Page 48 of Letters to Lily

“I’m very sore right now, I’m just trying not to freak out about it,” I admitted.

“Don’t let her fool you. She has the highest pain tolerance I’ve ever seen on a person. We’re already taking bets on whether she smiles through labor or what. I think she’ll be making a spot of tea and scarfing down cookies or something while she casually gives birth,” Kristin teased. The nurse snickered.

“Well, at any rate, I’d rather be safe than sorry. Considering the bruising is concentrated near the spine I want to check for breaks, bone fragments, or anything else that could potentially be a problem if you’re moving around too much, or getting kicked in the back by little feet.” His smile was reassuring even while he was telling me he wanted to check for spinal injuries.

“Can you be my doctor when the baby comes? I love Dr. Marsh, but I just don’t see her making me laugh through labor. I think there’s a real chance of that with you hanging around.”

His grin brightened his chiseled features, and now I was crushing on the very handsome doctor, and then I remembered what he’d see down there when I was trying to spit a baby out. “On second thought, maybe that wouldn’t be a good idea.”

Kristin was in hysterics, because she had caught on to why I was having a change of heart. My mom let loose a knowing snicker, and I swear I saw the nurse give me a sympathetic nod too as she hid her smile. “Wait, why the change of heart?” He asked with a little pout.

“Sorry doc, you can’t smile at a girl like that and then see her pushing a baby out of her naughty bits.” Kristin howled through her laughter. My doctor looked sufficiently embarrassed then, and even a little red in the cheeks.

“I see why you’re so quick witted, Sasha. You must have a thick skin to be around such blatant honesty.”

“You don’t even know the half of it,” I agreed.

I was in and out of x-ray quickly, which apparently was almost unheard of. The good doc moved me to the front of the line so they could hurry me back to the fetal monitors. Two hours later, my lovely - and seriously how had I not noticed how handsome he was at first sight – doctor came back in my little curtained-off ER space. “Okay, Sasha, I didn’t see anything to be concerned about on the films, but you are severely bruised back there so sitting, sleeping, walking, pretty much anything that requires movement or leaning on your back are not going to be fun for a few days. So far, the baby’s stats look good too, but when we checked you after speaking to Dr. Marsh, we did find that you are somewhat dilated.”

“Dilated?” I asked, starting to get nervous.

“Yes, I’m sure Dr. Marsh has explained that when you are ready to go into hard labor, the part where you push the baby out, women are generally dilated to 10 centimeters? You are currently just pushing up to a two.”

My breathing picked up a bit as anxiety took hold. The lovely doctor held out his hand and gave me a calming look. “Honestly, you could have already been dilated before the fall. We have no way of knowing, which is why we want to keep you overnight just to be sure. We haven’t seen any signs of contractions on the monitors since you’ve been here, but we’d prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to expectant moms.”

“Wait, but I’m dilated, so does that mean there’s a chance I could go into labor?”

“Some women start dilating a little early and can walk around like that for weeks. It really is a common thing. If you were past two centimeters, your water broke, or if you were showing signs of contractions, we would worry a bit more. For now, we just ask for an overnight stay so that you’re already here if things change quickly. If you make it through 24 hours with no further dilation and no contractions, you’ll be good to go home. Besides, Ben warned us you have a penchant for surfing stair rails, so this way we can make sure you’re not participating in extreme sports before you’re ready.” He winked at me then. “Ben’s my cousin, by the way, he called to check in on you earlier. Said to tell you to hang loose.”

I laughed at that. “Ben and Gary still owe me a pint of Chunky Monkey. You let him know he has 24 hours to deliver!”

“Will do, now Nurse Andrews is going to run you upstairs and get you settled in the maternity ward. You can pretend it’s a dry run for the big day. Good luck to you Sasha, and if you have any more problems, you come on back and see me. I promise not to smile while I deliver the baby.”

At that he left, and we were all laughing again. “Oh my God, I think I got knocked down today just so I could meet that doctor and have a good laugh. I so needed that.”

“He’s the best,” Nurse Andrews cooed as she helped me maneuver into a wheelchair. “Off we go to the third floor.” She turned to my mom and Kristin then. She’ll be in room 323 if you need to detour to grab anything like snacks, drinks, or a fresh change of clothes for her.”

Once I was safely tucked away in my fancy, new digs in the maternity ward I was left to my own devices for a while. Kristin took my mom back to the apartment with her to get me some clothes and to grab dinner for all of us. I was just pulling my laptop out of my messenger bag to check it for any damage it may have sustained in my fall, when my phone started ringing.

“Hello?” I answered, because the call was from Malcolm and it was unusual that he would be calling me.

“Heya, sexy lady. I don’t know if I did the right thing, but I gave someone a ride to your house.”

“Is Brad with you? I thought he was at an away game, but I tried to get a hold of him, because there was an emergency…”

“What the hell?”

“Well, actually now there are two emergencies. I’m in the hospital.”

“Are you…”

I cut him off before we ended up on the phone all night. “I’m okay. I got knocked down a couple of stairs at school today. They’re just keeping me overnight to watch me as a precaution, but everything looks good and the baby’s moving around. No need to worry.

“Does Brad know yet? I’ll keep trying to call him, but I think something must have happened to his phone, because he’s been out of commission since they left for the game. I saw some coverage of the team practicing yesterday though, and he was in the shot, so I know that he’s fine.”

“I haven’t been able to get a hold of him either. Actually, I texted earlier when I was on the way here, but I guess I better also leave an update.”

“How long will you be there?”

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