A week before her due date, he told her that Tamar was two months pregnant.
“Wow, that was fast!” Coco commented. They’d been married for two months.
“She got pregnant on our wedding night.” She was twenty-three. Sam was respectful and protective of her. She was his wife now, and soon to be the mother of his child. He admitted to Coco that being a father scared him. It was so much responsibility. He had a wife and would have a child soon. Tamar had been sick from the beginning. He felt sorry for her. Coco promised to call Sam as soon as she went into labor.
Leslie had offered to drive her to the hospital, but she wasn’t going to stay with her. Coco was going to manage it alone with the midwife and the labor nurses. She felt awkward having Leslie watch her deliver. She would have liked to have her mother there. She didn’t know what to expect. She didn’t know anyone who’d ever had a baby, and could tell her the truth. She only knew what she’d read in books, which scared her more. She took some birthing classes, but she felt unprepared anyway.
Conveniently, she went into labor at the office. She had worked until the last day. She didn’t know what it was at first, and thought it was something she’d eaten, and then the cramps turned into contractions by lunchtime. She didn’t want to go home and be alone, so she just stayed there, and by four o’clock, the pains were strong, and she called the midwife, who told her to come in to be checked.
“Okay, you’re on,” she said to Leslie, holding on to her desk as another contraction started. “My midwife said to come to the hospital now,” she said through clenched teeth. She hadn’t complained about it all day, and Leslie was shocked.
“Are you having it now?”
“Not this minute, but soon, I hope,” Coco said to her. “We have to pick my bag up on the way.”
They walked out to Leslie’s car, and she ran inside to get Coco’s bag at her house, and they were at the hospital twenty minutes later. By then the pains had gotten a lot worse. A nurse came out to the car, and put Coco in a wheelchair.
“Good luck!” Leslie said, as they rolled her away, and Coco waved. “You’ll be a mum the next time I see you!” Leslie called after her, and felt sad for her that she was going to be alone without her mother, or the baby’s father. Coco had been very clear that she didn’t want her to stay. This was something she felt she had to do alone. Leslie didn’t want to insist and embarrass her. She went back to the office and puttered around, worrying about her, and waiting for Coco to call her after the baby was delivered.
A nurse helped Coco undress, and assisted her onto the bed, while they waited for the midwife. The pains had gotten a lot stronger, and her water broke as soon as she lay down on the bed, and then the contractions got rapidly worse. She called Sam while she still could, and they talked on FaceTime.
“How is it?” he asked her, watching her face and worried. He wished he was there with her since no one else was.
“Shit, it’s awful,” she said, grimacing.
“It’ll be over soon, and then you’ll see her.” He didn’t know what else to say to her, and then the midwife came, and they hung up, and she didn’t call him again. She couldn’t. Everything was happening too fast. She was seven centimeters dilated, and an anesthesiologist came to give her the epidural she had wanted. She cried while she squeezed the nurse’s hand. She felt like she was on an express train, and noticed that it was dark outside. It was nighttime, and she wondered how long she’d been there. She had lost track of time with the pain.
The contractions slowed down once she had the epidural, she dozed for a few minutes and then everything speeded up again. A nurse was with her, and the midwife told her to push. They lightened the dose in the epidural and the pain was unbearable, so they made it stronger again. Someone said she had been pushing for two hours, and it felt like an entire lifetime. She had to push more and harder. There were two nurses in the