After the party dwindled, only Cherry and I remained at Emily’s. We helped her pack her hospital bag and get organized. I did a load of wash. Washing all of the new baby clothes and putting them away. Cherry did some baking and then froze the different entrees so that all Emily would have to do is pop them in the oven for thawing when she was too busy and worn out to bother with cooking after the baby arrived. While we did this stuff Emily took a much-needed nap. It is hard to imagine Emily actually taking a nap when I think back to how she was before when I first met her. But as in life all things change and Emily was no different.
I had spoken to Cherry as we cleaned on Emily’s house so that it would be at least somewhat ready for when the baby came. “Any guesses when the baby will be born?”
“Has she told you what her midwife said today?” Cherry had asked.
“Nope this is pure speculation.”
“Oh okay um she due Christmas so I’ll say December 28th.”
“Hmm. Okay I’ll say the 16th.”
“Why early?”
“She’s dropped the baby is ready to be born.”
“And that tells you she’s going early.”
“Well usually it means that the baby will be born within a few days but I could be wrong. We’ll have to ask her when she wakes up what her midwife said.”
“Emily won’t be happy if the baby comes early and disrupts final exam week.”
“She’s miserable. I don’t know if she’d care that much just as long as someone can proctor for her.”
“When is her last final do you know?”
“I think she told me that Jane is supposed to give the Deaf Community final for both their classes on Friday morning so her only final is ASL Grammar on Wednesday night.”
“That’s the 17th so you think she’ll miss it?”
“I don’t see how that baby can get any lower without playing peek-a-boo!” I had answered as Cherry laughed.
When Emily emerged from her bedroom she was surprised to find us still there. We explained everything we had done while she slept and then fixed her supper since it was her day. After dinner we had sat in the living room, watched TV with caption on instead of sound and talked.
“Midwife say what?” Cherry had asked hoping for a more in-depth answer than Emily in turn gave.
“Baby come near future.”
“Midwife say you dilate what?” I had asked.
“Now same-as August. Two centimeters. Different efface. Now 80 % efface. Before none.”
I had nodded my understanding. Her cervix was thinned out to 80 percent of what was needed to deliver the baby. She had 20% more effacement and 8 centimeters to go before delivery. After that we discussed her birth plan though she really hadn’t given it much thought. She wanted to labor at home where she was comfortable with her friends as support as long as she could before going to the birthing center. She didn’t want drugs or unnecessary intervention. Her doula, Michelle and her midwife Debbie knew she wanted a very hands-off approach to the birth of her child. She wanted only an occasional check of the baby’s heart rate and her own dilation progress. She wanted to be able to walk around and do things that she knew the hospital wouldn’t allow her to do. The midwives at the center seemed perfectly fine with what she wanted. Dr. Johnson her Obstetrician was well aware of her birth plan goals and would only step in if it were deemed best for Emily and the baby. There was a standing transfer order between the birthing center that Emily was delivering at and the hospital she’d been in with preterm labor. I wrote out for her what she had told us so that she could fax it to the birthing center and Dr. Johnson.
However, Emily proved me wrong. The 16th came and went and she was still waddling around school with one hand on the small of her back and the other resting on top of her stomach. The students laughingly teased her and said she didn’t need a desk in her office she had one built in. I don’t know if Emily appreciated the joke though. It wasn’t that she was actually that big but since she’d dropped she stuck out a mile and a half. Usually only first time pregnancies drop that much before delivery.
I looked to her office immediately when I arrived at school the next day. We were having our ASL Grammar final that evening. I had studied but was nervous. I couldn’t say if I was actually nervous about the final. It was just a general unease that made me uncomfortable. Maybe it was my concern for Emily among other things. I just felt something was going on but I couldn’t pinpoint what. When I looked in her office she was sitting behind her desk working on her computer. She knew I was there but didn’t acknowledge me until she was done with what she was working on.
“What’s up?” she signed with a weary smile. “Nothing.” I replied though it wasn’t entirely true.
“Your week, how?”
