Raging Love

by Jennifer Foor

  “I love you too, so much. I hope you both know that.”

  She looked over at Ty and he gave her a big smile. “We do. So, did you pick out any names yet?”

  “Aside from SpongeBob Square pants and Ninja Joe?” Like that was ever going to happen.

  We both started laughing. “Have you and Colt picked out any names?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  “Of course it is,” she teased.

  After opening the room full of presents, Colt and I had enough diapers to probably supply Ty and Miranda’s baby as well as ours for the first two years. I have four sets of crib sheets, over twenty bottles, seven soft blankets, and a wardrobe of clothes sized from birth to two years. We got all kinds of seats and gadgets as well as a couple baskets of baby necessities. Ty and Miranda got me the breast pump that she swore by. Of course he had to add something smart in the card about watching me try it out. I just laughed. At this point in our lives I knew that Ty joked about everything. I’d learned to appreciate him for his sense of humor and his love for his family, because at the end of the day that was all that mattered.

  After the hour of present opening, the party headed into the kitchen. It was the biggest spread I had ever seen. There were so many cool foods shaped like baby things, some being butts and rattles. Ty came over and showed me a plate with two cupcakes that he had purposely put two favors on top to look like nipples. “Van, look at what I’m eating for dinner.”

  “You would think with a daughter and a baby on the way, you could at least act right in public,” I teased.

  He smacked my ass and shoved one of the fake boobs into his mouth. “Never!” With a mouth full of cake he bent down and gave his daughter the other cupcake. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Bella took her cupcake and licked it. When she didn’t like the icing, she gave it to Ty, who ate the spot she had licked. She thought it was funny as I started to gag. “Aunt Van thinks Daddy is gross.”

  “My Daddy is the funniest person in the whole world.” Bella leaned over and kissed Ty.

  “I think you might be right kiddo.”

  Ty walked over toward the guys while Bella pulled me toward the large cake on the dining room table. “Look Aunt Van.”

  Wow!

  The cake was a giant copy of our last 3-D sonogram photo. It was quite a difference seeing it so much larger than the smaller picture I was used to looking at. “It’s so cool.” Noah came up behind me and stood with Bella, looking at the cake.

  “It’s pretty amazing isn’t it?”

  “Is that how big the baby is now?” Bella asked.

  I started giggling. “No. The baby will be small and we can hold it in our arms when it gets here.”

  “Well, I hope my mom’s baby won’t be that big. Then it would be an ogre like Shrek.” Leave it to my kid to assume ogres were real. Really? Ogres?

  Since the kids had found the dessert table, their attention went from the size of the baby, to how many desserts they could both eat before they threw up. I watched them for a couple moments before my mother caught my attention. She and Colt were sitting up at the breakfast bar, already involved in a conversation. I made my way through the crowd of family and friends and sat down next to them. “Were you really surprised, Sweetie?”

  “I had no idea. Colt did good keeping this secret from me.” I moved forward so I could get a good look at my sneaky husband’s face.

  “Colt was telling me that they want to induce you if you haven’t gone into labor in the next two weeks. When you both find out a date you need to let me know. It’s going to be hard for me to get a flight in little notice. If you make it to the induction date it will give me ample time to plan. You know your father and I don’t want to miss it.”

  “I know. I was just kind of hoping I would deliver before that. This baby is just too stuffed in my body. I think it’s time it blessed us with its presence.”

  “Oh Sweetie, it will be here when it’s ready. You can’t rush perfection. I’m sure you can make it a couple more weeks.” My mother seemed confident. I didn’t!

  Aunt Karen got everyone’s attention to play some yarn game. Apparently, you were supposed to take the string and guess how big my belly was. The closest person to guess how gigantic I was around, won the prize. I watched as the room full of men and women started taking spools of yarn and cutting out large strands, measuring them up to their own bellies.

  It was quite comical until everyone was standing there with yarn that appeared to be over five feet long. I looked down at my big belly and rubbed it. Was I really that gigantic? Good God!

