Notoriously Yours part two: Forgive And Forget

Chapter Eighteen - Baby Shower

It's the big day. It's our big day. The day that we will be celebrating our pregnancy and this tiny human inside of us. We have told no one the baby name, which is partially because we have yet to choose one. I told Cassandra we will be playing baby bingo, which is regular bingo but the two people to win will be helping with the name choice. We have a very small bucket with our name options crumbled up in it. We will mix it around and they will choose a random crumbled up piece of paper and open it. And then after we have two name options selected, it will be Bryce and I playing bingo by ourselves, whomever wins first gets to pick the name.
Our name options are Everly Ann, Rosa Lynn, Jade Marie, Stella Nicole, Aurora Brielle, and River Lily. For the first names that I picked, Bryce chose the middle and vice-versa.
It's time for the baby shower. Everyone ate and enjoyed the games we played. My mom and Mark won on bingo. My mom pulled out River Lily. Mark pulled out Everly Ann. Bryce won on bingo, he chose Everly Ann.
We opened the gifts, we ate cake. Overall it was a fun baby shower. We received so many gifts. It was amazing.
It's the following Monday, my appointments have gone from bi-weekly to every week. Today, they check for dilation. I'm not ready for this because I've heard it hurts.
We do the usual. Why do I still say this? Who knows? But you know the drill. Dr Tulip puts her gloves on and says "this might hurt." She checks and says "you're at a 2". It didn't necessarily hurt but it was extremely uncomfortable. I've had Bryce's penis inside of me, which is far bigger than Dr Tulip's long, skinny fingers. This shouldn't be uncomfortable... should it? Even Bryce's fingers have been inside of me and that wasn't uncomfortable. Is it because she's actually checking my cervix for dilation and he isn't?

—9 months along—

These weekly appointments suck. But at least our baby girl is still strong. She makes it known that she's there.
Dr Tulip is checking for dilation, she says "honey, you're a six. Are you having contractions?"
Bryce and I look at each other and I tell her no.
She says "well we can wait till you're having contractions but you are staying here until then."
She gets us in one of the maternity rooms and tells us to get comfortable. Bryce says "I'm gonna go home and get our hospital bags and everything else we might need."
I wait in the room, alone for about 30 minutes. Praying the contractions don't start until he's here to comfort me. I don't want him to miss anything. He calls and says "would you like our moms here, so they can take all kinds of pictures?" I tell him yes but don't have them come until it's closer to time.
He comes back in the room with all our bags and even pillows and blankets so that he's comfortable as well.
He calls both of our moms to tell them what's the plan. He assures then that I am fine. He tells them that he will call when it's almost time so that they can prepare for it.
After being admitted for about 2 hours, the contractions start coming. They aren't slow, they are close. It hurts, on a scale of 1-10, this is definitely a 11. The contractions didn't give me time to prepare. It's like they decided to hit me all at once.
Dr Tulip comes in and was about to ask about contractions and says "I can see that the contractions have started so I will just check the dilation. Would you like an epidural?" She checks the dilation and says "you're at a 6.5."
I sign the epidural consent forms and get it. It's definitely not something I had thought of. This is painful.