“Not good. One of the ladies in my support group elected to have a therapeutic abortion because of poor diagnostic prognosis. Her baby tested positive for Down syndrome. She asked us to support her decision and not to judge her. Though I am generally against abortion I don’t see it as my place to pass judgment. That is God’s place. But one of the other ladies in the group condemned this woman’s choice. Now, the woman facing this difficult decision has left the group and has no real support outside her family just when she needs it most. The other woman claims to be a Christian but my God taught me compassion and understanding. It’s sad and it makes me angry. I asked the group to remember we are there for support and not to pass judgment. If they don’t agree with someone’s choice they should remain silent. The condemning woman got angry and said she was leaving the group. She did then asked to rejoin. I let her rejoin only for her to bad-mouth me and say she was leaving again. She’s acting like a child. Because of her the group as a whole failed to be of support to the other woman who truly needed us. That woman will have to live for the rest of her life knowing what she did. And now has no one who understands the devastation of her loss.”
“You have a difficult job.”
“Sometimes. Your week how? You look comfortable, not.” I said wanting to change the subject. We only had about an hour before the final.
“Pretend contractions. Baby me wish born.”
“Near future.” I replied using the cheek to shoulder facial grammar.
“Me hope.” She said before I left to go study some more before the final.
Later, during most of the final I concentrated on the task at hand. It wasn’t an easy final. I knew it wouldn’t be. Emily is a great teacher but that doesn’t mean she’s a softy. We had to pay attention to her facial grammar and her actions for the first half of the final. The 2nd half was multiple choices. It was during this part that I’d look up and around when I was trying to come up with an answer. I’m not sure when I first noticed anything out of the ordinary. It may have been an unconscious registration to start with but at some point I realized that from time to time when I would gaze to where Emily was seated she would fidget. Then I realized she was fidgeting at regular intervals.
I quickly finished my test, sat with it faced down on my desk and watched Emily who was aware that I was watching her. By the time the last student finished and left I was certain that Emily was having regular contractions not Braxton-Hicks. She had drunk water throughout the 3 hours of testing so I didn’t think she was dehydrated. She’d learned that lesson too well. Cherry also waited with me. She didn’t know why I was waiting but since I hadn’t left she figured something was up. Emily stood and gathered her things but set them back down and exhaled sharply. “Pain? I signed.
“Yes, think baby know me tired. Need baby born.”
Cherry’s eyes grew wide. “She’s in labor?” she asked with her voice.
“I think so. She’s having contraction every 10 to 15 minutes. They are not being consistent but falling within that range. She’s been having them since about 6:30. That’s when I first noticed.” I signed to Emily what I had said.
“Go office first. Work me need. Me page Jane tell her baby may be coming very near future. Go home rest. Grade papers. Try relax. If two-of-you want with me come, fine +++”
I realized then that she was afraid. She needed someone to be with her to calm her fears and just be there with her. I wondered why she didn’t say she was going to contact Micky, the doula. A doula is a labor support person. They are paid to be an advocate for the mother during labor to express her wants and desires. Since they are not family members, they can act without the emotional attachment in which husbands and sisters might act. They are there solely to support the mother. “Micky where?” I asked.
“Me want her now not. Need Micky later. Pains strong not. Rest she need same as me.” Emily answered as we walked slowly across the Wolf Lake campus to her office building. The ASL Grammar class was in an adjacent building that we normally didn’t use.
She gathered her things then we helped her to her car. “Cherry, I think one of us should go with her. She’s having contractions I’m not exactly sure how well that goes with driving home you know?”
“I’ll ride with her if you explain why I am. You’ll be following right?”
“Yes. I think she’ll agree. I wish she’d consent to one of us driving her but knowing how Emily likes to drive I don’t think she’ll say yes to that. She’ll probably some day tell her child “I was in labor and driving myself across town before you were born.” I laughed.
Emily was trying to get adjusted in the driver’s seat. Not an easy task since she barely fit behind the wheel when I asked if she minded if Cherry rode with her to be safe. She said sure and away we went. None of us knew then how long the night might be.
On the way to her house I used my cell-phone and called Matt. “Cuz, Emily is in early labor. I wanted you to know in case we need you.”
“Uh, okay. You are aware it’s supposed to snow tonight, aren’t you?”
“I have no clue what the weather is doing. All I know is that Cherry, Emily and I will be at Emily’s house trying to keep her relaxed and help labor along. She won’t call her labor assistant yet.”
“Just remember I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies,” Matt laughed borrowing Prissy’s line from “Gone with the Wind.”
“Like I do?”
“More than I do, cuz. Talk to you later.”
“Okay later,” I replied as we pulled onto the street where both Emily and Matt lived.