  Colt came up behind me and shoved his yarn in his pocket. One by one the yarn was measured against my real body. I was so relieved when most of them were way bigger than I was. The people who were close lined up against the wall and waited to see who was the absolute closest. When everyone was finished, Colt pulled out his strand and reached it around my tummy. His strand was off by only one inch. Nobody else was that close, I was sure of it.

  The room filled with laughter. “You cheater! Colt! You weren’t allowed to play.” Aunt Karen came up and grabbed the string out of his hand.

  Everyone continued to laugh.

  “So what do I win?”

  She rolled her eyes and handed him a wrapped package. He opened it to reveal a small bottle of scented lotion. Colt got a huge grin on his face. He looked up at everyone in the room. “I bet this will make my ass smooth like a baby.”

  Even I began to laugh, but when I did something happened. I felt something warm and feared that I had just peed myself in front of our entire family. I closed my legs as tight as they could go, but continued to feel the gushing of warm liquid.

  Colt stopped laughing and looked at my face. I slowly opened my legs to reveal the wet spot all over his sweat pants. “I think my water just broke,” I whispered.

  Colt stood up. “OH MY GOD HER WATER JUST BROKE!”

  Chapter 27

  Colt

  The room filled with chaos as Savanna stood there in total shock. In the midst of all of our family, she was going into labor. Her mother and Miranda came rushing over to her side. I wouldn’t say she was freaking out, but she definitely wasn’t able to focus on anything.

  She hadn’t been complaining of having any labor pains, yet as soon as we got her standing and suggested she get cleaned up, she hunched over and grabbed the underside of her belly. We guided her back to the couch.

  “Colt you need to head to the house to get her overnight bag. I will call the doctor and get her cleaned up. Grab her a clean pair of pants so that her legs don’t get too cold going out in the cold air.” My mother took charge of things, giving me orders on what I needed to do, but I just stood there.

  Ty was standing over in the corner with Conner, but had walked over and grabbed me by the arm, pulling me out of the house. “Get in the game, Dude. You might have a baby by the end of the night.”

  I don’t know whether it was his pep talk or the cold air hitting me in the face, but we both hopped into the truck and headed back to my place to get the bag that Savanna had gotten together for her hospital stay. Ty came into the house and waited for me at the door. I ran back down the stairs with her bag in my hand. “Did you get her clean pants?”

  “Shit!” I ran back up the stairs to our bedroom.

  As I came back down the stairs, I heard Ty laughing at me. “Dude, you have got to calm down. It is your responsibility to get her through this and remain calm. Right now you seem like you need to be bitch slapped.”

  I gave a little chuckle. “Sorry, I’m so nervous. I don’t think I have ever been so scared.”

  “Dude, if I can get through it, you can. Just remember if it gets too scary stare at her thigh instead of her pussy. Don’t take any mental pictures. It will haunt you forever.”

  We climbed back into the truck. “You give the worst damn advice.”

  “It’s the truth. Seriously, you will be fine as long as you keep her calm. She can�
�t see you freaking out. You have to be her rock.”

  Speaking of bitch slapping…..

  “You sound like one of those fuckin’ books Savanna keeps in our bedroom.”

  Ty responded immediately, “I watched my daughter being born and read the books when I’m on the shitter. Miranda knows it’s the only time I will consider picking up a book. She got rid of all my Sports Illustrated and replaced them with baby mags.”

  Miranda is one smart girl.

  We pulled back up at the main house to a crowd full of people. Ty ran the pants inside and when I finally got inside Savanna was already in the bathroom changing. When she came out she was walking slow, like she was in pain. I rushed to her side. “Darlin’, what can I do?”

  “The doctor said that since my water broke and I’m having contractions we need to get to the hospital. Lucy is going to keep the kids.”

  I was a little confused. “What do you mean Lucy is going to keep the kids? Where is everyone else goin’?” There was a whole house full of people to keep the kids.

  “I want our families to be there and I already asked Miranda to be in the room with me. Her and Ty are the God parents and I think they should be there.” She still wasn’t making very much sense.

