While I drive the Land Rover with Madison, Jaime, and Symone, Shannon follows in another SUV behind me with Sam, Awenasa and August. We remain on the phone the entire time so we all know how Sam is doing and so I can let them know what road conditions look like ahead. I have to tell them to stop a few times so I can drop the plow and clear some snow drifts that blew into the road or clear turn lanes that the city’s plows didn’t do very well with.
Shannon drops Awenasa and August off at the maternity ward with Sam, where a couple of nurses rush out into the blowing snow with a wheelchair so she doesn’t have to walk. The parking lot is pretty slick, despite the obvious efforts to keep it plowed, shoveled, and salted, so we’re not able to run back to the door after parking. By the time we get to the room, Sam has already changed into a gown and she’s sitting slightly reclined in a bed, and our obstetrician is getting ready to apply the wand of the ultrasound machine to Sam’s belly.
“Anyone who does not wish to see the screen, stand on that side of the bed.”
My wives and I rush to the other side of the bed while August and a few nurses remain on the other side to see the screen. It’s nerve wrecking watching them huddle around the screen and share meaningful glances and nod as they point to whatever they’re observing. But after a few minutes, the obstetrician removes the wand from Sam’s belly and looks at us with a smile.
“Everything looks great. It’s completely optional at this point, but if you’re okay with it, I’d like to check your dilation to get a better idea of what we’re dealing with.”
Sam nods, and answers, “Yes, if you think it’s a good idea.”
While putting on a pair of gloves, the obstetrician rolls over to sit between Sam’s legs. She lifts the blanket just a couple of inches so she can see her target without exposing Sam to the entire room. Sam’s face scrunches for a moment, then the doctor withdraws her hand.
“I’d say about six centimeters. Women can remain at about your level of dilation for several days before they really go into labor, but since your water broke and based on what’s happening in there,” she points to Sam’s belly, “I’d say you’re in the early stages of labor.” She turns to August, and asks, “Would you like to also examine Sam?”
August smiles and shakes her head, saying, “I agree with your assessment, thank you.”
“Okay, Sam, just keep breathing. We’ll check in with you periodically and you can press the button if you need us.”
The obstetrician motions for August to follow her and they walk out to the hall with the nurses following, leaving all of us alone.
Awenasa runs a hand over Sam’s head, and asks, “How are you feeling, my love?”
“My back hurts and I keep having what I guess are mild contractions. They feel kind of like period cramps that come and go. It’s hard to describe.” She looks at me with a small smile, and says, “I guess it’s good you were up so early to plow us out. I’m sorry you didn’t get to take a nap.”
“I’ll be okay. Are you comfortable? Do you need more pillows or blankets?”
“I think I’m as comfortable as I can get right now.” She groans as she rubs her belly and her hips slightly shift side to side. Looking up at Awenasa, she asks, “Why am I going into labor early? And why didn’t I have contractions for days beforehand like you and Shannon did?”
“Every pregnancy is different, my love. Even if I get pregnant again, that experience may be completely different than my first. There’s nothing you or anyone else did or didn’t do that caused this.”
“She’s right.” August walks back in and sidles up next to Sam on the other side of the bed. While rubbing her arm, she explains, “It is completely normal to go into labor anywhere between thirty-nine to forty-two weeks. While forty is the general preference, thirty-nine is completely safe. And your ultrasound looks great.”
A cellphone starts ringing as Sam is about to say something else, so Shannon pulls the phone out of the bookbag we packed for Sam and hands it to her.
“It’s your mom.”
After accepting the call, Sam puts the phone to her ear, and says, “Hey, Mom,” and she immediately has to pull the phone back as Eliza squeals loud enough for all of us to hear. After she quiets down, Sam pulls the phone back and releases a small laugh. “You’re so embarrassing.”
We quietly snicker and Sam shakes her head with a happy smile and blushing cheeks. She’s quiet for a few moments while her mom talks, then says, “Okay, be careful. It’s snowing pretty bad here and it’s supposed to last for days. Let us know if your flight gets delayed because of it.”
She’s quiet again, then explains how she’s feeling and how much she’s dilated. After another pause, she says, “Okay, thanks, love you both.” When she hangs up, she offers the phone back to Shannon. “My parents were able to switch their tickets for a direct flight in two hours.”
Sam’s parents were scheduled to arrive in a few days and stay till at least a week after she gave birth. I’m glad they were able to trade the tickets for an earlier flight; I just hope the weather doesn’t make it a pointless effort. Depending on how long they have to wait for the plane to take off and any delays in being able to land, they should be here in around five hours, give or take half an hour to an hour. And depending on how long Sam is in labor for, they might actually make it here before our baby or babies.
“Can everyone sit? It’s starting to freak me out having you all standing around me like that.”