After we arrived at Emily’s Cherry and I sat around like two bumps on a log. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to help Emily it was more that I wasn’t sure how to tell her the things I knew. Emily sat at her dining room table and graded tests while Cherry and I watched TV and played with the fuzzy beasties. I’d watch out of the corner of my eye for when Emily would sit back and breath through a contraction with her eyes closed. She wasn’t in that much pain as she was still signing and joking with us well into the night. But her labor wasn’t getting any faster either. Finally I signed, “Now, you sleep. Cherry, Me stay. You alone not.”
“You right. Sleep me need. Two-of-you stay, thank you,” Emily answered as she went off to try and gets some rest.
We all apparently dosed off. I woke up from the chair I had passed out in to a low moan and the sound of Emily being sick. Though if asked I can’t tell how it was that I heard those sounds. Maybe I just felt Emily needed me and it woke me. Cherry slept on. I looked at the clock and discovered it was 5 am. We had managed to sleep a good bit. I crept quietly to the bathroom to find Emily on her knees before the toilet looking not too peachy. She looked at me with some concern in her eyes.
“It’s normal. Your body is trying to rid itself of what it doesn’t need.”
She moaned again and closed her eyes. After the contraction was over. I helped her stand.
“My back hurts. Nothing feel good.”
“Call Micky. I think time.” I said but she just shook her head.
“Contraction time 10 minutes. Early still. I do not want call Micky or Debbie. I don’t want to go to the Center and be told that I’m still only 2 centimeters dilated.”
“You need to call Debbie and tell her what is going on. She needs to be aware that you are in labor.”
“Fine. I’ll call.”
“I’ll make you some tea. I have something for you, Raspberry Leaf Tea. It is supposed to help with Labor.”
While she called her Mid-wife through relay, her interpreter and her doula I made tea and toast. Cherry woke up to find me in the kitchen.
“Anything happening?” she asked finger brushing her hair.
“Not really. Emily is calling the troops so to speak.”
Emily came into the kitchen rubbing absently at her back. “Debbie said to call back in 2 hours unless things change. Micky isn’t home but I left a message for her. I’m to call Shar after I talk to Debbie again.”
“Good. Drink your tea and have some toast. If you’d like I’ll tell you things that you can do maybe to get labor moving a bit faster. But I will tell you only if you ask me. They are things I have read about that the ladies in my group have used.”
“At this rate it may be Christmas before this baby shows up. Nothing is changing that fast. If you know things that might help tell me. It can’t hurt to know about them, right?”
“Right.”
Cherry let the dogs out to frolic in the snow that had fallen during the night. It wasn’t deep just a frosting really but they enjoyed playing in it. She stood at the patio door watching them. The sun hadn’t yet risen so it was the dark before the light. She watched them with the patio lights on. The house was warm and smelled of pine. I flipped the switch to Emily’s fireplace. It used real wood but had a gas starter flame. The flame was warm and inviting and gave a peaceful glow to the living room.
“Oh…” Emily said huskily. I still was shocked when she vocalized after so long of nothing but silence and words only on her hands.
“Your back?” I asked as she rubbed at it.
She nodded yes. I turned to Cherry, “Will you put your shoes on and run out to my car. Somewhere in that overloaded trunk are a couple of tennis balls. Will you find them and bring them in for me?”
“Why tennis balls?” she asked slipping on her tennis shoes and her coat while I dug the keys out of my purse.
“The baby is putting pressure on her sciatic nerve roots. The tennis balls can be used to counter the pressure and help reduce the pain.”
“Oh, sounds good.” Cherry said and went out the door.
While Cherry was gone, and I knew she’d be gone for a while considering the status of the trunk of my car, I told Emily some things that might help with her labor progression. I did this while Cherry was out to spare Emily and myself any embarrassment about the things in which I had to say. It was hard enough for me to tell Emily alone. I couldn’t imagine trying to tell her these things if another person had been there to interpret my words. But also I didn’t want Cherry to be uncomfortable. As a hearing person the things I had to say might have offended her.
“Cherry go where?” Emily asked sipping at her tea.
