You Made It

Ten days to go. 17th December with ten days until the baby I had been carrying for the past nine months was due to come out. Also only 8 days until Christmas, which was I was extremely unprepared for this year, due to not being able to do a lot thanks to the ever growing bump I had. John was still currently on tour, due home in three days, just in time for the festivities and our new arrival.

Whilst John was on tour, it had been ordered that Lauren had to stay with me so that if anything happened, I would have someone there. I didn’t mind, as it meant that we got to have lots of girly nights together, involving many takeouts, chick flicks and reminiscing.

And at around 10.30pm that night, I was extremely grateful for Lauren being there.

I was laid out on the sofa as Lauren was curled up in a armchair as we watched Pitch Perfect. I was tired a lot of the time at the moment, so had been drifting in and out of sleep for the past couple of hours. I had no idea how long I had been asleep for this time, but woke up suddenly to a sharp pain in my stomach and a strange sensation between my legs.

“AHHH,” I yelled out in pain.

“WHAT IS IT?” Lauren asked, jumping up from her chair, looking as though she had also fallen asleep briefly.

“OH MY GOD,” I screamed, as realization took over.

“WHAT, LINDSAY?!” she shouted.

“I think my waters just broke!”

“WHAT! Oh my god, what the hell are we doing? I’ll grab your bag, you just...just take deeps breaths,” she said, speaking extremely fast. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, I am so not ready for this. Where’s you bag? Where’s your bag? Where are my keys?” she kept asking, seemingly only taking to herself, whilst pacing around my living room.

“My bag is in the hall closet, your keys are most likely in you bag, which is next to the chair you were sat in,” I told her, in between breaths.

“How are you so calm right now?!” she asked, panic written across her face.

“I’m not, I’m freaking out, THE BABY IS COMING AND JOHN ISN’T HERE, HE’S NOT EVEN IN THE SAME STATE!”

“Fuck John! I need to call him!” Lauren said, digging through her bag.

“No, Lo, you need to get me in the car and take me to the hospital, I’ll call John in the car,” I told her. “Now please, help me up!”

“Shit, yeah OK, let’s go.”

Once she had managed to get my bag and her bag in her car, she came back and helped me out to of the house as well. I slowly walked down my drive and struggled to sit comfortably in the front seat, before Lauren handed me her phone.

“Here, call John, NOW!” she instructed as she began to drive down my street.

I found his name and pressed call and he answered almost immediately.

“Hey, Lo, how’s it going?” he asked.

“It’s not Lauren,” I said before taking another deep breath.

“Linds? Why are you calling from Lauren’s phone? Is everything OK?”

“Um, everything’s fine, it’s just, er, ARGH,” I stopped to take another breath.

“LINDSAY?!”

“The baby’s coming John, my water’s broke!” I suddenly blurted out.

“NO. No, no, no, no, no,” he repeated. “It’s ten days early, it wasn’t meant to happen whilst I wasn’t there, fuck, fuck, fuck. Right, I’m on my way.”

“John, I love you,” I said. “Please hurry.”

“I will, I love you too.”

We hung up and I let out an even louder yell of pain. I hadn’t even noticed where Lauren had been driving.

“It’s going to be OK, I’m going to get you to the hospital soon and your baby is going to wait until John’s there too before he or she makes an appearance so you can both share this moment.”

“But what if he doesn’t make it?!” I asked.

“He will,” she nodded.

“ARGHHHH!” I yelled again, holding onto my bump. If these were contractions, I’d had enough of them already. I took a few more breaths before turning to Lauren when I could speak again. “It’s a she by the way.”

“What?”

“The baby, it’s a girl, we found out a while ago but didn’t tell anyone,” I explained. “We’re having a daughter.

“Lindsay, that’s incredible! I can’t believe you didn’t say anything,” she smiled. “Little Miss O’Callaghan. Or will it be Simpson, since you guys aren’t married?”

“It’s going to be O’Callaghan, why wouldn’t it be?”

A few minutes later, Lauren pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and helped me out of her car before grabbing the bags and helping me walk towards the entrance.

Once inside, she walked straight up to the desk and began talking.

“Excuse me? Excuse me? Hello?” she asked, until a receptionist looked her way. “Hi there, my best friend is in a lot of pain as she’s pregnant and her waters have broken and she needs to be checked as soon as possible please.”

“OK, OK, miss, please fill in these forms and then someone will be with you,” the receptionist said.

“But she’s gone into labor and needs help now,” Lauren said.

“Miss, please, fill in the forms, until then we cannot do anything.”

“But-”

“Lauren, please, just fill in the forms as they’ve asked.”