Awenasa bends down to give her a kiss on the lips, and sweetly says, “Okay, my love,” then we all pull chairs over to sit on either side of her.
I slide my hand over hers, and she smiles down at me as she interlaces her fingers with mine. I lift her hand and press my lips to the top for a few moments before kissing every knuckle and every fingertip.
As I lower our hands to rest on the bed, I meet the loving gaze of her beautiful sage green eyes, and tell her, “I’m not surprised you would go into labor during a snowstorm, regardless of it being winter.” Her smile widens as she waits for me to explain why, so I continue. “Snowstorms are transfixingly beautiful, but they demand respect and reverence or they can be super dangerous.”
Sam laughs as she pulls her hand free from mine to give it a light slap before entwining her fingers with me again. “I don’t think speaking my mind when someone ticks me off equates to being dangerous.”
“You’re dangerous for people’s egos. You put them in their place and make them realize you’re not just a helpless little woman. You’re not just a beautiful face. You’re a bear. You’re a snowstorm. You’re pretty damn amazing.”
She opens her mouth to respond, but before she can get a single syllable out, her face scrunches and she releases a long groan of pain as she sits forward.
August looks down at her watch, and after Sam relaxes, she writes the time and length of the contraction in a notebook.
After taking a few deep breaths, Sam asks, “What temperament do you think our snow baby or babies will have?”
I smile as I rub her belly and shrug a shoulder. “I don’t know, but it’s going to be amazing getting to know them and watching them grow.”
“Oh, my god, I might have two babies in here. What if they both end up like me?”
All of us laugh hard, but Awenasa quickly clears her throat, and answers, “You’re a wonderful person, my love, so we’d be blessed to have two babies like you.”
Sam sighs as her eyes scan over each of us, and after a minute or so, she decides, “I guess if all of you were able to fall in love with me, I must not be too terrible.” She groans as she sits up. “I need to pee.”
August and Shannon help her out of bed and to the bathroom. And as soon as she’s getting back in bed, she bends forward with a small scream. After about twenty to thirty seconds, she lays back with a hard exhale and shakes her head.
“Remember when we were kids and they told us babies were delivered by a stork? I would like to go back in time to find whoever made up that lie and erase it from their brain before they can speak it.”
“Oh, man, if you had that power, there are so many wrongs that we could right.” I playfully pinch her side and knee, making her laugh, and I ask, “Which button on this time machine do we need to push?” She swats at me and puckers her lips, so I briefly stand up to give her a peck on the lips. “I’m sorry you’re in pain.”
“I knew what I was getting into.” While looking at and rubbing her stomach, she says, “But don’t you dare think you can be a little terror just because I knew it would be painful to create and push you out,” which makes all of us laugh. She smiles serenely and leans back with a deep sigh. “When my mom gets here, we need to wash her lipstick off or our baby or babies are going to be covered in lip prints.”
Madison rubs her leg, and answers, “Based on the way she squealed when you answered her call, I think you’re going to be covered with lip prints too.”
Sam groans and rolls her eyes dramatically. “Why does she have to be so embarrassing?”
Madison sweetly answers, “Because she loves you,” making Sam smile again.
The smile is short lived, however, as her shoulders hunch forward and she groans through another contraction. As soon as she settles, she complains about needing to use the bathroom again already.
For the next couple of hours, Sam’s contractions get worse and closer together and she keeps having to use the bathroom every ten to thirty minutes. On the obstetrician’s third visit, Sam’s contractions are consistently five minutes apart and lasting thirty seconds or more, so she uses the ultrasound machine to make sure everything still looks good inside and checks her dilation.
“Okay, Sam, you’re at about nine centimeters, so if you haven’t already, you may start to feel an urge to push, but I need you to resist and hold back. We need you to dilate one more centimeter. If you push too soon, your cervix could swell and drag this out even longer.”
With a bit of a growl, Sam answers, “Okay,” then tenses as she leans forward and releases the loudest scream yet. Her pale skin reddens for nearly a minute, before she falls back with a whimpering sigh. The obstetrician and August are staring at their watches, and after August makes a note of the time and length of the contraction in her notebook, she puts her stethoscope on and listens to Sam’s heart. After taking the ear pieces off, she smiles and gives Sam’s shoulder an encouraging squeeze.
“You’re doing great, sweetie.”
“I’m exhausted. How long is it going to take to get that last centimeter?”
“It could take minutes or hours.”
She exhales hard as she swipes a hand over her sweaty brow, so Shannon rubs a cool rag over her forehead, cheeks, neck, and upper chest for her.
“What’s it doing outside? Is it still snowing?”
One of the nurses softly answers, “Yes.”
“Can someone check in with my parents to see if their flight is going to leave on time?”
