I leaned over and kissed Kerry’s cheek assured that we were okay.
#
The days passed and then I was one week until my due date and having no signs of having this baby. A lot my sisters knew about nesting and giving birth to babies. Yancy was still hanging on by a sliver waiting for her grandchild to be born. This child wasn’t going to come early like Keegan had. This child was going to hang on to the bitter end. Dammit!
Thump. Thump. Thump. Out of the ball park! I just peed my pants a little child would you get off my bladder?
Chapter Twenty
Labor Day came and went with cooler weather, thank you Jesus because I still had no baby. My due date September 4th passed without event. Guess what? A baby? Oh. Hell. No. I was starting to think the child was never coming out. He liked it inside his mommy. He liked torturing me. Two days past my due date on Saturday a familiar band of tightness around my stomach started in the early morning hours. Oh yeah, I remember that feeling.
Eighteen years had passed since I had given birth but I was fairly sure the pains were contractions and not the Braxton Hicks kind either. These contractions were keeping me awake. They were hard gripping pains in my belly and back like a steel belt was constricting my body making it difficult to breathe but they weren’t consistent.
Glancing at the clock I saw that it was one o’clock in the morning. I crawled from the bed trying not to disturb Kerry in the process. He remained sleeping. So peaceful, hair across one eye. Arm flung behind his head. Gosh, I loved this beautiful man. I tip toed like an elephant (large, pregnant woman) out of the room and down the hall to the staircase leaving him to rest.
On my way down the steps I heard the bedroom door open where Adin and Brad were sleeping. We both peeked at each other through the alcove me above and her below until we saw each other. Then Adin’s footsteps resumed lightly as she padded barefoot on the wooden steps. I waited in the stairwell for her to catch up to me. Adin was wearing Brad’s boxers and a tank top. Briefly, I wondered what Brad was wearing?
Without make-up and her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail she looked as young as Keegan which disgusted me. I felt like a big hot pink whale in my hot pink nightgown, hair a mass of wavy black curls uncombed flying about in different directions. Damned unruly hair. So very unattractive. So very large.
“What’s wrong?” She whispered when she reached me.
“I think I’m in labor,” I told her resuming my descent down the stairs expecting Adin to follow.
“What do you mean you think?” She asked trying to stifle a yawn. She did follow. “Don’t you know?”
“It has been eighteen years,” I told her grumpily.
“How far apart are your contractions?” She asked.
; “Seven or eight minutes. Ten minutes,” I responded. “Not close enough.”
“Where are you going?”
“Walking.”
At the front door I slipped on my sandals awkwardly. Remember large belly, me not so graceful? I had left the sandals there earlier this evening and grabbed my hooded sweatshirt from the hook. In Michigan, evenings in summer anytime could be cool and we were having a cold snap right now. The low was fifty five tonight. It was September after all.
“Do you know what time it is?” Adin asked incredulously.
“Of course I do.”
She followed me outside, down the porch steps to the sidewalk. “Why are you going for a walk?” Adin sounded more than exasperated with me while she slipped on a sweatshirt and flip flops trying to keep up with me while dressing on the move.
“Because walking is supposed to speed up your labor. I’ve been very uncomfortable for hours…hell I’ve been uncomfortable for weeks Adin. I’m ready.”
She followed me down the sidewalk to the gate, which led to the sidewalk that paralleled the street in front of our house. Adin held the gate for me. I stepped through.
“Uh Gab don’t you think you should wake Kerry?” She asked uncomfortably.
Trying to dissuade me was not going to work. I glanced at her and growled. “Either walk with me or go back inside. I want to let him sleep as long as possible. God knows when I’ll need to go to the hospital. There is no sense in both of us being awake now.”
I was a woman with a mission. This child was coming out soon come hell or high water. My pace was quick for a woman with my belly girth.
“I’m not letting you go alone.” I was a fast walker normally. The pregnancy hadn’t slowed me much. Adin was a slow walker and was having difficulty keeping up with me. “Hey, you walk pretty fast for someone your size. Could we slow the pace just a bit? It is one o’clock in the morning.”
As if she had read my thoughts. Adin was getting winded. Hell, I was getting winded. Stopping in my tracks, I turned and glared at my sister who nearly crashed into my back. You know it was okay for me to think this but not okay for anyone else to think or say the words out loud.