Who Loves You, Pretty Baby

Calling Dad

Chrissie gasped, awoken by a sharp pain shooting down her back and wetness in the bed beneath her. She reached around and held her stomach in attempts to comfort her to no avail.

 "Brian..." She grunted and groaned slightly at the pain throughout her body, steadying herself with one arm and pushing herself to a seated position to fight the pain. She cringed and felt the bed below her becoming wetter. "Brian!" Her voice was half pain and half elevated in order to attempt to wake him. He began to stir quickly beside her.

 "Huh? Wha...oh! Chrissie! He said a little incoherently, turning on the lamp that sat on the nightstand beside him.

 "My water broke! I think my water just broke!" Chrissie breathed out her broken, nervous breath as she held on to her stomach and didn't move. "I need a change of clothes!" She said as Brian pulled the covers back from her only to reveal the fluid mixed with blood that had made its appearance beneath her body. This was otherwise known at "the bloody show", not dramatic in fashion but certainly making it apparent that the time to get to the hospital had arrived.

 It was 3:27 in the morning on a Friday. Why babies wanted to come into the world at the most absurd of hours was a mystery to me. Brian, frantic and a little disheveled; searched the drawers of the dresser to help Chrissie get into something clean to wear.

 "Aaaggh!" Chrissie cried out as the pain of what was presumably a contraction shot horizontally across her stomach and into her inner thighs.

 "Here, let's get you changed and we'll leave." Brian said, reaching up to Chrissie and pulling her now mostly ruined underwear from her hips. “Okay, can you sit up on the edge?” Brian asked of Chrissie, taking her hands and pulling her up toward the edge of the bed.

 “Yeah…yeah I can.” She shook her head and sat up the best she could, still feeling lines of moisture trickle on the inside of her thighs. It didn’t mean she was in active labor. In fact, the baby could be coming in twenty hours or two days but there was no doubt that the need to get to the hospital had arrived. Brian, though still slightly flustered by his own nerves, helped Chrissie get dressed with shaking hands.

 “Okay, there you go…there….how’s that? Better?” Brian asked, shoving Chrissie’s hair behind her ears. Chrissie put her hand over her stomach again as another wave of pain came over her. She made an uncomfortable face as she pushed herself off the bed.

 “Can you help me get my shoes on?” she asked of Brian as Chrissie slowly fought the dull pain and the dizziness in her head from standing up.

 “Here! Here! Don’t try to bend over. Just sit back down.” Brian said, pulling his own shirt over himself. He then put his hands on Chrissie’s shoulders to sit her back to the edge of the bed while he hurried down the stairs to get her shoes that were already placed by the door. Chrissie sat there, breathing calmly and rubbing her stomach. Her mind already whirring and wondering what was to come. She could feel her lower abdomen churn and she felt a great deal of pressure, which she had never before felt. She could hear Brian’s footsteps returning up the stairs after he had flipped the hallway light that illuminated the front door as well as the stairs.  “Alright, here you go.” He said, reaching for her right foot. “How do you feel? You doing okay?” Brian asked. Chrissie shook her head.

 “I’m okay. Just a little uneasy because I don’t know what’s going on, obviously.” She admitted as Brian got her right shoe on, reaching for her left foot and slipping her other shoe on. “There you go. All set. You ready to go?” Brian asked, puling her up from the bed.

 “I’m ready. Let me just call mum.” Chrissie said, picking up the phone. She knew good and well her mother would know precisely why she was getting a phone call at nearly 4 AM.  He gave her a nod.