Different Circles

“Ow!” she moaned as it struck her, making her wince. It lasted maybe fifteen seconds and then eased off and disappeared completely. It had not been horrible—just a little more intense than a period cramp—but it definitely caught her attention. Could it possibly be a labor pain? She was overdue at this point in the game so that seemed a distinct possibility. But she also had not pooped in three days now—thank you again little Miss Cadence, destroyer of routine bodily functions—so it might be a bowel cramp. She had had a few of those lately, as well as sporadic Braxton-Hicks contractions over the last month, but this had not really felt like either of those things.

She finished up her business, wiping herself (with some difficulty thanks to her belly) and replacing the pad. She pulled up her panties and her bottoms and then washed and dried her hands. She stood there for a minute, waiting to see if another one of those pains would come or perhaps there would be the urge to move her bowels. Nothing happened. She turned off the light and then went back to bed, crawling in and cuddling up to Jake once again.

Just as she was starting to think that the pain she had felt had been another Braxton-Hicks, or perhaps a figment of her imagination, it happened again, not quite as strongly this time, but of longer duration. It too faded away. She raised her head up and looked at the clock display again. It was now reading 1:46 AM. She made a mental note of that time and went back to relaxing against Jake’s body.

She waited until three more pains came and went before she woke him up. They came at 1:57, 2:08, and then 2:20, each lasting about twenty or thirty seconds. She no longer thought they might be Braxton-Hicks contractions or bowel cramps. Neither of those two things occurred at regular intervals. No, I think it’s finally happening here, she thought, feeling a mixture of excitement and anxiety competing for top billing. I’m in labor.

She put her hand on Jake’s shoulder and gently shook him. “Sweetie,” she said. “Wake up.”

He groaned and grunted a few times and then came awake, shaking the sleep off fairly quickly. He glanced at the clock for a moment and then turned to her. “What’s up?” he asked. “Are you having contractions?”

“I’m pretty sure I am,” she said. “I’ve had five of them over the past forty-five minutes or so. They’re coming about eleven or twelve minutes apart.”

Jake sat fully up in bed now. He was shirtless and wearing only his underwear. “Okay,” he said slowly, just a hint of nervousness in his voice. “Should we start getting ready to move?”

“Let me see if another one comes,” she said. “If it’s labor, the next one should happen in another ten minutes or so, around 2:31 or 2:32. It I get that one, I think we should go.”

“Okay,” he said. “Sounds good.”

They stayed cuddled together, both of them watching the clock in silence as the minutes ticked off agonizingly slow. Finally, it clicked over to 2:31. Sure enough, within ten seconds of the turnover, another pain rippled through her from back to front, making her wince a little, making her breathing hitch.

“You’re having one?” Jake asked, noting the tensing of her body, the change of breathing.

“Yeah,” she said through gritted teeth. “A pretty good one too.”

They stayed in position until it released. And then Jake sprung to his feet and turned on the light. “All right,” he said. “Let’s do this thing. I want to be in the air in under an hour.” He picked up a pair of jeans that had been folded on the chair next to the bed and began putting them on.

Laura, watching him, suddenly had a wave of fear wash over her. Their plan to fly all the way to San Luis Obispo at the onset of labor had seemed reasonable when they had first come up with it, had seemed reasonable only an hour before when she had been lying awake and turning it over in her restless mind, but now that she was actually feeling contractions, now that she was actually facing the prospect of squishing little Cadence out of her body soon, it seemed the most asinine thing she had ever heard of.

“Sweetie,” she said hesitantly, “is this really a good idea?”

He stopped in the middle of buttoning his pants and looked at her. “Flying home?” he asked.

She nodded, chewing on her lip a little. “Now that this is actually happening ... well ... it seems like maybe it might be safer just to stay here and deliver at North Bend Medical Center.”

Jake took a slow breath. “We could do that,” he said softly. “They have a labor and delivery department there. We don’t know the doctors here, but I’m sure they know what they’re doing.”

“It’s something we should think about,” she said hesitantly. “I’m getting scared about this flight, sweetie.”

Jake nodded. “It’s your call to make,” he said. “Just remember, they have no NICU services at North Bend, so if anything is wrong with Cadence they’ll have to put her on a helicopter over the mountains to Eugene.”