Take Me Back

26 - Jenna

It was on a very fateful day, the 6th of March to be exact, that disaster struck.

Once we had arrived home from our trip, in the beginning of February, we were just waiting for me to go into labor. My body was a time bomb, and there was nothing left to do but brace for the explosion. The nursery was all set up, the hospital bag was ready, and all of our closest friends and family were aware that he would be here any day now. But surprisingly, nothing happened. I found it a bit strange, but all of my siblings were born way later than their due date, so I thought it was a hereditary thing. My OB told me I should come in and have her check him and set up a date for me to be induced, but I told her I wanted a natural labor and I was content waiting.

Which brings us to that day, and the ill-fated events that followed.

Oddly enough, I was sitting on the toilet. I had pulled down my sweatpants to pee, because what else do you do when you're pregnant? My daily routine was eating, sleeping, peeing, and some occasional crying. I looked down to grab my phone when I saw the dreaded goop I had read about on many mommy blogs. Quickly, I did what I had to do and went to find Niall, who was flopped on the couch watching golf. I paused his show, resulting in a groan and a glare back at me, who had the opposite expression.

"I lost my mucus plug!"

He paused for a second, trying to figure out what I just said, but then jumped up and started freaking out.

"What do we do? Do I call an ambulance? Do I need to deliver this baby on the floor? Just tell me where to go and I'll work my magic"

I covered my face with my hands and snickered at his pure oblivion to the situation.

"No, you just need to time my contractions. I'll let you know when they start and stop, but you just need to find out how far apart they are and how long they last. For now, they'll be around 20 minutes apart and around 30 seconds long. Once they're 3-4 minutes apart and about a minute long each, we'll need to go to the hospital. My water also might break during my early labor, but that doesn't mean we have to leave right away. Just watch my contractions, alright?"

Niall looked at me like I had just spoken a foreign language.

"I had a lot of time on my hands, so I did a lot of research. Now give me your phone and I'll show you how to time them"

It took him a few minutes to figure out all of the buttons, but we did some practice contractions and he seemed to nail the process.

"Wait, so how do I know when one starts?"

Just then, a mind-blowing pain reached my abdomen and my legs, which caused me to let out an unhuman noise. He took that as his answer and pressed a button on his phone, while I sat down and tried to breathe. It went on for what seemed like an eternity, until I breathed out a string of curses and gestured for him to stop the timer.

"So how long was that one?"

"Uh, 28 seconds"

I threw my body back and laid on the couch, not ready to deal with this for the next few hours.

My water never ended up breaking, which was normal and a relief since there wouldn't be any strange liquid to clean up. After around five hours of slowly progressing labor, Niall jerked up from his position on the couch with a bright light in his eyes.

"That one was 3:28 after your last one and lasted 1:11. It's go time!" 

I flickered my eyes open from their previous closed state of agony and saw him running around the house, trying to find everything he needed. It was quite a site to see; snacks in one hand, blankets in the other. Meanwhile, I was the opposite, staying completely still and trying to focus on my breathing. Stress wasn't good for the baby, so I needed to be as calm as possible. I picked my phone out from between the couch cushions and texted my mom, letting her know we were going to the hospital. She quickly replied back, saying that she was getting my dad and they would be there by the morning. I looked at the time, and saw that it was already 11:00 PM. I wasn't really keeping track, so it shocked me that it was this late. The next thing on my list was to call Harry, who made it clear that he would never speak to me again if I didn't tell him the second my water broke. I dialed his number and prepared my ears for a lot of screaming, but was underwhelmed with his greeting.