. Besides all of that, the pain was bearable, but it still had me shaken up that the pain was there.

"Hello, everyone." The nurse had finally come in and was holding a clipboard. "Ms. Robbins, how're you feeling?" She asked, brushing her naturally curly hair back from her dark face.

"Still hurts." I complain.

"Okay, the pain is still going to be there because from the test results that we ran on you and from what I was able to see when I was feeling around, it's obvious that you've gone into preterm labor. The baby is fine, so the fall that you took, it didn't cause any damages. So, thank God for that." The nurse flipped through the papers on the clipboard and looked at me again before speaking. "I'm going to prescribe to you some medication for the pain and I'm going to tell you now, it's best you do not move around much. You're at a high risk and we're going to need for you to take it easy. I'm not saying you're on bedrest, but you don't want to do any lifting. Nothing that causes you to strain."

"Would we need to purchase a tummy brace for her?" My mama asked her.

"Oh, yes. Now a tummy support brace will help her through this tough time."

"And you mentioned she's how many weeks?" My mama was trying so hard to get information out of the doctor because I hadn't told her anything.

"21 weeks." The nurse answered.

"And what's she having?"

"A baby girl."

"Hmmm..." My mama turned to me with a unit. The whole family was looking my way in shock. I knew I'd been lying and keeping so many things to myself, it's ridiculous and I believed that this happened because I was taking precious time in mentioning it to everyone.

"Now, I am going to let you know that your baby is head down, so we're going to have to watch your cervix extra closely to make sure everything goes as planned. If you do feel anymore pain, it's best that you lie down and prop your feet up." I nodded, slowly, getting more and more frightened every time she opened her mouth to inform me of some things. This was my first baby and I already felt that I was losing her even though the nurse clearly said she was fine.

"This is my first baby. So how would I know if something bad is happening?" I ask.

"Due to this being your first baby, it's normal to feel how you're feeling. If there's something that you don't feel is right or should be happening, call your doctor or you can even call me. My business line is open 24/7." She dug into the pocket of her lab coat and pulled out a card, standing to hand it to me.