Madison pulls her cellphone out. “Texting your mom now.” We wait a few minutes, in which time, Sam has another bad contraction, and once it subsides, Madison says, “They’re boarding the plane now. She said to tell you they love you and not to worry about them and that it’s okay if the baby or babies get here before they do.”
“Tell her I love them too.” She sighs, then quickly adds, “And ask her how long she was in labor with me. I don’t remember.”
Madison relays the question to Eliza, then with a small laugh, she tells her, “This is her answer. ‘I was in pre-labor for ten hours, then when it was time to push, she shot out of me like a cannon ball and the doctor had to catch her. She’s always been a little spitfire. Sometimes it was challenging, but I’ve always loved how independent and outspoken and strong she is. She’s a mighty force in a small package and I’m so proud to be her mother. I know she says I embarrass her, but it’s just because I love her so much and I love seeing that fire inside of her. Oh, I’m gushing now and I’m causing a scene on the plane. Keep me updated on her progress. I love all of you.’ What would you like me to reply?”
While wiping tears away with one hand, Sam holds her other out for the phone. “I don’t want to cry and risk stressing the baby, so I don’t want to say it out loud.”
“Okay.” Madison passes her phone to Sam, and adds, “There are responses on the group text we sent the whole family if you want to read those too.”
Despite saying she didn’t want to cry Sam ends up crying the entire time she’s typing the response to her mom and while reading the messages from the rest of the family. Before she can respond to the family, she has another bad contraction, and in her reaction to the pain, she accidentally flings the phone forward. Symone is quick and catches it before it hits the floor.
After she’s settled again, Symone tries to hand the phone back to her, but Sam shakes her head, saying, “I can’t focus on it anymore,” so she gives it to Madison to put away.
“Whoa!”
Sam sits up, grabbing the underside of her stomach looking shocked, then throws her hands out to grip the bedrails and screams as her shoulders tense and her face turns bright red. Between groans, she asks, “Can I push? I feel like I need to push.”
The obstetrician peeks under the blanket with one hand disappearing between Sam’s legs while she’s still screaming.
Softly, August reminds her to, “Breathe, sweetie,” and Sam immediately starts taking deep breaths between her groans and grunts.
While withdrawing her hand, the obstetrician says, “You’re nearly there, Sam. Try to hold back just a little longer. If you want to try a water birth, now would be the time to relocate, very carefully.”
Sam nods, and sounding exhausted, says, “Okay, but someone better hold their hands down there because it feels like this baby is punching its way through me.”
We’re instructed to move to the other side of the pool to give them plenty of room, then August, the obstetrician, and a couple of nurses help Sam out of bed and into the pool. As soon as she’s kneeling down with her forearms resting on the side, Symone and Jaime strip down to their bikinis and climb in with her.
She’s not in the water a full minute before she tenses and screams in pain. “Coming. It’s coming. Oh, fuck, it hurts.”
She grips my hand really hard, causing me to wince, and even in her immense pain, she has the presence of mind to release my hand and grip my wrist instead. I really want to hold her hand, but her grip felt like she might actually break my fingers, so I just place my other hand over hers and bear her fingernails digging into my arm.
August and the obstetrician do more checks with Sam and her womb with their stethoscopes and the fetal doppler than they did with either Awenasa and Shannon, which is starting to freak me out. But they keep telling her she’s doing great, so I try to ignore it and just focus on Sam.
“Whoa!” Her eyes get huge as she leans forward more and widens her stance. She grunts, “Coming,” then screams as her body tenses and her pale skin turns bright red.
Symone has her hands under the water between Sam’s thighs to be prepared for when our baby drops, and after about five minutes of Sam screaming and pushing, Symone lifts our baby out of the water.
With tears in her eyes and a brilliant smile, Symone announces, “It’s a boy. Oh, Sam, he’s so beautiful.”
Sam’s still in distress with pain. She looks back over her shoulder for only a split second before she hunches forward screaming again.
Terrified, I ask, “What’s going on? Is she having twins?”
August answers, “Yes,” then applies the fetal doppler to Sam’s stomach, while the obstetrician clumps and cuts the umbilical cord for our son. After listening for a few moments, August says, “You’re doing great, Sam. Keep pushing.”
After only a couple of minutes, Jaime is lifting another baby from the water, and announces, “We have another boy,” and Sam releases a crying, exhausted laugh as she rests her head on the side of the pool. Awenasa, Madison, Shannon, and I rub her shoulders, arms, and back.
As she lifts her head, and with her voice hoarse from screaming, she asks, “Am I done? Please tell me I’m done.”
“Almost.” All of us look at August in shock, and she releases a small laugh and shakes her head. “You don’t have any more babies to push out, but you’ll need to pass the afterbirth. You can sit and see the babies for a minute, then we’ll bring you back to the bed.”
