April 17th 2025
New York City, New York
There was one word that was plaguing Taylor's mind, bringing her nothing but irritance and annoyance all week long. And that word was overdue...
Whilst she had heard that it wasn't uncommon for a first time mom to go overdue, it was still nonetheless annoying. Everything in her life had always been so meticulously planned, even down to her bathroom breaks for shows and travelling. But this was the one thing in life that she couldn't control.
And that as how she found herself, pacing around and around their bedroom, waiting for Travis to come home from a meeting so that they could go to the doctors office. Because Taylor was now over a week overdue, she had to go in for another ultrasound and checkup with her OBGYN to check for any abnormalities. Seeing as the baby was going to be rather a big baby, unsurprisingly, the doctor had suspected that Taylor's body Amy struggle to go into labour naturally seeing as it had never done it before and that her body most likely would struggle with a natural birth. But Taylor more than anything did not want to have a c-section. It grossed her out and she knew that Travis would never find her attractive again if he saw her stomach being ripped open and her organs scooped out and placed in metal bowls in some random operating theatre.
She heard the door swing open, hearing Travis' booming voice from the hallway.
"Tay, are you ready to go!" He shouted, coming through into the living room where he found no sight of her. She had just been in the bathroom on what could have been the third or the fiftieth pee of the day. She wasn't too sure now.
"Tay." Travis said, coming round the corner to their bedroom. "The doctor's appointment is in fifteen minutes. The doctor is keeping it open out of hours for us so we should probably get a move on if we want to-"
But he was cut off before he could even finish his sentence.
"IN A MINUTE!" He heard her screech. "Ok I am ready to go."
Taylor emerged from the bathroom, her natural hair falling in beautiful curls over her shoulder, she had let her hair grow out during her pregnancy, knowing full well from what she had heard that it would all fall out by the time baby girl was here. She had on a floral maternity dress paired with a cream cashmere cardigan.
"You look beautiful my love." Travis uttered, coming over to wrap his arms around her, kissing her neck lightly. She looked up at him and laughed.
"You are a terrible liar." Taylor chuckled as she grabbed her purse and made her way behind Travis towards the front door. "Ummm Trav!"
"What?" Travis uttered, turning around to look at Taylor who had stopped a few metres behind him. She looked down at the ground, unable to look him in the eye.
"I need help." She had big round eyes, full of emotion like a sweet little puppy. He knew immediately what she meant.
"Ofcourse." He replied immediately, ushering her over to the sofa and bringing her the white toms trainers she was planning on wearing. He knelt down in front of her, slipping on the shoes one at a time before tying them in a double knot to keep them from coming undone. "Right. Lets go."
He followed her out to the car that was waiting for them. There were of course a few paps out on the street but seeing as it was late in the evening, out of hours for the doctor's office, their presence wasn't really noticed.
"So Taylor, how have you been feeling?" The doctor asked after Taylor got herself situated on the bed, minus her underwear. Even though it was nothing both Travis and her doctor had seen before, it was nevertheless still embarrassing being completely naked from the waist down in front of them both. That had been her one request of Travis for when the time came for her to give birth: whatever happened, he was not to watch her give birth from that end. If he did, there was a large chance he would never want to have sex with her again. Ignorance is bliss and after having children, it's the only way to keep the sex aspect of your relationship alive and burning.
"Well I feel fat, ugly and disgusting!" Taylor replied in annoyance. "I haven't seen my feet in weeks, I am having to get Travis to do everything for me, I can''t even walk ti the bathroom without being in pain and I keep peeing myself. I just want this to be fucking over already."
"Tay language." Travis warned, as if he was her mother. The doctor laughed sweetly.
"Don't worry, I heard and seen it all before. It is nothing new, I promise. Now Taylor, I understand from the nurse that you lost your mucus plug four days ago correct."
Taylor nodded and she watched as the doctor noted down something on her laptop before turning back to the pair of them.
"So I am going to examine you to check where we are at and then we will run through what our options and next steps are going forward."
Taylor gave her the thumbs up, wincing as she felt a gloved hand enter into her. No matter how many times she had felt it throughout her time and pregnancy, it never got any easier, or any more comfortable. It wasn't exactly painful, but it didn't feel right having someone rooting around in there, feeling as if you are some kind of puppet.
"Ok so I can feel that you are a good two to three centimetres dilated which is very good. I am not super concerned about anything. You should go into labour naturally over the next few hours or days. If you are still feeling nothing by the end of the week, I want you to call me back and we will have to book you in for an induction or a planned c-section."
"Are there anyways to help bring it on um naturally." Travis asked sheepishly, watching as Taylors head whipped around, a look of anger on her face.
"Well there are a number of different options and things that you could try. Things like spicy foods, going on a walk or walking up stairs. Most couples have also found sex to be very effective."
Taylor heard Travis chock on the bottle of water he had in his hand, waiting dripping down his cream jumper in cascading beads. They both looked at each other and then back at the doctor who was typing something up into her computer.
"Well that should be all for today. Hopefully I won't see you again until little miss Kelce arrives." The doctor replied as Taylor made her way off of the bed and towards her bag where she had hidden her underwear when the doctor had been out of the room.
