"Gerald," I hissed as I pushed his shoulder. "Wake up."
"Five more minutes," he groaned as he buried his head in the pillow.
I smacked him this time, and he jumped up in a panic.
"Ow, what the fuck, Rach?!" Gerald yelled as he rubbed his head. "What's wr-"
"I'm having contractions!" I yelled as I pushed myself up off the bed. "Rosie is making her appearance tonight!"
Gerald jumped out of bed as I was talking and stepped out of his pajama pants and traded them for a pair of jeans. He quickly slipped on his vans before rushing over to me.
"What do you want me to do?!!" He panicked as he held his hands out to help me up. "Should I start the car?"
"Get the bags I packed!" I said as I waddled down the hallway. "They're in Rosie's room!"
I screamed out in pain again as I slipped on my Nike slides. My hands flew to my belly, that had become rock hard now, and I started to cry.
"Come on, Rach, baby, it's ok," Gerald cooed as he helped me walk out the door while holding the bags that I had packed only a few days before. "Let's go have a baby."
Xoxox
Gerald had called BJ on the way to the hospital, and the clock on his phone read 3:37 a.m. He had called him because people had gotten pictures of us while we were out together and were posting that I was pregnant, but we didn't want anyone getting any pictures of Rosie out on the Internet before we did.
"BJ's on his way, baby," Gerald winced out in pain as I squeezed his hand. "We're really going to have a baby."
"Oh, God," I groaned as I tilted my head back and squeezed my eyes shut. "How much longer, Gerald?!"
"Rachel, I can only go so fas-"
"I'M GOING TO HAVE THIS BABY IN THE CAR IF YOU DON'T SPEED UP," I yelled as another contraction hit. "PLEASE FUCKING HURRY."
He shut his mouth after that and didn't say anything else - only whimpers of pain left his lips as I squeezed his hand every time a contraction came, which I estimated to be approximately every 4-5 minutes.
The 21-minute drive to the hospital felt like an eternity, but we finally pulled up to the emergency room. Gerald got out and helped me in, leaving the car parked in one of the 15-minute only parking spaces.
As he was helping me in, one of the nurses from behind the desk rushed over and got me a wheelchair before paging the labor and delivery floor on her walkie.
"Are you full term, sweetie?" She asked as the three of us urgently made it to the floor.
"37 weeks, almost 38," I managed to get out in between breaths from crying so hard. "My contractions are roughly 4-5 minutes apart."
"Okay, sweetie. It's okay," she said as she rubbed my back in the elevator. "Are you guys first time parents?"
Gerald answered for us because I was trying to breathe through another small contraction, but I still smiled at what he said.
"Yeah," he beamed. "This is our first child together. I can't wait to announce her to the world. We kept Rach's pregnancy a secret."
The nurse nodded as she wheeled me out when we arrived at the floor.
"Privacy is always a good thing," she smiled. "Less stressful that way. But congratulations to both of you new parents!"
She wheeled me into a room and grabbed a hospital gown out of the linen closet to lay on the bed.
"Let's get you all admitted here so registration can come to get you set up," she said as she turned on the computer after pulling the sheet around the bed so I could change in private.
I gave her my information while changing out of my clothes. Gerald helped me take my panties off and even took my socks off for me because I was getting too hot.
"Alrighty," she smiled as she moved the sheet back when I was done. "I've got you in the system, and it looks like your doctor is on call tonight. I'll be back in a few minutes so we can get you some medicine started."
I nodded as I laid my head back on the pillow with both hands on my belly as I tried to breathe through a contraction.
Gerald rubbed my shoulder with his free hand as I squeezed his other one. He comforted me as I started to cry again.
"Shhh, just breathe through it," he whispered. "You're doing so good, Rach."
BJ knocked on the door to let Gerald know he had arrived, but he gave us our privacy and stood outside the door, and a few minutes after that, my doctor came in.
"Rachel," he beamed as he washed his hands after shutting the door. "It's nice to see you so early in the morning," he laughed, which made me giggle slightly. "The nurse filled me in and said your contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart, so let's check your cervix."
The nurse came in with the fetal heart monitor as my doctor sat on the stool down by my lower end. He inserted two fingers inside to check how dilated I was, and I bit down on my lip because it had hurt so bad.
"You're roughly five centimeters dilated," he said after he was done. "We're halfway to a baby."
The nurse hooked me up to the heart monitor so they could watch Rosie's heartbeat and monitor my contractions, and the doctor ordered an epidural because I was in a massive amount of pain, but in the meantime, while we were waiting for the anesthesiology team, he gave me some pain medicine.
After everything was set up and entered in the computer, they left the room, leaving just me and Gerald. I had glanced over on the wall, and the clock read 5:11 a.m.
"Rosie will be here before we know it," Gerald whispered as he kissed my hair before standing up and walking over to the bags he had set down on the couch-bed type thing. "How are you feeling?"
"A little better," I whispered hoarsely before pushing my hair from my face. "What are you doing?"
"Attempting to make you feel better," he smiled as he sat down by my feet with a small bottle of lotion. "Even though I know I can't help much."
He put some lotion on his hands and rubbed them together before taking one of my feet in his. The coldness of the lotion made my foot twitch, which he laughed at. He started rubbing my arch with his thumbs, and I closed my eyes and sighed contently.
"How's that?" He asked as he picked up my other foot and started to rub it. "Feel good?"
"Mhmmm," I hummed as I closed my eyes when I felt another contraction coming, but it wasn't as intense because of the pain medicine. "The doctor said the anesthesia team will be in within the hour."
Gerald moved his thumbs and rubbed under my toes before popping each one of them, which made me laugh. He got up a while later when the anesthesia team came in.
My doctor explained all the risks of the epidural before giving me a waiver to sign. After I signed it, they prepped me and inserted the epidural into my spine. I stayed completely still even though it felt like my back was on fire the whole time.
"Let's give that a couple of minutes to work, and I'll be back in to check on you," my doctor smiled. "If you need anything, let us know."
After I got the epidural, I couldn't feel much of anything, and the rest of my labor seemed to fly by. We both had even managed to take a little cat nap. Before I knew it, it was time to push and bring Rosie into the world.
My doctor came back in with some of the nurses and shifted the bed.
"Ready to have a baby?" He smiled as he slipped his scrubs on. "Let's do this."
Gerald stayed down by my feet and held one of them while the nurse held the other one. My doctor instructed me to push down whenever I felt the urge to and lifted my gown back over my knees so he could see.
"There you go, just like that," he said after I had pushed twice already. "Come on, Rachel, she's so close."
I had managed to look up and see Gerald watching and not looking away, but I was in too much pain to smile.
At this point, I had tears coming down my cheeks, and I was sweating, but I was so ready to meet Rosie.
When I heard a baby screaming after my last push, I started crying again as they threw a blanket over her and laid her on my chest before cleaning her up.
"Hi, baby," I sniffled. "Oh, my God.."