39 Weeks (52 page)

‘Yes it’s by the door.’ I said also ignoring them both
, as I ducked out from under Rob’s arm
.

‘You don’t even know what to do.’
James said to Rob. ‘You weren’t the one who helped Judy last week.’

‘Well I’m the one who’s going to help her this time, and for the record I know exactly what to do.’ Rob shouted back.

‘Do you need anything else?’ Dad said
to me.

‘I’d like to change first.’ I said. Now that I’d stopped gushing water
everywhere I was soaked and fee
ling very uncomfortable. ‘And I’m supposed to phone the hospital to let them know I’m on my way, and Mum, I’m supposed to phone Mum.’

‘Look you had your chance and you blew it, you ran away.’ James was saying.

‘I didn’t run away. Anyway it’s up to Judy
who takes her to the hospital
not you
, and she obviously would prefer it to be me.’ Rob said and they were so busy
squaring up to each other
that I was forgotten again, even though it was me they were arguing about.

Dad said
‘Okay you go change, I’ll
do the phoning
’.

‘The numb
e
rs are in the side pocket of my
bag.’ I said as I went to the bedroom.

‘If she prefers you so much, then how come I’m
the one
here having dinner with her dad?’
I
hear
d
James saying as I peeled off my soggy jeans and shoes
.

‘Just because you get on with her dad doesn’t mean she wants you to take her to the hospital
, you lame brain
.’
Rob said.

‘Can you two keep it down a bit, I’m on the phone?’ I could hear Dad saying.

‘I’m not the lame brain
, you’re the one who ran away.’ James said only slightly quieter
after Dads admonishment
.

‘If you say I ran away once more I’m going to . .’ Rob started to say.

‘You’re what? Going to run away from me too?’
James answered derisively.

I finished chan
ging and Dad was waiting for me with
my hospital bag in one hand and his car keys in the other, and we walked straight past Rob and James to the front door.

‘Try not to break anything, and remember to lock up when you’re finished.’ Dad said as we left.
 

27
th
Februa
ry – Week 39 + 1 Day
-
C
ontinued

‘Do you think they’ll kill each other?’ I said as we got in Dad’s car.

‘Maybe, but we won’t
worry about that
until
after the
baby’s born.’

Dad started the engine, but as he did I had a really strong contraction. It took my breath away and instinctively I grabbed Dads hand as
it rested on the
gear stick
, s
o we waited a couple of minutes until it had passed.

‘Okay?’ Dad said as I started breathing again.

‘Yeah. That was . . it really hurt. Let’s get to the hospital before I have another one.’

‘Right I’m on it.’ Dad said putting the car in gear and pulling away.

As we rounded the corner I glimpsed Rob and James getting in their cars and guessed they wouldn’t be far behind us.

We pulled into the hospital car pa
rk and as usual had to park
a mile from the hospital entrance, Dad had offered to drop me off and save me walking but I didn’t want to be left on my own. As we walked across the car park another contraction started and Dad held me up while my legs buckled and I hung on to him.

When the pain began to fade I was able to stand up straight again. ‘How long was that?’

‘Um
don’t know, couple of minutes?’ Dad said worriedly.

‘I mean how long since the last one?’

‘I didn’t look at the time when you had the last one. Bout ten or fifteen minutes
I guess
.’ Dad said checking his watch as if that had the answer.

We started walking again slowly. ‘You phoned the hospital right?’ I said.

‘Yes
phoned them, told them we were on our way.’

‘Good so they’re expecting us, and Mum did you phone Mum?’

‘I tried
but I couldn’t get hold of her but
I left a voice mail and sent a text message.’

‘So she’s on her way?’

‘Well as soon as she gets the message
s
she will be I’m sure.’

We reached the entrance just as another contraction hit. Dad held me up again, and this time the
pain was so intense I shouted out making everyone turn and look at us.

Naturally when we finally reached the reception desk we got the sneering disdain from the lady on reception
that
I’d come to expect, and when Dad explained why we were there she seemed surprised, like you couldn’
t figure it
out, I mean anyone with half a brain could have worked out hello large pregnant lady having pains
guess
she must be in labour, but not this woman. Recovering from her surprise she sneeringly looked us up and down as if to say ‘You? Having a baby?’ and then grudgingly told us
we should be in the maternity unit which was in a completely different building at the back of the hospital.

Dad offered to go and get the car and drive me there, but I really didn’t want to be left on my own and by the time he’d done that we could have walked anyway. He
asked M
s NHS Charm if they had a wheel chair he could borrow, but of course they didn’t, so we
started walking really slowly.

I had another
contraction
before we
reach
ed
the maternity unit, and
yet
another one
was
starting
as
we arrived. Rob and James were both waiting for us and rushed over the minute they saw us asking what had taken us so long.
Dad
pushed the button
on the intercom to explain
to the disembodied voice
who we were and that we’d phoned earlier
, while I hung on to Rob
.
This place was harder to break into than the bank of England
,
but a
fter a short interrogation
and as the pain
began to pass
we were all buzzed in.

