Page 165 of Certified to Handle You
“Pressure… baby… I think it’s time.”
His eyes opened slow, but were still heavy with sleep. For a second he just looked at me like he was trying to catch up, but when I grabbed his hand and pressed it against my belly, it clicked.
Right on time, another contraction rolled through me, and I inhaled slow while his hand stayed on me.
He sat up quick then, and was all the way awake now. His palm spread across my stomach while he looked at me.
“You serious?” he asked, his voice still rough from sleep but already focused.
I nodded. “Yes, baby… I think so.”
He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to my stomach like he always did, and I could see it in his face. He was ready.
He got out the bed quick and moved toward the bathroom. “I’m finna get everything ready,” he said.
“I already did it,” I told him, watching him from the bed.
He paused for a second and looked back at me, nodding slow, and I could see that little look of pride on his face before he disappeared into the bathroom anyway.
He came back out a minute later and climbed back into bed with me, grabbing his phone to check the time before he looked back at my stomach again.
“Why our babies always pick the middle of the night to turn up?” he muttered, leaning down to kiss it again.
I laughed softly and ran my fingers through his beard. “I don’t know… they just like being difficult.”
He smirked a little and kept rubbing my belly while I watched him, my hand resting on top of his head while my other one stayed on my stomach.
After a second, he looked up at me. “Baby, you ready to find out what we havin’?”
I held his gaze for a moment, then nodded slow.
“I am,” I told him, then smiled a little. “I’m just praying it ain’t another boy.”
He laughed low and shook his head, then kissed my stomach again.
I leaned back against the headboard with one hand still in his beard while the other moved over my belly, feeling the life inside me that was finally ready to come into this world.
As another contraction started to build, I looked down at my stomach and whispered softly,
“Please be a girl…”
Hours had passed and I was still in the tub with Pressure behind me. My back was pressed against his chest while the warm water moved around my body in soft waves.
At first, the water had helped, and it took the edge off enough for me to breathe through things, but now it felt like my body was doing something different. The pressure was heavier, and it sat low in a way that made it hard for me to get comfortable no matter how I shifted.
Pressure kept his hands on me the whole time, rubbing slow circles over my stomach before scooping water up in his palms and letting it run back down over my belly. Every now and then, he would lean forward and press a kiss against my shoulder, then my neck, like he was trying to calm me without saying too much.
I leaned my head back against him when another contraction came, my fingers gripping the edge of the tub while I tried to breathe through it the way Auntie Treasure had been coaching me.
“In through your nose… out through your mouth,” I whispered to myself, trying to stay calm even though my body felt like it was tightening from the inside out.
Pressure’s hand slid up my chest, brushing my hair back from my shoulder before he leaned in close to my ear. “You doin’ good, baby,” he murmured. Then he kissed the side of my neck again before speaking against my skin. “After this… we takin’ a break for a minute. I ain’t puttin’ you through this again no time soon.”
I bit down on my bottom lip when the pain peaked, my eyes squeezing shut while I let it move through me instead of fighting it. Once it eased up just enough for me to catch my breath, I turned my head slightly toward him.
“A minute?” I asked softly, my voice strained but still carrying a hint of a smile because even through everything I was feeling, I heard the love in what he was saying.
He kissed my shoulder again, slower this time. “Yeah, baby,” he said, his hand moving back over my stomach. “I mean that. I love you.”
