My Bundle Of Joy: Part Eleven

~ beetleypete

This is the eleventh part of a fiction serial, in 815 words.

My thirty-ninth week got off to an unremarkable start. I had noticed a lot more movement, and a change in position of the bump. It wasn’t anything too drastic, but enough to make me notice the difference. Indigestion had got me up during the night, as well as two separate trips to the toilet needing to pee. Another lazy day followed, spent chatting to Rosa as she did my housework, me flopped on the sofa in front of the telly.

It was remarkable how quickly I had lost any feelings of guilt about another woman being paid to clean for me.

I must have dropped off watching some nonsense afternoon film, when I woke up feeling very thirsty. As I reached into a kitchen cupboard for a drinking glass, my waters broke with a gushing sound. It made me jump, and I dropped the glass onto the worktop. With my leggings and socks saturated, I felt like that time I had been paddling in the sea, and an unexpected wave had soaked me from the waist down. Pushing the pieces of glass away from the edge so they didn’t fall under my feet, I started to peel off my clothes right there, not wanting to drip everywhere on the way upstairs.

The main sensation was one of complete calm. It was happening, and I was ready for it.

After dumping the wet clothing on the floor, I walked slowly upstairs to have a wash, and put on a change of clothes. Still thirsty, I forgot about that for the time being, and rang the hospital. As always, they were completely unimpressed, telling me it could be a very long time yet. But as my waters had gone, they suggested I should come in and be checked.

The guy in the taxi firm was very efficient. “Ten minutes, love. He will sound his horn”. I scrolled down to dial Olly, and got a massive cramping pain across my lower abdomen that made me gasp. They had been right when they said I would know the difference. All the instructions came to mind, and I knew I had to time it. I checked the time on my phone, and started to walk to the door. In my head, I was doing my checks. Hospital bag. Yes. Maternity Book inside bag. Yes. Keys to lock the door. Yes. I hadn’t bothered to turn off the telly, that was the least of my worries.

I was standing behind the front door like someone waiting for a train on a platform, just in case I missed the taxi driver’s sounding of his horn. Then it came again, hard enough to make me bend double, and have to rest against the door to stop sinking all the way to the mat. A voice in my head yelled to me. ‘Too soon!’ Luckily, the taxi turned up just as I had recovered sufficiently to stand up. Blowing the air out of my cheeks, I went out and locked the door behind me.

As I walked to the car, the driver jumped out and ran over to grab my bag. “You okay, lady? Is the baby coming?” He spoke English with an accent that I took to be from the Middle East, judging by his physical appearance. I managed a weak smile, and told him he could relax. It was my first. I didn’t so much as sit in the back, as fall into it. I felt more like an Elephant Seal than a human, as I struggled to right myself. Unlike most cabbies of my experience, he didn’t tell me his life story, or say much at all. But he did say the same thing at least three times, perhaps four. “You go to Saint Mary’s, yes? In the city, yes?

After he had asked me the third time, I got a searing pain in my crotch, and shouted out loud. It made him jump, and he almost didn’t stop at a red light. I could see his eyes in the rear-view mirror, checking me out. He looked worried. Then I made the connection of a worried man, and me having a baby.

I had forgotten to ring Olly.

Pulling my phone from the handbag, I dialled his number. But it was answered by one of the juniors, who told me he was in the afternoon meeting. I asked them to go and interrupt it, and tell them Olly was about to be a father, if they tried to stop him.

When the taxi pulled into an ambulance space outside the hospital, I paid the driver and told him to keep the change. He handed me my bag after I struggled out, then wished me good luck.

It was a toss-up as to who was most relieved. Me for arriving at the hospital, or him for getting me out of his cab.

35 thoughts on “My Bundle Of Joy: Part Eleven”

  6. I started thinking of Olly more in this chapter as I compared my own feelings to what he must be thinking when he gets the news. Mama does all of the hard work. We goofballs try to stay out of the way for the most part.

    I was with my wife in the delivery room until they decided the C-section was the way to go.

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  10. (1a) A diver once told me that it was better to be a Telly Flopper than a Belly Flopper.
    (1b) Angela once paddled in the Celebes Sea, otherwise known as the C-section of the Pacific.
    (2) Clarification:
    Leah: “Made in the U.K.”
    Rosa: “Maid in the U.K.”
    (3) Oveheard:
    Lake Angela: “My dam waters broke with a gushing sound!”
    Rosa Canyon: “Cry me a river! And stop cursing!”
    (4) Angela started to peel off her clothes right there, and later told her mum that it was harder than shelling peas.
    (5) Bad citation: “A voice in my belly yelled to me: ‘Too soon!’ I was shocked, but at the same time pleased to hear Leah’s voice.”
    (6) The taxi driver blew the horn, and Angela blew the air out of her cheeks. Neither one had blown an opportunity to do some blowing.
    (7) Overheard:
    Taxi driver: ““You okay, lady? Is the baby coming?”
    Angela: “No, Leah’s staying home. She wants to watch Teletubbies!”
    (8) “I felt more like an Elephant Seal than a human.” That’s what happens when you spend too much time paddling in the sea.

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