I called an ambulance, not being able drive myself. When they arrived, they strapped me into a stretcher and loaded me into the ambulance. On the way to the hospital, I convinced one of the paramedics to call my mom. She was waiting for me at the entrance.
“Oh, honey! How are you doing?” Just as I had thought, she was panicking.
“Mom, I’m fi-aghhh!” I stopped mid-sentence, screaming in agony as my contractions started. The doctors pushed the gurdy into a private room and hooked me up to the blood pressure machine. My contractions were getting closer together now.
“Ok, sweetie. We’re going to wait till the contractions are a little closer together, does that sound okay?” The nurse put a thermometer under my tongue as I nodded. Soon, I was feeling nothing but pain.
“Ok, I think it’s time to push. Remember, it’s very important to breath, do you understand?” I nodded the best I could.
A couple minutes later, I was holding my newborn daughter for the very first time.
“Did you decide on a name for her?” The nurse asked, smiling.
“Catherine.” I replied, letting her wrap her tiny little hands around my finger. A couple hours after I held my first-born child for the first time ever, I was able to go back to my apartment with Catherine Diana Cumberbatch. Since I had been expecting her to come any day now, naturally I had a room ready. I put her in the pink cradle and then went to take a bath. I wasn’t used to feeling this light and that caused me to trip a lot. I lowered myself into the bathtub, sighing when the hot water rush over my worn-out, post pregnant body. I sat there for almost an hour before I realized; I was starving. I hadn’t eaten since that morning. I dried myself off and got dressed in my most comfortable clothes. I walked out to the kitchen and started cooking some spaghetti when I heard Kate start crying from her bedroom down the hall. I lived in a one story flat, so I had to transform my sewing/office room into her nursery. I strode down the hall and into the bedroom. Kate was crying loudly in her crib. I smiled. The pros and cons of being a mom. I walked over to her crib and picked her up, patting her back and shushing her softly. Just as I had gotten her to go back to sleep, I heard a creak of floorboards behind me. I froze. Suddenly, someone was holding a cloth that smelled of chloroform over my mouth and whispering in my ear.
“Hi, Elizabeth. Cute baby. Who’s the daddy? He isn’t here right now, though, is he?”