by Nancy Adams
Katelynn
Chapter Fourteen
It's All Over, But The Crying
* * * * *
Nate came running as soon as Corie told him that my water had broken, and picked me up and rushed for the car. I was yelling for someone to get a towel and put it on the seat, but he wouldn't wait.
“I can get the seats reupholstered,” he said, “don't worry about the seats! Let's get you to the hospital, that's the mission!”
“Mission?” I asked, wondering if he was flipping out. “What mission?”
“You're my mission, right now, Baby, you and the twins! You’re all that matters!” He got me buckled into the front seat and rushed around to get behind the wheel, as Corie and Maria got into the back. They'd barely gotten their doors closed when he had the car moving, and he made it the two and a half miles to the hospital in about forty seconds, I think.
He pulled up in front of the emergency entrance, and Corie was inside getting someone before Nate could even get out of his seat belt, while Maria, the ex-cop, was giving instructions to the ER staff who came running out with her as if she owned the place. And the funniest thing was that they were listening to her!
We got me inside and Nate gave them the account number they'd set up for us when we pre-registered, so a moment later we were heading for a room. The nurse told me that Doctor Rodgers had been called and would be there within fifteen minutes, and she began checking to see whether I was getting close, while another nurse got a fetal heart monitor on me. Suddenly the room was filled with the high speed sound of two little hearts going the-dum, the-dum, the-dum, over and over, one overlapping the other by just a tiny bit, so you could tell there were two different rhythms.
I was laying back, and the nurse told me I was barely even dilated, yet, when the first real contraction hit me. Holy crap, they didn't warn me it'd feel like that in Lamaze class! I started breathing hard, blowing in and out like they'd taught me, and suddenly Nate was back with me, his arms around me from behind, and he was saying, “Breathe, Baby, just breathe through it, that's my girl...”
After a moment, it passed, and I fell back exhausted. I felt like I was about to pass out, but I knew I was just getting started, and would go through dozens, maybe even hundreds more of those before this was over. The thought terrified me, but it wasn't like I could back out now, was it?
Oh, lord, here comes another one! I thought, and then Nate had me again. If there is one thing I can say for that man, it's that he didn't even think about skipping out on me. He was right there, in the moment with me the whole time, and getting me through all of it. Just because there was no way out of it doesn't mean I'd have made it through without him; I could have given in and demanded they drug me, but we'd both agreed we didn't want that for our twins, so I had to stay strong. It was Nate giving me his strength that made it possible for me to do that!
Doctor Rodgers came in and checked me over for herself, then told me to get whatever rest I could; she figured we were going to be in for a long night, since I was dilated only one centimeter, not even enough to make it sure I was in labor if my water hadn’t already broken.
Nate had send out what he called “The Bat Signal” as soon as he'd known it was time, so my Mom and his both came rushing in together. Dad and Norman were out in the waiting area, they said, neither of them willing to come any closer, but that was fine. I wanted Mommy, and if I got two of them at the moment, that was even better!
The waiting began. I'd have a contraction, and I'd be absolutely sure that I must be giving birth right then, but then it would pass, and I'd lay there for another thirty minutes before the next one. Long, hard labor, they called this, and they sure knew what they were talking about, whoever they were. I'd worked on building and recycling and beautification projects in high school, where I'd spent as much as twenty hours straight digging up rocks and hauling them, or hauling bricks up and down a ladder, and never, I mean never had I ever done anything as hard and exhausting as this!
We'd gotten there at a little before ten PM; at four AM, the doctor checked again and said I was at four centimeters, so I was really just into what they call active labor. She said things should start to speed up a bit, then, though, so I should let someone know if my contractions got to be closer than ten minutes apart.
By then, they were at about fifteen minutes, and weren't quite as bad as that first couple had been. I don't know why they got milder, but I was thankful that they did, believe me! Those suckers hurt! Nate was still with me, though he was on about his third cup of coffee. I didn't need any, I think something was pumping adrenaline through me like water! I was wired!
At six forty five, we finally got to contractions that were less than ten minutes apart, and I was overjoyed. The nurse called down to the Doctor's room, where she could lay down and get a nap, and said she'd be back up in a few minutes. When she got there five minutes later, my next contraction had already hit in less than six minutes, so she had me moved to the birthing room.
Because we had arranged it all beforehand, everyone got to come along, so both our moms, my best friends (Melinda was there, by that time) and our nanny all went with me and Nate to the birthing room. There were two couches in there, where the extra folks could all sit down and relax while I did all the work. I'm not sure I think that was fair, but I didn't exactly get a vote!
They got me all prepped, and the nurse told the doctor that I was up to nine centimeters, so they decided things were about to really get started. I remember saying something to Nate about how, if we were going to have any more kids, he was darn well gonna have the next ones!
