It's Yours

Four Months Later

The living room of Paul’s new house was beautiful. It was my second favorite room in the entire house, the first being the nursery. I gazed down at my huge belly and, as always, a smile broke across my face. I was 37 weeks and bedridden by order of Dr. McKenzie. Apparently because I was so small, the chances of me delivering prematurely were higher. She was also concerned because I was continuously having Braxton Hicks contractions. I had, however, managed to bribe Paul into carrying me into the huge domed room so that I could get Thom to help me with writing the very last of my “Thank You” notes from my birthday a month ago.

“Thom!” I called. “Since when does grilled cheese take so long to make?” I heard his laugh from the other room.

“Since I refuse to serve you some pathetic excuse for a sandwich. Dr. McKenzie said that you need to eat a lot of healthy food since you’re gonna deliver soon. I’m making you a fruit salad!” I let my own giggle loose.

“You sound like the Wiggles!” I told him, trying my hardest to stop my chuckles.
I heard him start singing the fruit salad song from the little kids show I had been watching. I smiled and reached over to the table next to the couch. There was a sudden rush of warm wetness from in between my legs.

“THOM!” I screamed, panicking. He immediately stopped singing and came bolting into the living room from the kitchen.

“Emma! What’s wrong?!” He looked absolutely terrified.

“I-I think my water just broke.” His eyes grew wide.

“Are you serious?”

“YES I’m serious!!! What possible reason would I have for joking about that!” I suddenly screamed as a contraction took hold.

“Shit.” Thom said, running his fingers through his hair. I shot him a nasty look.

“Sorry, Em. It’s just that I’m kinda freaked out and right now I can’t really focus on what I can and can’t say now that the baby can hear us.” I softened and reached up to grab his arm.

“It’s okay. Look you go and grab the car keys and the baby bag and I’m gonna go get into the car cause we need to get to the freaking hospital like now.” I told him, panting from the pain.

He ran off in the directions of the stairs to get to my room. I grabbed my cell phone and started making my way to the garage. I made it to the door before having to take a breather. I just barely made it into the car.

“THOM!!!!!!!!” I screamed from the car.

He came running out seconds later, tossing my bag in the back and practically jumping through the window to get in the driver’s seat. I sent Becky, Paul, and his parents the emergency text to let them now that the baby was on the way, NOW. I pressed unnecessarily hard on Dr. McKenzie’s speed dial key as my second real contraction took hold.

“This is Dr. McKenzie.” Her voice instantly provided enough calm for me to talk.

“Dr. McKenzie, it’s Emma Campbell. The baby’s coming. Now.”

“Okay, Emma, are you on your way to the hospital?”

“Yes, Thom and I left the house about five minutes ago. We should be there in ten minutes
or so.”

“Listen carefully, Emma. When you get there you need to go straight into the Emergency Room and tell them that you are in labor. Whatever you do, don’t let them give you a different doctor. Tell them that I am on my way and say whatever you need to in order to keep Thom with you. How far apart are your contractions?”

“About seven minutes.”

“Good. Hopefully, your labor won’t have to be too terribly long. Do you need me to stay on the phone with you until you reach the hospital?”

“No, it’s okay. I think we’re almost there. Thanks, Dr. McKenzie.”

“No problem, Emma. I’ll see you soon.” I hung up the phone and turned to Thom.

“I’m scared.” I whimpered to him.

“Everything is going to be just fine, Em. I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you.” He reached over and hooked his pinky with mine.

I yelled, clenching his hand and shutting my eyes against the pain as yet another contraction ripped through my body. I opened my eyes, horrified.

“That wasn’t seven minutes.” I whispered.

Thom’s foot went down hard on the gas pedal and I watched as the speedometer jumped from 35 to 60 mph in seconds. I didn’t even care what would happen if we got pulled over, and obviously Thom didn’t either. We made to the hospital just minutes later. Thom pulled right into the emergency car slot. I watched as a bunch of nurses rushed towards the car. Thom rolled down his window.

“Please, help her.” He said, motioning towards me as their faces turned from annoyance to understanding.

They ran back to the door to get a wheelchair and then came around to my side of the car. I opened the door and tried to get out, but collapsed back into the car, screaming, as a contraction hit. The nurses helped me out of the car and into the chair. I heard Thom grab my bag from the back and then come rushing to my side. The women frantically started wheeling me away, with Thom right at their heels.

“I’m sorry, sir, but only family members past this point.” A nurse said, stopping him as I went through a huge pair of doors.

“NO!” I cried out. “He’s my fiancée!!!”

The nurse looked back and forth between us and then allowed him to follow. I heard Thom whispering in her ear and I assumed he was telling her my medical history. My assumptions were confirmed when I heard her anxiously start scribbling things down in my chart. When we finally made it to a room the nurse opened the chart and started reading to the doctor waiting there.

“17-year-old female, 37 weeks pregnant. Her water broke 20 minutes ago and her contractions have been getting increasingly close together since.” I screamed again, verifying her statement, as the other nurses helped me get into the bed.

“Okay,” the doctor stopped to take a look at my chart again, “Emma, you’re going to be just fine.” Thom stepped forward, clearing his throat.

“I’m sorry, sir, but Emma already has a doctor. Her name is Dr. McKenzie and she is on her way here.”

Just as Thom said that Dr. McKenzie burst through the door. She walked over to the doctor and snatched away my file.

“Thank you for looking after Emma, Dr. Grappe, but I think I’ll take it from her.” Dr. Grappe nodded and left the room. He motioned for one of the nurses to follow and I thought I heard him tell her to go check me in. Dr. McKenzie smiled at me.

“Okay, Emma, I’m going to take a look at your cervix.” She said, gently lifting my legs into these weird stirrup things that were attached to the bed. It was lucky that I was wearing one of my maternity dresses.

