Page 51 of Grump Daddy

I drop the throw pillows and pull my phone out of my pocket. Hands shaking, I managed to find Jack in my contacts and call him.

“Jack,” I say. My voice sounds high and panicked.

“Sarah, what is it?” He hears it too.

“Come home. My water just broke…I think I’m in labor.”

“On the way.”

As it happens, Jack was at the dealership when I called and was in the process of putting the temporary license plate on the back of the car. I hear him pull up about ten minutes later.

I’m in agony. I’m sitting on the edge of one of the kitchen chairs, holding my belly as the pain swells up inside of me. He rushes in and, upon seeing me, rushes into our bedroom for the maternity bag he packed a few days after I moved in.

“Jack!” I yell as another contraction starts to come. He comes back out, back slung over his shoulder. As he helps me up, the pain subsides.

“Let’s go,” he says. As we walk out of the apartment, he says to me, “I got that car, by the way.”

Labor is the worse pain that I have ever experienced in my life. I’ve broken bones and had a kidney stone once. Nothing compares to labor.

Jack’s with me the entire time. Holding my hand and encouraging me to push.

“You’ve got this,” he keeps saying. “Baby, you’ve got this. You’re strong. You can do this.”

“I can do this,” I repeated. “I’m strong and I can do this.”

I’m in labor for eight hours. As we started to go into the ninth hour, the baby finally came and it was over. I laugh hysterically, merrily as the nurse puts the baby in my arms.

And just like that, I’m a mother. I’m holding this beautiful little girl…Oh, my…she is just so beautiful.

Jack is by my side. Kissing me on the head, his arm around me as we look at our baby. “She’s so beautiful,” I whisper. I feel tears start to come.

“She is,” he agrees. “I can’t believe how beautiful she is…”

We look down at her for a long moment and he looks at me and says, “You know, we never talked about baby names.”

I gaped and looked up at him. It’s true. We haven’t. It just…hasn’t come up.”

“Well,” I stammered, “Do you have anything in mind?”

“Not really,” he says with a chuckle. “God, kid, you’ve been in the world less than five minutes and we’re already screwing up.”

“Okay, well,” I chuckle, “I have a few ideas. Mia, Ava, Olivia, or Zoe, maybe.”

He looks at her, then touches her forehead with his finger. She coos up at him.

“Ava,” he says. “I like Ava.”

I’m looking at her and the moment he says it, I realize that she does look like an Ava. “Yeah,” I say. “I like it, too.”

He kisses me on my forehead, then kisses her. “Welcome to the world, Ava.”

I feed her then. As I do, I realize that as happy and complete as I felt last night, I feel even more so now. It feels like a ‘new me’ is born along with Ava like I’ve experienced a new birth. Suddenly, my life is going to revolve around this tiny new human – and I don’t mind it one bit.

Jack starts taking pictures of us with his phone and I turn my head. “I look terrible.”

“No,” he says with a laugh. “You don’t. You’ve never looked more beautiful.”

I look at Jack, watching him as he sends the photo to the babysitter to show Martin.It’s not as hard as you think…

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