After a quick pit stop at Trader Joes for that nights supplies, they returned home, Taylor throwing down the car keys onto the kitchen table, slightly harder than she had anticipated. She heard the dog barking loudly, indicating that he was hungry. Taylor unloaded their groceries whilst Travis tended to the animals, what with it non longer being safe for her to do so now that she was pregnant.
Their evening was filled with futile attempts to get Taylor to go into labour. They had started with walking around their apartment, taking multiple trips up and down the stairs but that failed. They then moved onto food, starting with spicy jalapeños and tacos from the Mexican places down the street but all that did was come up in a bout of acid reflux and vomit rather quickly. It had been a miracle that Taylor had managed to make it somewhere to be sick. The toilet was never going to happen but she had managed to make her way safely and quickly enough to their kitchen sink and proceeded to vomit all in it. This had been her first wave of sickness in weeks. Ever since she had been prescribed those anti-sickness pills from her doctor back in January, practically all of her sickness had dissapaered. Instantaneously, almost overnight. It had been a miracle seeing Taylor finally back to at least some of her old self again.
They had tried dates and raspberry leaf tea but that didn't work. It at least made the baby calm down into some sort of sleep but her Braxton hicks contractions were getting stronger ad stronger by the hour, snaking around to form in her back as well.
"Ugh let's face it Trav, none of this is working. She clearly is far too comfortable in there." Taylor sighs, leaning back on the sofa in annoyance.
"She obviously is just enjoying the warmth and sleep she is getting in there, all tucked up and toasty warm." Travis smiled, wrapping a free arm around her and pulling her in close to him.
"A bit like someone else I know." Taylor chuckled, giving him a light kiss on the cheek before slowly rising from the sofa. "I am going to turn in now. There is no use me staying up if I am probably going to get woken up by more of these false labour contractions, the cats or me needing to pee again."
"Ok babe. I am going to clean up down here and then I will be up." He blew her a kiss and watched as she slowly waddled off in the direction of their bedroom. He saw Olivia and Benjamin having a fit at the bottom of the stairs but chose to leave it. There were never any casualties of the marshmallow wars. Meredith as usual was nowhere to be seen and he knew that Jupiter would be upstairs in their bed with Taylor in bis favourite spot: led next to Taylor, with his head curled up on her bump.
He found Taylor sprawled out asleep in the bed, with Jupiter and surprisingly Meredith by her side. He stripped down to his boxers and climbed into the bed next to the three of them, careful not to wake Taylor.
But only a mere thirty minuets later, he had woken her up.
"For fuck sake." Taylor shouted, throwing a pillow at Travis' head waking him up in the process.
"Huh, what's going on Tay?" He said groggily, turning on one of the bedside lamps to observe the scene in front of him. both of the animals had left the bed but he could see Taylor sat up awake, a look of pain and the grimace of annoyance on her face.
"It is you. Will you ever shut up!" Taylor moaned.
"What do you mean?" Travis asked, utterly confused by what on earth Taylor could possibly be trying to get at.
"Your snoring. Fucking god Travis, it's like a freight train. You would have thought the jalapeños would have cleared out your sinuses but no, you still keep snoring." She shouted, every syllable getting a decibel louder.
"I'm sorry Tay." Travis mumbled, watching as Taylor angrily pushed back the covers and slipped on her slippers. She marched out of the bedroom and down the hallway, Travis finding some plaid pyjama trousers in a random drawer in his closet and then leaving their room to find her. It didn't take him long. She was in the place she always was at the moment when she couldn't sleep. In the nursery.
They had completed it merely days ago and it was perfect. Warm and inviting cream walls with a large crib on one wall with a sign bearing the swooping letters of her name. There was a sweet mobile hanging from the ceiling bearing moons, suns and stars on it and a beautiful soft white rug running down the middle. They had found the old rocking chair that had been in Taylor's nursery growing up back when they were in Nashville to see Taylor's mom and Travis' mom Donna had gifted them the blanket that Travis had as a baby. The one that his grandmother had knitted for him to come home in. They had collectively agreed that their baby girl would come home from the hospital in it too.
"I am sorry you feel shit Tay." Travis said softly, moving slowly towards where she was sawing back and forth in the middle of the room. She turned around to face him, a soft smile creeping back into her face.
"It's not your fault. And I am sorry I shouted at you. I am just in pain and miserable." She wrapped her arms around the top of his shoulders, resting her head and weight against his chest. There was a sweet silence between the pair of them, an understanding of some sort with every few moments plagued by et another one of Taylor's Braxton hicks contractions. They were becoming even more regular now, another sign that their baby girl would be in their arms within the next couple of days.
It was all bliss until it happened...
Travis felt a warm coming over him, trickling down his pant legs and pooling onto the floor. He looked down to see the soaked pyjama shorts that Taylor was wearing, her eyes wide with shock and fear.
"Ummm Tay, is that what I thought it just was?"
AUTHORS NOTE: Cliffhanger.... You know I love a good cliffhanger. Did anyone manage to spot anymore easter eggs in this chapter. If you didn't don't worry, I will leave you another name clue. I love reading all of your guesses so far...
Clue No2 - The name ends with the letter 'A'