Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3)(121)

She made it to the end of the driveway before the contractions doubled in ferocity. Up until that point she had thought she could deal with labor quite well. Sure, they would hurt toward the end, probably, but she was good with pain. She could handle it.

That was until they turned it up a notch. Now it was starting to get serious. It was a game changer.

Krista took her cell phone out of her pocket and called Sean’s office.

Janice picked up on the third ring.

“Janice?” Krista asked before the matronly assistant could finish her spiel.

“Yes? Krista?”

“Yeah, hi, Janice. Is Sean in?”

“I’m sorry, he’s in a meeting. I’ll have him call you right ba…”

“No Janice, it’s an emergency. Tell him I’ve started labor.”

“Oh my God, honey, congratulations! He’ll be so excited. Just so you know, you’ll have hours and hours before you’ll need to go to the hospital. I know this is your first so you…”

“Janice, I’ve already been at this for about five hours. It’s time for him to come home now.”

“Oh! Please hold…”

Krista felt another wave of pain coming on. It was like being caught out in the ocean in San Diego when that huge set came out of nowhere. Sure, they had been quite large all day, but she hadn’t been ready for what the ocean threw at her next.

This was next. It felt like her abdomen was in a vice that was squeezing, forcing everything inside her body to attempt evacuation, except there was nowhere for it to go. And then there was the back pain. It was worse. It was like her bones were cracking apart and sending shooting spirals of razors down her spine.

She leaned against the light fixture and breathed. She wasn’t using what she learned in birthing class—she wasn’t going to do a bunch of loud, guttural moaning, thank you very much. Instead, she used her breathing techniques for running. When she couldn’t go that last mile, she would breathe it out. Focus on the breathing. Keep calm and relaxed. Just focus on the—

Oh holy God…I do not like this, Sam-I-Am.

She could hear the trace sounds of panic in Sean’s voice as he picked up. “Krista?”

Usually she would then calm down to calm him down. Not this time, señor. Another bout of pain was right around the corner and she no longer wanted to be alone.

“Hi Sean. I am having contractions. Come home.”

“Of course. I’ll call you back on the cell. I’m so excited!”

“Uh huh.”

“Okay, call you right back. Stay by the phone.”

“Uh huh.”

“Love you. Bye.”

She was supposed to go to the hospital when contractions were sixty seconds long and about five minutes apart. So far she knew she wasn’t there yet. That meant that the pain, on a scale of one to oh-my-God, was still closer to numerals. That didn’t bode well for her mood. She was still toying with the idea of a natural birth.

The phone rang. Before Krista could say hello, she heard Sean yelling, “wish us luck!”

“Hello, Krista?”

“Yeah, Sean.”

“Okay, now I’m headed out of the building. How are you feeling?”

“Scared.”

“Okay, no problem. That is only natural. It is going to be okay. Women have been doing this for thousands of years, so it is doable.”

“Women have been dying in childbirth for thousands of years. Modern medicine doesn’t make it any less terrifying.”

“That’s true, Krista. Of course that’s true. How bad is the pain on a scale of one to ten?”

“I don’t know, Sean. It hurts. I thought I might go for a walk to speed things up and they suddenly got super worse.”

“What? Where? Walk where? Where are you?”

Some men got the protective urge when their partners were pregnant. Sean made those men look unconcerned. Krista couldn’t count the times she was carried up the stairs. He checked up on her constantly. Forget lifting anything heavy. Getting up on a stool? No way. It was cute at first, but quickly turned extremely irritating. He did it all out of love for both her and the unborn peanut, so she didn’t push back too hard, but scowl lines might be permanently etched into her face. Especially when he started pushing a freaking chauffer on her!

“Calm down, I am at the bottom of the drive way,” Krista said slowly.

He muttered a curse.

“Okay, great,” he said, trying to stay positive and not get mad at her for traipsing around the yard while in labor with his child.

Sometimes it was only his child—usually when he thought she was being reckless.

“Well, I am about twenty minutes out. Did you want to sit on the little brick wall until I get there? I hate for you to be walking up the driveway and fall…”

“I’ll just stay here. Drive safely.”

“Of course I will. Of course. Okay, so how was your day? When did it start?”

“I’m not really in a chatty mood, Sean.”

“Absolutely. No problem.”

“I’ll see you when you get home.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay on the line?”

“No I…” pain surged in the center of her and radiated out. She bent over and breathed, forgetting about Sean entirely. It was as though all the time sitting still stalled the pain, and now it was coming at her with a vengeance. Maybe she needed to relax again. Maybe that was the big thing. Sitting was certainly the thing. So were drugs.