With Love Comes Pain, but What About Forgiveness?

“Baby, look at your belly, it’s humongous,” Joe explained to me six months later as he placed his hands on my eight month pregnant stomach, I glared at him, “I’m not calling you fat, I’m just saying that you’re…. big, but it’s only because of the baby so it’s okay.”

“You’re digging yourself a deeper whole,” I told him as I crossed my arms and looked at him, “Once this kid is out of me then I’ll be back to my fit self, then I don’t want to hear anything negative about my weight.”

Joe rolled his eyes, “I wasn’t being negative,” he said to me as he bent down and pressed his lips against my belly, “Hi, baby, your mommy is being very grouchy right now, don’t pay any attention to her, she’s very hormonal, if she beats me to death then I want you to know that I love you very much and I’m sorry I wasn’t around to spoil you.”

I laughed uncontrollably as I ran my fingers through Joe’s jet black hair, “You’re such an idiot,” I told him as he came back up and smiled at me, “I’m not going to beat you to death, don’t tell the baby that what if he or she understands you? They’re going to come out thinking their mommy is a psycho.”

“You are a psycho,” he said as he grabbed my cheeks and pulled my face towards his, “A very pretty psycho though, so it’s all good.” He pressed his lips lightly against mine as I kissed him back.

“Thank you… I think,” I said as we laughed together, we made our way to our bed and sat down, “My back hurts…since you got me pregnant you need---”

“Give you a massage,” Joe said as he cut me off and laughed, “I know, you tell me that every single day,” he placed his hands on my lower back and began to massage it gently, “You’re not going to have this pregnancy as an excuse for future back rubs.”

It was now mid-September, Joe and I were asleep in bed when he woke me up, “Baby, did you pee the bed or something because it’s all wet,” he said in a grossed out tone, I shook my head vigorously, “Are you sure? Look at the bed…” He threw the blanket off of us and sure enough there was a huge wet spot.

All of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in my stomach and then it became clear to me, “Joe that’s not pee,” I said as I closed my eyes and began to breathe in deeply, “My water just broke.”

“What!” he screamed loudly and it made me jump, “Sorry,” He apologized quickly but began to shout again in, “So, what does this mean? You’re going to have the baby? But, you’re only eight months pregnant; you’re a month early…”

“Some babies come early, Joe,” I explained to him calmly, “Don’t freak out right now because I don’t want my blood pressure to rise or anything, it could potentially harm the baby.”

“You’re right,” he said slowly and calmly, “What do I do? You need to give me directions here, baby; I don’t want to mess up on anything right now? Do you need to push or anything? Like in the movies?” He was really nervous because he wouldn’t have asked such an idiotic question if we wasn’t.

I glared at him, “No, you moron,” I said to him as I laughed, “You’re supposed to take me to the hospital, grab the bag in the closest, I prepared it the other day just in case, I’ll call our parents so that they can meet us at the hospital.”

It only took us about twenty minutes to get to the hospital, instead of rushing like a sane person, Joe decided to go the speed limit because he didn’t want to crash, it didn’t matter though because my contractions weren’t bad. Once we got there, they placed me into a room almost immediately and not long after our entire family was there.

“Oh my goodness, this is so exciting,” Denise said excitedly as she pulled out her video camera, “I’m going to be a grandma.” My mother was standing next to her and they were expressing their excitement together, they began talking about their future grandchild; along with my father and Paul.

My contractions began to get closer to each other and every so often a nurse would come in and see how dilated I was, “Every time she checks it grosses me out,” Kevin said as he shivered and Danielle laughed at him, “I don’t know how you’re staying sane, Joe, when Danielle gets pregnant I’m going to freak out.”

“Jewel told me not freak out because then she’ll freak out and then it could hurt the baby,” Joe explained to his brother, “So, I’m containing myself.” He smiled proudly at me as he kissed my head and stoked my hand.

“OW!” I shouted loudly as I felt an extreme amount of pressure and pain being put on me, I began to squeeze Joe’s hand as hard as I could, “This is it, I think it’s time,” I felt the tears in my eyes begin to form as the doctor came running it.

“I heard your scream from out in the hall,” the doctor said with a warm smile as he sat down on his chair and began to examine me, “You’re fully diluted, it’s time to have a baby,” he said energetically as I smiled slightly, “Who do you want in the room with you?”

“Can’t everyone stay?” I asked him nicely, if I just asked Nick to say with me and Joe it would look odd so I had to make it where it wouldn’t look suspicious, “Please?”

The doctor nodded, “Sure, I guess that’ll be okay,” he said to me warmly as I smiled at him, “Alright, let’s get this party started…”

“Umm, Jewel, I love you to death but I don’t think I can stand here through all of this without passing out,” Kevin said as he walked over to me and kissed my head, “I’ll be out in the waiting room with Frankie.”

“I’m going to go wait with him,” Danielle said as she walked over to me and hugged me tightly, “Love you.” The two of them walked out of the room together.

Nick walked towards me and grabbed my hand, “I’ll let you squeeze my hand too,” he said as he smiled at me.

It had been twenty minutes of me screaming in pain and squeezing the life out of Joe and Nick’s hand when I finally heard the sweetest cry that I’ve ever heard in my life, “Congratulations,” the doctor announced, “It’s a girl.”