Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Suddenly, Caden jumped into action.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” he asked, as he rushed past me and to the bathroom. “You have to get dressed! We have to get dressed! Wait, where’s my phone?”
I pressed my fingers to my lips to keep from laughing. “I don’t think it’s in the bathroom.”
He came flying back out and pointed to the outfit for me that was on the chair by the window.
“Get dressed, Lilibeth! Do you need help?”
“Nope, I can get dressed.”
“Are you having contractions?”
I was about to say no when my stomach started to get super tight. I put my hand on it and drew in a deep breath. “Pretty sure that was a contraction.”
Caden stopped getting dressed, one leg in his pants, the other still out. “We need to time it! Where’s my thing?! The thing to time the contractions!”
I frowned as I watched him trying to move around the bedroom with one leg in his pants and the other out.
“You can use your phone.”
“No, I have the stopwatch and the notebook. Where the hell are they?!”
Turning to the bedside table, I picked up his phone, then reached for the stopwatch and small notebook he had sitting right beside them.
“These?”
He’d turned on the bedroom light and was now dressed from the waist down.
“Yes! Where’d you find them?”
I pointed to his nightstand. “Right there.”
He took the stopwatch and hit the start button. “Lili, you need to get dressed. I’m going to call the doctor’s office.”
As I dressed, I listened to Caden on the phone.
“About five minutes ago, maybe a bit longer. Yes. No. Yes.” He pulled the phone away from his mouth. “Any more contractions?”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
“No, not yet. Yes, we’re leaving right now. She will? Okay, perfect. Yes, I’ve got everything she needs in the car already. Will do. Thank you so much!” Caden poked his head into the bathroom. “What are you doing?”
“Brushing my teeth?”
His mouth fell open. “Brushing your teeth?”
“Yes, Caden. I’m going to be panting and breathing heavy, I don’t want bad breath.”
“Oh. Well, if you’re brushing your teeth, I’m going to brush as well.”
I chuckled, then rinsed my mouth.
“Let me braid my hair really quick,” I said, doing a quick braided pony while Caden brushed his teeth.
“No more contractions yet?”
“Nope, but water is still leaking out.”
Caden frowned. “I better put some towels in my seat!”
We were soon in the truck and on our way to Granby, where the hospital was located.
“Did you call Gatlin?” I knew he was second on the list after the doctor.
“Fuck.”
Reaching for his phone, I looked for Gatlin’s name and stopped. “Ooh! Another contraction.”
“Mark the time you started in the notebook!” Caden said. He reached for the stopwatch and started it. “Almost thirty minutes apart. We’re good.”
“You may be good, but it’s starting to get uncomfortable.”
By the time we arrived in Granby, Caden’s entire family had been called, as well as my parents. My mother had texted me to ask whether they should come. We did a group text and told our families not to come just to sit in the hospital. Caden would call everyone once the baby was born.
“You doing okay?” I asked Caden, as he pulled up to the hospital.
He looked at me and smiled. “Yep! Let me go get someone to help us.”
Less than a minute later, a nurse rolled a wheelchair out. Caden opened the door and went to lift me out, when I laughed.
“Caden, I can get out of the truck.”
“Hang onto her, though,” the nurse said. “We don’t want her to slip and fall.”
I sat down in the chair and smiled up at Caden. “I’m okay, you can go park the truck.”
Looking uncertain, Caden asked, “Are you sure?”
“She’ll be fine while you park the truck. Labor and delivery is on the sixth floor, as I’m sure you know.”
Caden sprinted back to the truck and peeled out.
“I’m so sorry about that.”
The nurse laughed. “He’s actually pretty calm. Some of these dads come and they’re absolutely freaked out.”
I drew in a deep breath. “Oh boy, here comes another one.”
“Time apart?”
Looking at my phone, I swallowed hard. “Ten minutes now.”
“Okay, we’re going to get you straight into a room. Is this your first?”
I nodded. “It is. I thought labor was slow with your first.”
“It usually is, but you could stay at ten minutes for a good bit. Let’s get you upstairs and comfortable.”
I wasn’t sure how Caden did it, but he was up on the sixth floor in time for them to bring me into the room. The nurses got me changed and in bed with all the monitors hooked up.
“Here comes another one,” I said, as I started my breathing.
“How long has it been?” Caden asked, opening the notebook.
“I had a contraction when you were parking the truck.”
Caden’s face went white.
“Dad, why don’t you come and sit down right here, while we get Mom all settled?”