We went through all the question quickly and she handed them back to the same receptionist.

“DONE!” Lauren shouted. “Now can she be seen?”

“Someone’s on their way,” she nodded.

An hour later, after I had been checked over and advised that I was no where near to being ready to give birth yet, I was alone in my room with Lauren while I continued to groan in pain every so often.

I turned to Lauren who was holding my hand the entire time.

“I love that you’re my best friend, I don’t know who else would have shouted at a receptionist for me.”

“Anyone would have in that situation, but I’m glad it was me,” she laughed.

“Lo, can you ring John please? I want him here more than anything right now, I just need to know where he is.”

“Of course, I’ll go now,” she smiled as she stood up and left the room.

She returned about five minutes later and sat back in her spot.

“And?” I asked.

“He’s at Dallas airport waiting to get on a flight in the next hour to here, says he should be here within the next three hours and has demanded that you clamp your legs together for the next three hours so he doesn’t miss it.”

“He’s an idiot,” I laughed

“Well, I told him that’s what you should have done nine months ago,” she told me.

“LAUREN!”

“What? It’s true!” she laughed. “Anyways, so for the next three hours, I don’t wanna see any baby girl making an appearance so we need to find some sort of entertainment.”

We watched TV, we played stupid games, we reminisced about old times and one hour passed. And then another. And then the third hour passed. But still no John. And still no baby.

“Where is John?” I asked, taking a deep breath after another contraction.

“He’s coming,” Lauren reassured.

“But he was meant to be here by now,” I moaned.

“Do you want me to try calling him?” she asked.

“Please.”

Lauren got up and walked out of the room as I placed a hand on my bump.

“Just hold out a while longer baby, please,” I said. “I’m not ready yet.”

As I spoke, I heard the door open to my room and looked up expecting to see Lauren coming back but it was my midwife.

“Hi Lindsay, how you getting on?” she asked, walking over to my bed and taking a seat at the end.

“OK, I think, or at least I hope,” I told her.

“You are doing fine,” she said to me, but hadn’t even checked anything over so it was obvious she was trying to keep me calm. “Right then, lets have a look how you’re doing.”

I tried to relax as she checked me but all I could hope was that she was going to tell me that I still had a while to go. As much as the contractions were painful, I wanted John to be here.

After a couple of minutes, she stood back up and began writing something on my notes.

“And?” I asked, watching her.

“You’re still not fully dilated, so we can’t take you in the to delivery room just yet,” she explained and I let out a sigh of relief. “But I would say you’ll probably be ready within the hour.”

As she spoke the words, panic rushed over me. Within the hour. And John still wasn’t here. I prayed that when Lauren returned she would be coming with good news.

The midwife left and about two minutes later, the door opened again with Lauren’s return.

“Please tell me John’s nearly here?” I asked, but by the look on her face, I knew she wouldn’t be telling me what I wanted to hear.

“I’m sorry, Linds,” she began. “I tried calling him a few times with no answer. So then I tried Tim, and he said that John had left them ages ago and he didn’t know whether he had managed to get a flight or not yet. But if he’s not answering, I’m guessing he’s still in the air.”

“What is taking him so god damn long?!”

“I don’t know, Linds, but he’ll be here, I know he will,” she added. “What did the midwife say?”

“That I’m not ready yet, but she think I will be within the hour.”

“Jeez, not long to go now then,” she commented and I just shook my head.

The midwife returned a few times over the next 40 minutes and after her fourth visit in that time, she said what I didn’t want to hear.

“Looks like you’re just about there, Lindsay, I’ll go and advise the nurses and we’ll take you into the delivery room shortly,” she explained.

“No, I can’t go yet, I want to wait for John to be here!” I cried out.

“I’m sorry we can’t wait for him, your baby is ready to come out,” she explained. She picked up my notes before walking out of the room.

As the door swung behind her, I heard a voice sounded panicked in the corridor.

“Excuse me? Excuse me? I’m looking for my girlfriend, she’s in labor, or she was, am I too late?” I heard the familiar voice asking and my head shot to look at Lauren.

She walked to the door and I saw someone guide John in the direction of my room.

“Lindsay!” he smiled as soon as he saw me.

“John, oh my god, I’m so glad you’re here,” I said, tears beginning to form in my eyes, as my midwife came back into my room.

‘OK, Lindsay, let’s get you to the delivery room.”

“John,” I breathe as I felt another contraction. He watched me with panic in his eyes as I winced in pain. “I’m so happy you made it.”

“Me too, baby,” he smiled, taking me hand as I was wheeled off to delivery.