Different Circles

Finally, the contraction peaked and eased off. Laura, a little sweaty, panted for a few moments. She then looked back over at Danielle. “Anyway, like I was saying,” she continued as if nothing had happened, “once we get back from Oregon, Jake and I will both need to spend a lot of the week in Los Angeles. We could haul Cadence there and back with us every day if we have to, but if we had a nanny who could take care of her during the day, it would make things a lot easier on her and us.”

“Wow,” Danielle said. She could not seem to think of anything to follow it up with.

“Do you think your sister would have the slightest interest in something like that?” Jake asked. “I know that a lot of people don’t care for us. They don’t know us at all, but they still don’t care for us based on reputation and rumor. We would understand if she said no on that basis.”

“I would have to ask her,” Danielle said, “but I don’t think she would be opposed. She loves your music Jake, both Intemperance and your solo stuff. Oh ... she loves your stuff too, Celia. She was always stealing my CDs when I lived there.”

“Well, all right then,” Jake said. “We’re not promising her a job or anything right here and now, but we would like to meet her when we can.”

“I will give her a call tomorrow,” Danielle promised. “I think she will be absolutely thrilled to meet you.”

Dr. Jacobs, the anesthesiologist, installed the epidural in Laura’s spine a few minutes later. This served to reduce the pain of the contractions down to a mere uncomfortable pressure. He then put a little fentanyl into the epidural. This served to put Laura into a happy, euphoric mood that was much closer to her actual personality.

“This stuff is all right,” she said dreamily as she watched an episode of Seinfeld on the television set.

“I am definitely jealous,” Jake said.

The hours rolled on and her contractions continued to slowly become longer in duration and closer together. About once every hour, Danielle would stick a gloved hand up inside to see how the cervix was doing. By the time midnight ticked past and November 30 gave way to December 1, she was dilated to seven centimeters and was seventy percent effaced. Her contractions were now three minutes apart and lasting nearly ninety seconds.

“Okay,” Danielle said. “I’m going to call Dr. Niven in now. We’re starting to get close.”

Dr. Niven arrived at 12:35 AM. She came in dressed in green scrubs with one of those hairnet caps on and blue covers over her shoes. She immediately apologized for the behavior of Judy the nurse.

“You heard about that, huh?” Jake asked.

“I heard about it,” she said sourly. “Absolutely unacceptable behavior and I will be composing a complaint about it once I hear the details from you.”

“That’s okay,” Jake said. “What’s done is done. Danielle here has more than made up for Judy.”

Niven smiled. “Yes, Danielle is the best,” she said, making the young nurse beam. “I enjoy working with her tremendously.”

She then went about doing her own internal exam of Laura’s cervix.

“I can’t even count how many hands have been up my hoo-hoo at this point,” Laura said, though with a good-natured smile. She had just gotten a fresh dose of fentanyl.

“Nine centimeters now,” Niven said. “More than ninety percent effaced. We’re getting close.”

Close turned out to be another thirty-five minutes. After a final exam, Dr. Niven announced that Laura’s cervix was now fully dilated and one hundred percent effaced. “I can feel the baby’s head now,” she added.

“Really?” Laura asked, fascinated by the thought.

“Really,” she said. “Now this is the part where I’m going to have you start pushing when your contractions are at their peak. I know you have the epidural in, but you can still tell when you’re contracting, right?”

“Oh yes,” Laura assured her. “It’s not all that painful, but I can feel the pressure.”

“Very good,” Dr. Niven said. “Let’s get your legs back into position now and have ourselves a baby here.”

Jake took charge of one leg, Celia the other. At Niven’s direction, they pulled them open and then moved her knees back so she was spread widely, opening herself up. Jake saw that her vagina was swollen and inflamed, a drool of juices leaking out of it onto the pad beneath her butt. One of the first things that Dr. Niven had done upon arriving was artificially break Laura’s water with a long, skinny metal rod that had a sharp hook on the end.

The door opened briefly and another scrubbed woman entered the room. She was only a little older than Danielle. She introduced herself as Lisa, the neonatal nurse who would be taking care of the baby when she finally showed herself.

Niven had, by this point, donned a disposable gown to cover her scrubs, a face shield to protect her face, and had opened an obstetrics kit on a table next to her position on a stool between Laura’s legs. She looked up at the monitor screen above Laura’s head. “Okay,” she said, “a contraction is starting right now. When I tell you to, push hard.”