We help Sam sit and Jaime and Symone shuffle over next to her and pull the blankets down some so Sam can see our sons’ faces. They help her take both of them into her arms, and Sam releases a whimpering laugh.
“They’re beautiful. I can’t believe I had twins. I thought for sure I was just having one very chunky baby.”
All of us release emotional sounding laughs and a few of us have to wipe tears from our eyes. God, they are so cute. And they look just like each other.
“What do you want to name them, sweetie?”
Without looking at August to answer, Sam inhales deeply as she looks between our sons for several moments. Even though we didn’t know what Sam was going to have, we discussed it and decided on names for girls and boys. She just needs to decide which baby will receive which name.
While nodding down at the first one to drop, she says, “He is Aiden,” then nods down at the second born, and says, “And he is Kai.” She looks over her shoulder at Awenasa, and asks, “Can you bless them now?”
After Awenasa gives her a kiss on the lips, she pulls out a cobalt blue bottle of a brew of sweetgrass and sage. After pouring a small amount on the top of their heads, she hands the bottle to Jaime, then places both of her hands on our sons’ heads and begins her blessings and prayers of love and protection in Cherokee.
Sam is Irish and Polish and she has always loved the name Aiden for a boy, which is Irish and fittingly means fiery one or little fire. When Awenasa was pregnant, Kai was one of the names we came up with for the twins, but Awenasa chose Helaku instead because it means full of sun, which pairs better with Malana, which means light. The name Kai is common in many different countries, but the main reason it appealed to us was because in Hawaiian it means sea and in Navajo it means willow. It’s a name shared by Awenasa’s ancestry and the place we set the date to start having children. We liked how the various meanings together basically mean land and sea, like the baby is the whole earth. Together, the names represent three of the four elements, which is pretty cool.
When Awenasa finishes blessing the babies, she gives Sam another kiss on the lips. “I love you.”
“I love you too, I love all of you.” She sighs as she rotates our sons to rest them on her legs as she draws her knees up. “I can’t stop looking at them.” She bends down to kiss both of them on their foreheads, and says, “Hello, Aiden and Kai. We’re your mommies.” She looks around at all of us, and releases a small laugh, and as she looks at our sons, she adds, “You have a lot of mommies. And you have four siblings at home – another brother and three sisters. You two better be nice to your older brother when you’re old enough to scheme things up. I’ve heard some real horror stories about identical twins pulling pranks on people, especially their siblings.” All of us laugh, including August, the obstetrician, and the nurses. “Okay, I need to go get this afterbirth stuff out of me because being able to feel those squishy umbilical cords between my legs is starting to gross me out.”
After giving both of them another kiss, she has Symone and Jaime take them and August and the nurses help Sam relocate to the bed.
I can’t reach our sons to give them kisses and I don’t want to shove through my wives, so I give Awenasa a kiss on the cheek, then hop up to join Sam.
When I reach her side, she smiles in surprise, and asks, “Aren’t you going to fight our wives for one of our sons?”
“I’m really itching to get them in my arms, but like you said, they have lots of mommies, so I’m trying to be patient. Which will be easier to do standing right here by your side.”
Her smile widens for a moment before she puckers her lips, so I bend down to give her a kiss. It’s brief, but I can feel her love and happiness in every pass of her tongue and tender enveloping suckle of her salty lips. As she pulls away, I caress her cheek, but she gasps and takes my hand to look at my arm.
“You’re bleeding. Holy shit, did I do that?”
I look at my arm and shrug a shoulder. “Yeah, I guess. I didn’t even notice it.”
I have four small cuts where her fingernails dug in. They’re not gushing blood and not even dripping. She looks at her fingernails, then looks up at me with tears brimming in her eyes, so I quickly bend down to kiss her lips and both eyes.
“Babe, seriously, it’s no big deal. These little marks are nothing compared to what your body has been through and is about to go through.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was…”
I kiss her again, and she smiles against my mouth. As I pull away, I playfully bite the tip of her nose.
“I love you, Sam. You were so damn amazing. And our boys are perfect.”
With a teasing glint in her eyes and little grin, she asks, “Even though they don’t have scales and a dozen eyes?”
I laugh hard, and Sam releases an exhausted sounding laugh. She sighs, “Okay, I need to get this gross stuff out of me now.”
I try to take her hand, but she places my hand on her shoulder and grips the bedrails.
I think it’s really cute that she’s upset that she cut me with her fingernails when she’s done it countless times during sex. Sometimes, it’s out of her control because of the immense pleasure coursing through her, but my wives know I like that little bit of pain sometimes, whether from fingernail scrapes or bites. It’s an even bigger turn on for me though when the marks are delivered out of their pleasure.