The Oasis and The Island

Chapter 35 - Infinity is a Great Place to Start

November 6th, 8:35 p.m.

I have no idea why I'm so calm. Seriously. The first time Jennie had a contraction I was in panic, totally lost with my own fears and insecurities. But Jennie was a perfect pond of calmness, making her best to go through that and to reassure me that everything was fine. And she was right, it was fine. But sometimes I have no chill at all.

The first time we had a labor scare, she was calm again. Not exactly like before, but she was confident. Me, on the other hand, was freaking out like one those fucking moron parents we saw in those labor videos.

But now, it's totally different, for a reason I can't explain. Now that the labor is about to happen, I feel this incredible peace. But Jennie, on the other hand, well...

"Lis, did you check the bags like I asked yesterday?" She is pacing around the room grabbing random things and tossing them inside of a new bag.

"Cupcake, come here." I grab her hand and pull her to me. I wrap my arm around her, bringing her closer to me. She still making an adorable worried face, with her eyebrows frowning since she said for the third time that Riley is coming. "What is the first thing we need to do now?"

She furrows her brows deeper "Take a shower? No, I just did it, and so you."

"Wait for the contractions and to count them."

"Right!" She nods. "And then what? Maybe it's better if I call my doctor."

She is turning to grab her phone on the nightstand and I pull her again, burying my face on her shoulder.

"You need to relax too." I take a deep breath placing a kiss on her bare shoulder. "Things will be easier and better, right? For the two of you". I raise my head looking at her eyes. "And especially for me, of course."

She giggles and for the first time, since she realized her water was broke, she is actually relaxing. I kiss her a little more, rocking her on my arms. And this is when the first contraction comes. It lasts 30 seconds, and she says she is fine and this is definitely different from the ones she was getting before.

She calls her doctor and he says to her to wait a little longer to go the hospital, until the contractions are 5 minutes apart. Since it's night, around 8 o'clock, he told her to try to get some sleep to save up her energies. This is a marathon, not a sprint, he remembered her.

"I don't think that's possible." Jennie says fidgeting in the bed.

"Is he moving?" I ask touching her belly.

"Yes, he is. Which is a good sign, but also makes it hard for me to sleep."

"Okay, come here." I lean my back on the bed headboard and spread my legs, pulling Jennie to me. "I'll give you a massage."

And this is helpful, I can tell. After the Halloween storm, I made sure to read the book about the 3 stages of labor, and I'm so glad I did it. Jennie did read that too, but it was a long time ago, she probably forgot most of it. So, this is the first phase of first stage, also the longest. Her cervix needs to dilate to 3 centimeters, which will happen in the next 8 or 12 hours, hopefully.

As a part of her support system, I need to make sure she is calm. Distract her a bit is also very helpful. Also I need to keep count of her contractions and to offer her water and food. It would be perfect if she could get some sleep, but I'm not seeing that happening any time soon.

After 30 minutes of the first contraction she is getting the second.

"How the second one went?" I ask with her between my arms.