“My car. I sent her to find tennis balls for your back.” I explained how they are used to counter the sciatic pressure. Then I continued with the other things that might help with labor. “One thing you can do that might help is walking. The gravity will pull the baby down onto your cervix and help open it faster. Also during contractions sway your hips. It helps relax and open the pelvic floor. Squatting uses gravity to push the baby down and rocking on your hands and knees opens your pelvis to its largest diameter so that the baby can pass more easily. Something else you might try is drawing a hot bath so that the water is at the level of your breasts. The water will stimulate your nipples (I had trouble keeping a straight face as I signed and fingerspelled that one.) this sends a message to your brain to release oxytoxin which causes uterine contraction. The hot water also is buoyant and will help with the pain.”
Emily just nodded her bobblehead approach as I finished signing things that I thought would help. “Anything else?”
“To help you relax you might drink a little wine. It won’t do any harm to you or the baby at this point. You might try a bath, drink some wine, and listen to soft music and light some aromatic candles for aromatherapy and lighting.”
“That is how I got into this mess,” she signed with a smile. I wasn’t sure though if she was joking or not.
“There is one other thing that sometimes helps that I guess I should mention but I might turn several shades of red in the process.”
“That’s a hearing hang-up. Just say it.”
“Yeah I know. Okay here it goes. Sex, it also helps release the oxytoxins that stimulate contractions.”
“I think that one is out of the question.”
“No, not really. You don’t need a partner. It works better if a man helps but the oxytoxins will still release without one.” I tried not to take my eyes off her face but I felt so… not embarrassed per say just uncomfortable. It wasn’t like I was being crude or rude but the things I said were not things that I could say with ease to her even with my medical background. My years of living only in the hearing world supplied me with all the hearing world hang-ups. My medical background is the only thing that saved me from making a total fool of myself.
“Oh, I see.” She replied as Cherry showed up and gave me a strange look as she handed me 2 tennis balls.
“What?” I signed.
“You feeling okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re flushed.”
“You should have seen me a minute ago I bet I looked as lit up as the fire in the fireplace.
“I’m not even going to ask.
“Good.” I signed as Emily started breathing harder with a contraction. After the contraction subsided we guided her to her living room that had a hardwood floor instead of carpeting. At least if her water broke it wouldn’t be hard to mop up. I left Cherry and she standing in the living room while I grabbed an old comforter from the hall closet that she had told me about before. It was one that she used when one of her fur babies was sick. So I knew it would be fine if she made a mess of it. I placed it on the floor in front of the sofa after I made it several layers thick by doubling it up. Then I ran to her bedroom and grabbed 2 pillows off her bed and put them on the sofa. From there we helped her to her knees and then I told her to lean over the pillows. In this way she could rock her hips with the contractions and Cherry and I could massage the small of her back with the tennis balls.
I don’t know how long Cherry and I switched off with massaging Emily’s back but the next thing I knew there was a flash of light telling us someone was at the door. Cherry answered though she only opened it a crack. It was Matt. “Hey, I called into work today in case I was needed here. Do you want me to run to Arby’s and bring in some breakfast?”
“That sounds good.” I called out from beside Emily.
After Matt left having never stepped foot in the house I asked Emily, “Okay if Matt come in your house?”
“Fine++ He saw more on film than he will see here.”
“I think it’s time you called Debbie back.”
“Yes,” she signed as she used me to help regain her feet. “Oh…”
Another contraction came but she was still contracting at 10-minute intervals. They did seem to be growing in intensity so maybe she was getting somewhere just extremely slowly. She stood breathing through the contraction then sat down in the kitchen to call her midwife.
Matt returned not 10 minutes later bearing goodies for us to eat. He seemed not to even notice that Emily was in a nightshirt and her favorite green robe that no longer closed. Cherry and I ate heartily while Emily typed on the TTY and sipped at Orange Juice. Matt took Emily’s dogs for a walk two at a time just to help them run off nervous energy they were picking up from Emily. They knew their mommy was in pain and going nuts because they couldn’t do anything to help her.
Emily signed off her TTY about the time I finished eating. “Debbie say what?” I asked.
“Hot bath she want me take. She tell me same as you.”
“Yeah, I was told that by a doula.” I replied as Matt came into the house blowing on his hands before hooking the other 2 dogs to the leashes and taking off again.
“I’m not sure how to do this. I haven’t lost my modesty yet. But if I need help…”
I understood what she was saying, “Wear a sports bra and a pair of shorts. You know something loose and comfortable. Then if you need help you won’t be exposed.”