I was all propped up with my feet in stirrups, and Doctor Rodgers was down there between my legs, calling out different things to the nurses.
“Okay, we're at ten dilation, effacement ninety percent, and station is minus one. We're gonna have a baby soon, folks, so let's get everyone ready!”
Everyone was made to scrub up and put on paper clothes, except me; they'd already scrubbed and shaved me, so I was okay, I guess, but Nate and everyone else in the room had to wash their hands and wear paper outfits and masks, and even little paper booties that went over their shoes. I was wondering why they didn't do all that before even coming into the birthing room, but I got another contraction and forgot to ask!
“Breathe, Baby,” Nate was saying, and I was trying to remember why I'd let that big ugly ape touch me in the first place! If I could have figured out a way to let him feel what he did to me, I'd have done it, I swear I would have!
“We're at plus four station, folks, the first baby is on its way! Keep Mama calm, Daddy, here we go!”
Boy, oh boy, the contraction hit me then that I thought was gonna be me ripping in half! Someone was telling me to push, and I wanted to yell back that they didn't need to tell me, I was gonna push as hard as I could to get that thing outa there! I knew that the sooner I got rid of it, the better I was gonna feel!
I heard a hissing sound, like a suction noise, and then I felt movement again. Another contraction, and then someone telling me to push again, so I pushed…
“Hey, it's the little baby girl!” I heard the doctor say, and suddenly I didn't care how bad I was hurting, I was trying my best to sit up and see! Nate and the nurse held me back, but then the doctor laid a somewhat bloody, messy baby on my belly, and I got my first look at my daughter. I reached out to put my arms around her and pull her close to me, but they told me to wait, while they put two little clamps onto the umbilical cord, and then the nurse handed Nate a pair of scissors and said, “Go ahead, Daddy, cut the cord!”
Nate smiled from ear to ear as he leaned over and cut the cord, and then the nurse took the baby and wrapped her in a blanket, and I felt another contraction coming on.
“Here comes little brother!” yelled Doctor Rodgers, and about four minutes later, Nate got to cut the cord again, as his son lay on my belly, and once he was cleaned up, both of our twins were laid back on me, one in each arm, while Nate loo
ked on lovingly and protectively and everyone else stood there snapping pictures with cell phones!
We spent about another hour in the birthing room while they got me cleaned up and such, and then I was transferred back to my own room, where two of the little plastic hospital bassinets were waiting for my two babies. Everyone got settled, and then the nurse let me have my babies again. We all sat around talking and thinking about all that had happened, and I suddenly felt like I needed to pray.
Dear God, I prayed silently, thank You for these two beautiful babies, and for this wonderful husband. Thank you for getting us through all of the things that have almost taken us from each other, and please, please watch over us all from now on! Amen!
Nate was looking at me as I opened my eyes, and I knew that he knew what I'd been doing. He smiled and winked, and then he held out his hands to ask for one of the twins. I gave him his son, whom we had decided to name James Norman, after both our dads. I held our daughter, whom we christened Katherine Rebecca. We had already announced that we planned to call them Jimmy and Kitty, to everyone's delight.
Jimmy and Kitty Simmons would grow up in a little town that was named after the bear that almost killed their parents. They would one day hear the stories of how their Daddy had come to rescue me when I was kidnapped and sure to be murdered, and how he'd kept me alive when we crashed in the Rockies. They'd come to know that their father is a hero, in many, many ways, including in war; I learned from Norman that Nate had been decorated twice with medals for bravery, for things he did in Afghanistan that saved lives, and I wasn't a bit surprised.
These kids would eventually take over the family business from their father, as he had taken it over from his. They would one day be the ones who would make the decisions that would determine the future directions the company would go in. They would learn and develop their own ways of doing things, just as Nate had done, and with the grandfathers they had, they probably got a double dose of the famous independent streak.
That independent streak—it occurs to me that these stories all started out with me talking about that, didn't they? Well, I guess it's only fitting, then, that it be among the last things I say, as well. That independent streak had made me the woman I was, and Nate's did the same for him. Between us, we were probably two of the most stubborn, determined, pig-headed, independent people that God ever created, and He alone knows why He put the two of us together, but I suspect that there is a purpose for us somewhere in the future. There must be, because look at how many times we've almost been taken out, almost lost each other, almost been destroyed in one way or another.
And yet, somehow, some miracle comes through and we make it. Somehow we survive and even thrive, against all odds, against all reason. If that isn't the hand of God on our lives, I want someone to tell me what it is.
No, I'm quite sure that God does have some plan for us in the future, and I know that it will be important.
Who knows? I might even decide to pick up my pen again and tell you all about it.
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