We were told to take a seat
in the waiting area and that someone would be along
to see to us
soon
. Rob and James seemed to have forgotten their differences at least for the time being
, well almost anyway as they’d both resorted to sulkily glaring at each other
,
and the four of us
sat waiting and talking in h
ushed whispers as if we were in
church.
Dad tried phoning Mum again but couldn’t get a signal so ended up sending another text message that he couldn’t be sure had actually sent
. A
fter a
quarter of an hour
and another contraction
a nurse finally came to show me to a delivery room. I was only allowed one person in with me so Dad came and Rob and James stayed in the waiting room
and
I prayed
that the amnesty between them would hold up, and that I wouldn’t be in labour for too long, as much for their benefit as for mine.
  

I got changed into the nightdress I’d bought with me and with Dad’s help climbed onto the bed.
The nurse who told us rather pompously that actually she was a midwife when Dad referred to her as ‘Nurse’
,
asked for my prenatal record, that was the card I’d had to take with me for all my check-ups and had all my pregnancy information on. Dad rummaged around in my hospital bag until he found it and handed it over, while the
midwife completely ignored the fact that I was having another
contraction.

They were coming
quite often and on a fairly regular basis
now, at least every five minutes, and Dad asked wasn’t there something they could do to help with the pain, to which the midwife told us ‘all in good time’ as she filled out my hospital chart. Evidently she wasn’t going to acknowledge the fact that I was in labour until all the appropriate paperwork had been completed. Heaven knows what happens if you go into labour on a bus or in town or something when they didn’t have all the necessary forms to hand, probably you had to stop having a baby long enough for someone to nip back to the hospital to get them.

Having completed the essentials on my chart and hung it on the end of my bed she disappeared leaving us on our own again, saying only that a doctor would come and assess how far along I was. I could have saved them all t
he bother, I was at my wits end, that’s how far along I was.

We didn’t have to wait too long before a doctor breezed in, all jolly and in holiday rep mode, as if he was there to organise a karaoke sing along or a sandcastle competition rather than
the serious business
o
f
help
ing to bring a new life
into the world. But annoyingly jovial or not
,
he did seem to know his stuff and got right down to
the
business
of
checking me over to see and feel
if Ella was in the right place and
was
doing whatever it was that she was supposed to be doing
. Another midwife, or maybe this one was a regular nurse I mean how could you
possibly
tell and what was the difference anyway, strapped me up to a monitor that would tell them, and me after they’d explained it, when my next contraction was coming.
It was on the tip of my tongue to say ‘guess what I don’t need your stupid monitor to tell me that, the pain I’m feeling
every time
is
a
pretty big
clue
’.
 

I had another contraction just as they were finished strapping me up to yet another machine, this one evidently recorded the baby’s heart rate, and Doctor Red Coat smiled happily as he and the new nurse midwife waited until it had passed before telling me everything was progressing nicely but I was only
four centimetres dilated so it would be little while yet.

A little while! What did that mean? Ten minutes or ten hours? After my Braxton Hicks scare last week I remember thinking smugly that the pain wasn’t too
bad
and what was everyone going on about
.
But
what did I know then? Nothing
it turns out
. It suddenly became crystal clear why all those women shouted a lot in labour and looked like they were in agony, b
ecause agony was exactly what they were feeling
. Another ten hours of this and I’d qualify for a purple heart.

I asked for drugs, lots of drugs, but apparently even though the birth was possibly hours away, I was too far along for drugs, I could though have gas and air if I really felt the need, and trust me I really did
. S
o when the next contraction started the nurse midwife helped me hold a mask over my face while I breathed in the
pain numbing concoction. As I floated off, high on whatever it was, the nurse felt the need to keep up a running commentary on how intense the contraction was and whether it had reached its peak yet, and then when it was beginning to pass. But high or not I could still feel it and hardly needed her to give me the heads up. She
seemed like a
nice
person
though, and had a soft lilting Irish accent, and the sound of her voice was kind of comforting in a way.
  
 

Dad said if I was okay for five minutes he’d go outside and try and phone Mum again, and he’d let Rob and James know that I was okay and
what was happening. I was okay and i
t was probably going to be another five minutes before the next contraction started and now I felt safe with my nice nurse, Kate she said I should call her, he could take his time. Well a bit of time.

‘So are Rob and James your brothers?’
Kate asked as she fiddled with the monitors.

‘No. Rob’s my . . well was my . . boyfriend I suppose you could say
, and James is just a friend.’

‘I see.’ Kate said diplomatically, although clearly there wa
s no way she could possibly see, but s
he must come across all sorts of weird and wonderful set-ups and relationships in her line of work I thought, and for
all I kne
w
she’d been
trained
not
to react
no matter what you said
.