Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

Viviane’s eyes were pressed together, sweat stood on her forehead and she was curled up, her arms gripping around the baby. Sidney jumped up, ran around the bed and fell to the floor beside her.

“Viviane… hey… hey… listen to me… how can I help you? Baby? Talk to me….”

Viviane opened her eyes and looked at him. Her eyes were filled with tears and she slowly stuttered in pain: “Hospital… fast… ”
Quickly he ran through the house grabbing the most important things and drove the car in front of the house. After wrapping Viviane into a thick blanket and carried her to the passenger seat. By now the GPRS had found the closest hospital and the car shot through the dark night. Viviane was shaking and crying in pain every now and then. In sorrow he laid a hand on her knee only to have her grip it with greatest force.

“If this is what a contraction feels like you will never ever get another child from me. I swear. Don’t even dream about it… I’ll hang your family jewels from the rafters at Consol. F*** this hurts.”

When he finally pulled up in front of the hospital, she was pale like a ghost and tears were streaming down her face. Carefully he picked her up and set her into the wheel chair a nurse quickly brought.

“Hey my name is nurse Mary. What happened? How can we help you?” The nurse introduced herself.

“My wife woke up in great pain. I’m afraid she’s having the baby. The water didn’t break yet I think.”

He pushed the wheelchair into a room and was send out the second a doctor arrive. In sorrow he watched the nurse and the doctor helping Viviane out of the chair and into the bed. The nurse put a heart monitor and several other things around the belly while the doctor took another ultra sound. Minutes went by and it felt like forever until the doctor walked out.

“Hello Mr. Crosby. Let’s go into my office for a second to get some privacy.” He quickly said and pointed down the hall. Sidney nodded and followed him, not before throwing one last quick glance at Viviane who had closed her eyes and looked a little more relaxed.

The doctor opened the door to a small office and offered Sid a chair, who gladly accepted.

“So Mr. Crosby my name is Dr. Haskins, I’m the leading gynaecologist at this hospital. We just had a complicated birth of twins so it’s your lucky day. Your girlfriend had some early contractions. May I ask who far along she is and if there were any troubles in your personal life or the pregnancy lately that may have cased there?”
It felt like a fist of steel grabbed his heart and refused to let go. Early contractions by all means didn’t sound good.

“In our personal life we didn’t have any troubles. Christmas and all was easy. My wife had some troubles with the cervix shortening so she was on bed rest for about a month or 6 weeks but the doctor back home said it was all good and went back to almost full strength so we decided to take some days off and relax. In our first night here … well this is our first night here…” Sidney summed up.

“Not so much of a vacation. This is very personal but did you have any intercourse lately? That can trigger contractions. I’m just trying to find out where they were coming from. We just need to know whether it’s save for her to go home let’s say tomorrow or whether she has to stay in a hospital for a longer period of time.”

“No we didn’t. We don’t want to take any risk for the kid. We both love the baby a lot so we took pretty much every precaution to keep things from going wrong but it seems like we’re failing miserably.” He confessed honestly.

“I wouldn’t say it like that. To me it looked like you have a strong and healthy looking kid growing in there. I would suggest every one is trying to get some good nights rest and we’ll see how the baby, the mother and the cervix looks like in the morning. The water indeed didn’t break so we don’t have to expect the birth tonight. We gave your wife some contraction suppressing medicine and she should be fine to sleep. You can go see her now if you wish. Have a good night. Mr Crosby.”

“Thanks a lot Dr. Haskins.”

Quickly Sidney left the office and headed back to Viviane’s room. The nurse was gone by now and Viviane laid in the room all by herself staring at the ceiling.
She didn’t here him enter hung up in her thoughts so he hesitated for a moment.

“Hey there beautiful.” He said in a low voice.

Viviane’s head shot around and she looked at him with an exhausted smile.
“Hey daddy.”
She offered him a hand and he took it into both of his, sitting down on a chair beside the bed.
Her hand was ice cold so he rubbed it a little between his hands to warm it up again. Viviane’s eyes went back to the ceiling and silence fell over the room. it was a comfortable silence and the only noise was the low sound of the monitor signalising ever beat the baby’s heart took. It was calming and both knew nothing too bad had happened.

“Sid?” Viviane suddenly said after a while.

“Yes?”

“I changed my mind… I want an epidural. I never thought contractions were this horrible. Can we please tell the doctor as soon as we are home? It hurt so much.” Her voice was shaking. Slowly Sidney turned around faced her and cupped her face with one hand, brushing away a lone tear with his thumb.

“Don’t worry princess. It’s the first phone call I will take in the morning okay? Now don’t cry anymore. It’s over for now. Try to sleep. I’m right here. I won’t go anywhere tonight okay?”

Viviane nodded and let out a sigh in relief. Soon she fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the nurse entered the room hours later.

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“Good Morning Mrs. Crosby. I’m just here to check your vitals. The doctor will be checking up with you around 10. Your husband is in the hall on the phone. He will be with you in a moment I thing.”

After taking the temperature, blood pressure and blood sugar, as well as printing out the vital graphs the monitor had registered throughout the night, she left her alone.
Soon Sidney came back and smiled at her.
“Good morning. I just talked to your doc. She said it’s no problem and if you decide against it on short notice you just have to say no okay?”

“Thank you so much Sid. Good morning to you too.”

“Do you mind if I drive to the house real quick, get changed, take care of Sam and get you some new cloth? I’ll be back before you are done with breakfast, I swear.”

“Sure see you later.”

Sidney did as he promised her. Luckily no more snow fell during the night and when he opened the front door his dog shot out immediately. After greeting him with passion, Samantha ran into the snow hid behind a tree and came back looking very relived but totally covered in snow. He laughed a little at her and dried her off with a towel before picking up the poop and throwing it into the junk.
The dog lady danced around him with every step he took inside the house. She even sat in front of the bathroom door while he showered.

“You act like you haven’t seen me since months, missy” he told her when she tugged on the towel he had wrapped around his hips.
When he closed the front door short time later, Sam sat by the door looking at him with big sad eyes.

“I’ll be back soon. I promise. Don’t break the house.”
Sam just barked and watched him leave.

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Sidney arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes later and found Viviane’s room empty. A nurse walked by though and told him she got an earlier slot at the doctor. He waited half an hour until the door finally swung open and another nurse pushed the wheel chair in. Viviane smiled tiredly. They were given their privacy and after Viviane changed she started explaining.

“The cervix is really short. They don’t know why and they also don’t know where the contractions came from. Unfortunately I already dilated a little so they don’t allow me to sit in the car to drive home. The only way they see to get me back to Pittsburgh before the birth is with a helicopter. It could be here within 40 minutes in case we want that. The hospital back home also is better equipped when it comes to premature infants. The biggest catch is I have to stay in the hospital until the baby is born. The doctor said there is no way the cervix will gain strength leave along the dilation will close again.”
Viviane’s strong façade broke and her shoulders shook again. Sidney wrapped his arms around her and tried to calm her.

“Relax… it will all be fine… we will fly you home as soon as possible okay? I will talk to the doctor. Back in Pittsburgh everything will look better again okay? The girls will visit you, the boys will annoy you okay? Cheer up your getting a helicopter ride over this winter wonderland.” He said.

Viviane giggled: “You’re such a closet kid.”

“No I’m not… They call me Sid the Kid. It’s my title.”