“Alright, well you are five centimeters dilated right now, so you still have five centimeters to go. I think Dr. Grappe got one of the nurses to check you into the hospital, but you and Thom can try to walk to admissions to make sure. Walking will help you to become even more dilated. Now you told me that you want a totally natural childbirth, but are you sure? We still have enough time to get an epidural for you.” I shook my head fiercely. My baby was not going to be born from drugs. “Okay. Then all that’s left is to get you a gown and when you walk to admissions they’ll give you a wrist band.”

“Thank you, Dr. McKenzie.” I managed to squeeze out before another contraction hit.

She nodded and left. A nurse came in with a smile and a hospital gown for me to put on. Thom helped me out of bed and into the bathroom to change. When I came back out he took my hand and led me out of the room.

“To admissions then?” He asked, trying to smile.

“Yes.” I whispered.

Neither one of us wanted to say anything about the fact that our baby was going to be born three weeks before schedule. Or the fact that Paul, Mr. and Mrs. Numez, and Becky were nowhere to be found. We quietly made our way to the admissions desks, following the signs. We had to stop twice so that I could get over a contraction. By the time we made it there it had been almost half an hour since we got to the hospital. Thom led me to an open seat in front of a lady with kind eyes.

“Hello, my name is Emma Campbell. I came in through emergency about half an hour ago and I was told to come here to get an identification wrist band.” I said through gritted teeth, trying to ignore my current contraction.

“Yes, of course.” She pulled a white band out of a drawer near her computer. “I’ve been expecting you.” She told me, smiling as she stuck the band on. It reminded me of the bands they gave you at water parks or corn mazes.

“Thank you.” I told her, collapsing into Thom’s waiting arms as I stood up.

He easily lifted me up. I heard him thank the admissions lady. I started crying into his shirt as he carried me back to my room in half the time it had originally taken. I clung onto his shirt while he kissed the top of my head, trying to comfort me.

“It’s okay, Emma. I won’t ever leave you. I’ll be here the entire time and any other time you need me. I love you, Emma Rae Campbell, and I swear on my life that I will always love you and protect you and be with you.” He gently placed me into bed, tucking the covers up to my chin.

I immediately curled myself around my swollen stomach, moaning when the contractions hit, and just cried. I heard Thom slip out and call someone but I didn’t know who it was. Dr. McKenzie rushed in moments later and lifted my legs up onto those weird things again.

“Emma, I know that it has only been two hours since your water broke, but you are fully dilated. You need to push, now.”

I pulled my legs together, crying harder.

“No, no, no, no, no, no.” I sobbed. “I need Becky. I need Paul. I need Mr. and Mrs. Numez. I need Thom.” I rambled, my body shaking with pain and tears.

“Emma-” Dr. McKenzie started, but I heard Thom gently shush her.

“Emma,” Thom whispered softly, clutching my hand, “I am here. I am right here. Just like always. Paul and his parents will be here with Becky as soon as they can, but this baby, our baby, isn’t going to wait for them. You know that. You’ve always known how independent our baby has always been. You know that you can’t wait. You have to do this. You have to do this for our baby. You have to push.” He said, squeezing my hand.

I opened my legs up, and looking at Thom, I pushed.

“Good, Emma! Good!” Dr. McKenzie said.

And so I pushed again. I screamed as loud as I could and clasped Thom’s hand as hard as I could, and pushed with all of my might. I felt sweat pour out of every surface on my body as I cried out in pain. I gave it everything I had for three hours.

“Emma! I can see a head, Emma!” Thom and Dr. McKenzie yelled at the same time.

“Just one more push, Emma.” Dr. McKenzie said, “Just one more.”

“You can do this, Em.” Thom told me.

I took a deep breath and pushed with everything I had. I threw all of my anger and sadness and love into that push. The tears fell freely from my eyes and so did all of the emotions that I had been keeping inside. Everything that I had bottled up throughout my eight months of pregnancy came pouring out. And then, even with all of my screaming and crying, I heard it. One sharp, hard, loud, piercing cry from my baby girl. I opened my eyes, the tears still streaming and looked across at the most beautiful creature I had seen in my entire life. She was so healthy, and alive. I saw Dr. McKenzie begin to clean the gunk from her face and body. I looked over at Thom and motioned for him to cut her chord. Tears of happiness were streaming from his gorgeous eyes as he held our daughter for the first time. Dr. McKenzie handed her to a nurse to be cleaned and I heard her tell me that it was time to deliver the placenta. That came out so much easier than my little girl. I cried happy tears as the nurse handed my beautiful baby girl to me. Thom leaned in and kissed me on my forehead.

“What are we going to name her?” I asked him, completely failing to tear my eyes away from her face.

“Whatever you want to name her my love.” He said, never losing contact with her.

“I like the name Hayley.” I said, thinking back to that Paramore song that had changed my entire pregnancy.

“Hayley Jane.” He said, and I was immediately reminded of Jane whom I had met at Dr. McKenzie’s office once.

“Hayley Jane Hansen.” I told him, smiling and finally tearing my eyes away from our little girl.

I saw his eyes light up as Dr. McKenzie handed me the birth certificate with the birth time already recorded, 10:34 p.m.. I filled in her name with Hayley Jane Hansen and documented the father as Thomas Dominic Hansen and the mother as Emma Rae Hansen. Thom grinned and kissed me. I heard cheering in the hallway and broke away to see that Paul, Mr. and Mrs. Numez, and Becky had finally arrived. I laughed as they all ran into the room, cooing over Hayley. I smiled, looking at Thom.

“I love you” he mouthed at me.

“I love you too” I told him.

We both gazed at Hayley. Then I looked around the room and realized something. This was my family. And, looking back at my daughter, it was finally complete.