  “Why the Hell would you want Ty in the room?”

  She rolled her eyes at me. “Because he has been through this before and I can tell from the look on your face that you are already freaking out. He isn’t there to watch and I guarantee he won’t get anywhere near my nether regions, but you will need him, Colt. Besides, I hardly think I’m going to care when this baby starts coming out.” She continued to walk toward the door. I held her hand and helped her get her coat on.

  “We are going to follow you.” My mother announced. Behind her stood Savanna’s parents and my Aunt Karen.

  Ty came running up in front of us. “Give me your keys. You sit in the back with your wife. I will drive.” I got ready to warn him of his driving. “No worries. I will drive carefully and get us all there in one piece. Don’t forget my pregnant wife is sitting in this truck too.”

  It actually did make me feel better knowing that Ty would do anything to protect Miranda. The weather was bad and the roads weren’t much better. It was going to take us double the amount of time to get her where we needed to go.

  Once we hit the main roads, they were worse than we suspected. Ty did a good job going slow, but even in four wheel drive we were sliding all over the road. The snow was really coming down again and visibility was almost non-existent. We were finally having to drive so slow that we ended up getting stuck. Luckily, I had just bought a brand new pair of chains for my tires. While Ty and I went out into the freezing weather to get them hooked to the tires, Miranda went ahead and called my mother to let her know that Conner would have to come get them and drive them in another truck capable of having chains. I knew they were somewhere behind us, but my main concern was making it to the hospital before Savanna delivered another Mitchell baby in the back of a vehicle.

  It took us a good thirty minutes to get the chains out, untangle them, and get them on all four tires. When we climbed back into the truck, Savanna was really having a tough contraction. The winter storm made everything so quiet outside of the truck, but it was sure a different story as we climbed back in.

  Miranda was hanging over the front seat, trying to soothe Savanna through her contraction. We hopped in the truck and started moving slowly again. The hospital was a good fifteen minutes during normal weather and being that it was so hard to see, I wasn’t really sure how close we actually were.

  Savanna laid down on my lap. I stroked her hair and watched her suffering through the pain.

  “Okay, that last one was only three minutes apart. They are getting’ closer Van.” Miranda restarted the timer on her phone. She sat back facing forward in the seat.

  “How far apart do they need to get before we start to worry?” I asked.

  Savanna shook her head and tried not to cry. I could tell she was in a lot of pain still. She was holding onto her stomach. I reached down to feel it and it was as hard as a rock. “Darlin’ tell me what to do?”

  “Make it stop hurting,” she cried.

  “Sugar, I wish I could.” I rubbed the sweat off of her face. She closed her eyes and tried to relax.

  We passed a car that had slid off the side of the road. They were stuck in a culvert and trying to wave us down. It didn’t help that I had a big old wench on the front of the truck. “Keep goin’”

  Ty looked at me in the rear view mirror as he pulled over to the side. “Dude, at least let me tell them why we can’t help. Miranda can tell Conner to stop and pull them out.”

  “Fine, make it quick. I don’t know how to deliver a baby.” I was really starting to get scared now. It wasn’t something that I knew how to handle. My wife was in excruciating pain and there was nothing I could do to make it better. We didn’t have the time to be stopping for people, no matter how rude it was. We had our own emergency situation.

  Ty jumped out and came back in the truck a few seconds later. “They were cool about it. They said congratulations.”

  We arrived at the hospital a good twenty minutes later. Miranda had actually climbed over the seat and helped Savanna get through a couple hard contractions. When Savanna claimed she felt like pushing, Miranda ripped down her pants to make sure there wasn’t a baby coming out. I think she was shocked at what it looked like down there, from the look on her face, but she finally regained composure and said she wasn’t crowning and didn’t need to push.

  We pulled up at the hospital and a security officer came running outside to us. He flew back in and came out with a wheelchair. Within seconds, we were whisking Savanna upstairs to the maternity ward, while Miranda and Ty parked the truck.

