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Emily: Chapter Seventeen

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WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING

Pregnancy was not the wonderful journey Emily hoped it would be. For the first few months, she spent a fair amount of her working day in the restroom vomiting or retching, never quite being able to decide which was worse. When she went home in the evening, the kitchen which was once her sanctum caused her nothing but distress. The aromatic spices and flavourful masalas made her insides churn. She was forced to abandon cooking for some time and lived off crackers, pickle, and salted buttermilk. Unfortunately, Ethan who had grown accustomed to Emily’s good cooking suddenly found himself subject to a similar diet and chose to have most of his meals at the hospital canteen. She was exhausted all the time and was envious of women who glowed during the forty weeks they played host to another living being while she lost so much weight so quickly that she looked like she was suffering from a major illness. It was only when the morning sickness, which is the most misleading terminology for a nuisance that exists all the time, subsided fully, more than five months into her pregnancy, that Emily began to enjoy being pregnant. She revelled in feeling her hyperactive baby twist, turn, dance and buckle around inside her.

Sadly, after her initial rotten mood, thanks to always being sick and tired, Ethan had buried himself in work and was rarely at home. Most of their conversations happened via text messages and only occasionally was he around to share a meal with her and bond with their baby as it grew in her womb. So although Emily was happier than she had ever been before, she was once again lonely, like she had been those first few months after she got married.

Since she had her baby to think of and having been advised to walk to help have an easier labour and delivery, she spent her free time strolling leisurely in the old park where she had once found solace. Leanne and the others with whom she used to play basket ball had moved on with their lives – some had got married, some had children in school and others had moved away. Although she ached for the old familiar company, she was not disappointed for too long. She met and made friends with a few other mothers-to-be who were also following the same advice she had been given. She enjoyed being able to discuss pregnancy related ups and downs with them and was able to take her mind off of swollen ankles and the ever-threatening-to-return morning sickness in their company. When she was at home alone, she read stories and sang songs to her belly in her tone-deaf voice. Her favourite song was ‘You are my sunshine’ and she hoped to see some sign of recognition in her child’s eyes when she sang it to him or her.  She was astounded by the depth of her love for her child. The sheer intensity of it often caused her heart to ache and she couldn’t wait to meet her little one to smother him or her with that very love.

At about thirty-two weeks pregnant, Emily began looking at baby furniture and clothes, placing orders for all the baby essentials – a baby crib, a pram and some clothes for the little one. When the clothes arrived, Emily was beside herself with excitement. She hand-washed them, something she never did, and hung them out in the bright summer sun to dry. The mere sight of those soft pastel coloured onesies fluttering in the gentle breeze gave her an inexplicable amount of happiness. She began counting down days to her due date when she would be able to dress her baby in them.

As Emily rounded the corner of thirty-seven weeks, Ethan began to come home early again and had requested the hospital to be relieved of night duty till the baby came as well as a few weeks after. Emily was grateful that he was around because it was becoming more and more difficult to manage things on her own.

Then one night, when she was only a few days away from her due date, Emily went to bed to the bouncing and dancing of her baby in her belly. A few hours later, she woke up feeling wet. Thinking that her water had broken, she shook Ethan awake to tell him it was time to go to the hospital and turned on the lights. What she saw next took her breath away – and not in a good way. There was a large pool of dark red blood in the place where she had laid. When Ethan saw the blood, he muttered, “Placenta…” at a decibel that was barely audible and shot a worried look at Emily. Throwing her house-coat to her he shouted urgently, “We’ve got to move quickly. Now Emily! Let’s go!!”

At two-thirty in the morning, there wasn’t any traffic on the road and Emily and Ethan reached the emergency ward in about ten minutes. Emily sat in a little puddle of blood and wondered why there was no pain. She prodded her belly trying to get her baby to move. The absence of an answering kick or punch terrified her. She feared the worst, but she wouldn’t allow those terrible thoughts to take form in her head.

The baby was almost due.

The baby only had to be born into this world.

Nothing could go wrong now, so late into her pregnancy.

It just couldn’t.

******

Keeping my fingers crossed for Emily. Read the earlier chapters here.

UBC: Post 21

Filed under: Fiction, novella, UBC October, Ultimate Blog Challenge Tagged: baby, blood, due date, Emily, fiction, novella, story, UBC, UBC October, what to expect when you're expecting

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