“Maybe Matt should stay now. If I need help Cherry and you won’t be able.”
She was right. Cherry might weigh 100 pounds at the most and suffers from juvenile arthritis. And though I’m fairly strong I’m a shrimp with possibly bad bones. My center of gravity would never allow me to help Emily if she needed help in or out of her bathtub. “I’ll ask him to stay when he returns with the dogs,” I answered before Emily went down the hall to change and to draw a bath.
Hours slid by. She stayed in her bath with Cherry and I talking to her as we sat on the floor of her bathroom. Every so often she’d ask one of us to flip the drain switch and turn on the hot water to heat the bath once more. She stayed in the bath for five hours. The last hour she was in there, Cherry and I lit some candles, turned on the radio to the local soft –rock station and left her to try and relax with a glass of wine and whatever else she might want to use to jump start her contractions.
Jane had showed up at about 1 PM surprised that Cherry and I were there still and even more surprised to find Matt there. She decided to stay at least until Emily talked to Debbie again. She folded and put away the baby clothes I had washed earlier in the day that someone had given Emily.
Her contractions were picking up more in intensity; duration and the intervals had shortened to six minutes apart by the time she was supposed to call Debbie again. At two PM I knocked at the bathroom door and slowly entered. “Time.” I signed.
“Fine++ I think I need help out. I feel weak.”
“Jane is here now. I thought you’d want to know. I’ll tell Matt and Jane you’d like some help. I also think it is time you called Micky again.”
“I think you are right. Oh…” She arched her back against the pain. Because her abdomen was bare I could see her uterus contracting. It was weird to see how the top of her abdomen actually hollowed out as her uterus clamped down to pushed her child towards a life separate from its mother. She really did look as if she swallowed a basketball then.
After Matt and Jane helped her from the bathtub she went into her bedroom to put on dry clothes. Cherry and I were sitting in the living room playing Gin Rummy. Jane was sitting at the dining room table grading tests. Cherry and I had taken Jane’s ASL 3 final on Tuesday. I hoped it was our tests she was grading but I wasn’t about to ask since if we were at Emily’s we weren’t students we were friends. We tried to keep the line distinguishable. Matt was flipping through the sports channels on Emily’s TV when we heard a cry of pain, “OHHHH!” Matt took off running towards the sound. Cherry and I flowed him as Jane brought up the rear after noticing that we were gone from the living room. Neither Cherry nor I had thought to get her attention before we took off after Matt. Four dogs, two cats and a ferret followed us all down the hall.
Emily was standing at the door of her bedroom clutching the doorframe. She looked scared. I turned to Matt, There are two phone numbers on the refrigerator. The top one is her midwife’s. The second is her doula. Call them.”
“And tell them what? I don’t know anything.”
“Tell them her contractions have increased to 5 minutes apart with a duration of about a minute. And she no longer can communicate with us during contractions.”
Cherry signed to Jane and Emily what I had said after Emily’s contraction subsided. “I need to go to the bathroom,” Emily signed in the next instant
When she came out Cherry, Jane and I were all sitting in the living room pretending to watch TV but I don’t think any of us could say what it was that was playing. She looked pale when she sat down in the wooden rocker. “I’m bleeding some,” she signed.
I signed, “That is probably what doctors call the bloody show. Have you lost the mucus plug yet?”
“I’ve lost a lot of things lately. What does it look like?”
“It’s gross. The ladies in my group sometimes have said it’s like seeing a slug that has been salted.” I explained as Cherry wrinkled her nose at the thought.
“Ewww!” Cherry said aloud only to have to explain to Matt who chimed in with yet another “EWWWW!” from the kitchen while he spoke to Emily’s midwife or doula.
“Yes, when I got out of the bath I had that. It did look like a slug that has been salted.”
“Why don’t you try and rest between contraction for a while.” Jane signed concerned that Emily looked so tired.
“I’ll try,” Emily, said standing up to go rest in her bedroom only to have water gush down her legs onto the floor.
“Matt! Tell whomever your speaking with her water just broke!” I yelled as Emily doubled over with a very intense contraction that sent her to her knees.
“Debbie says to get her to the Birthing Center now!”
“My sentiments exactly,” I said in reply as I knelt beside Emily and helped her focus on her breathing through the contraction as Cherry messaged her back with a tennis ball. Jane probably thought we were nuts but we neither had time to explain.