  By the time they made it up to the room, Savanna was already being changed into a hospital gown. They were prepping her for an I.V. and she was still trying to focus on her breathing.

  The nurses were very responsive to what she was going through. They told her a few other relaxation techniques to help her through her contractions. Due to the weather, it took her doctor even longer to get to the hospital.

  He walked into the room applying his gloves. In a brief moment he was already putting her legs up in the stirrups and giving her an examination. Part of me wanted to watch, but the other part of me didn’t want to go anywhere near down there. I think most of it was Ty scaring the shit out of me. There were parts of my wife that I treasured and that was one of my favorites.

  The doctor removed his gloves and scooted his stool away from my wife. “I’m going to go ahead and order the epidural. She’s is at about nine centimeters. It won’t be long now.” He walked out of the room and left us.

  I rushed to her side, kissing her on the mouth. “I love you, Darlin’. Our baby is comin’.”

  She opened her eyes as wide as they could get. “This fucking hurts, Colt. I changed my mind.” Her face scrunched up as another contraction hit her again. I grabbed her hand and felt the power of the pain, through her nails ripping my skin open. I wanted to pull away, but knew doing so would only piss her off worse. I was at her mercy. She was in excruciating pain and I would do anything to take that away from her.

  “You changed your mind about what, Darlin’?”

  “Having eleven children. I don’t want to do this ten more times. JESUS SHITBALLS, it hurts so bad.” I shouldn’t have laughed, but I couldn’t help myself. Savanna’s face was blood red as she focused on the pain.

  Miranda came around and stood at the other side of Savanna’s head while Ty sat in the chair behind me. He was being awfully quiet, probably reliving his first delivery experience.

  Her contraction subsided and the death grip she had on my hand finally released. Miranda gave her an ice chip and rubbed her head. “Just breathe Van. Just keep breathing. It will all be over soon, I promise.”

  Through the doors came the anesthesiologist, who in turn made us wait
outside, where we were met with the rest of our family. Miranda explained everything to them while I began pacing. After ten minutes we were allowed back into the room. Luckily, they let Savanna’s mother and my mother come in with us. We all stayed out of the nurse’s way as they got everything prepped. I noticed Savanna wasn’t screaming out in pain anymore, she was just tightening up as her body contracted. “Is the pain better now?”

  “Just a bunch of pressure. It still hurts, but it is much better. I’m sorry I screamed.”

  I kissed her dry mouth. “Savanna, I love you. You can scream as much as you want. Just deliver that little baby so you can see that it was all worth it.”

  The doctor and nurses came into the room, wearing surgical robes. They positioned themselves between Savanna’s legs and got them into the stirrups. Ty went over to stand with Miranda, while I never moved from her side. The nurse brought over a mirror and positioned it so Savanna could see what was happening. “Oh my God! Why does it look like that?” She closed her eyes and refused to look. Out of pure curiosity I glanced down.

  Don’t pass out. Jesus Christ don’t you dare pass out!

  Ty was right. I don’t know why but I looked up at him and watched him mouth the words ‘told you’. I shook my head and gave Savanna a smile. “Focus on the baby, Darlin’. Don’t worry about anything else.”

  Savanna, always being so modest, shocked everyone in the room. “My vagina is huge!”

  We all just stood there, with nothing to say, until Ty leaned over and whispered in her ear. He kissed her forehead and she smiled as he pulled away.

  Thank you God! I have no idea what just happened, but Ty was a freaking genius.

  The doctor caught our attention. “She is ready to start pushing. Dad, you are going to need to hold this knee.” Miranda stepped forward and grabbed her other knee and the doctor nodded.

  “Okay, Savanna. I need you to give me some pushes. I’m going to count and I want you to hold it until I am done. We are going to repeat it until we get the baby out.”

  She nodded.

  The pushing began. The first three times nothing happened. The fourth time I realized I couldn’t stop myself from watching. A little head of black hair was starting to come out. The doctor looked over to me and smiled. “Looks like someone has their father’s hair.”