Baby number two has arrived at last!

It started at four, soon it’ll be five. I’m hoping that sleep will return by then. The comforter and sheets rustle with every pointless adjustment I make. I shouldn’t bother. Every new position is more uncomfortable than the one before it. The springs squeak under my added weight. I’ll be so happy to shed these feet swelling pounds soon.

I surrender, throwing the comforter aside and rocking my nine-month pregnant body over the excess of pillows I have propped against it. My mind is too energized to let me sleep longer. Funny, it seemed that I could sleep forever when I first went to bed, my missed nap weighing on my eyelids like a bottle full of sleep aides.

It’s more difficult to muffle my footsteps. It sounds like an elephant crashing through the hallway. Too bad, I once took pride in the dainty silence of my approach. Somehow, I quiet the mounting list of pointless things I should take care off before the baby is born: baby shower thank you cards, one extra load of laundry, a hospital supply bag for Cadence, groceries for when I’m recovering…

Instead my mind drifts to the previous afternoon. Jake sits on a stiff hospital chair, an expression of boredom drawing at his features. Two monitors are strapped to my belly, tracking the baby’s heartbeat and my contractions. The hospital bed is so comfy, and I’m so tired. I manage to keep my eyes open enough to watch the two lines stretching across a computer monitor. The top one has interesting hills and valleys in it. The second one is a flat line, just a fraction more mobile than death. It’s the contraction line, the reason I’m only being tested here and not checked in. The nurse’s original twenty minutes of testing stretch into forty. Forty flatlined minutes.

The house is dark as I settle on one of my couches. Still no contractions. The night is calming, I’d hate to ruin it by turning on a light or two. Dull creaks and the steady burr of the fan are the only sounds in my overcrowded house. It’s nice to have the night to myself. Nice to relax, no one staring at me like I might explode.

Soon.