Either of them. I winced as another contraction came right as the judge banged his gavel, declaring Jett part of our family.
T H I R T E E N:
Sebastian’s POV
Getting up with the alarm, I noticed that Stormi’s side of the bed was empty. She’d been having trouble sleeping towards the end of this pregnancy, bigger than all the rest, exhausted the whole time, and uncomfortable, but as beautiful as the day I saw her. I sat on the edge of the bed and heard the shower going, not thinking anything of it. Her back might be hurting, and she said that the warm water in the shower flowing over her felt wonderful. It was why she liked it when we would take the kids to the pool. It took all of the weight off her back and stomach. She practically lived in a pool this pregnancy. I laid out her navy-blue, knee-length maternity dress, and grabbed my navy-blue suit and laid them both on the bed. I peeked my head into the bathroom, letting her know I loved her, and was going to start getting the kids up, and all I heard was a grunt back.
Weird, but we had a busy morning and I had to get on the ball with the kids.
Heading down towards the kids’ rooms, I went into each room, one at a time, helping each one of them as they got out of bed, got dressed up, so we could head to court and officially have a judge sign off on adopting Jett, and out to the kitchen so they could get some breakfast and something to drink. Stevie looked like she didn’t sleep a wink. Once they were at the kitchen table, the monitor was set up to watch them so I could run and get myself ready. I was about to walk back out and check on the kids when I noticed her dress was still laying on the bed. I poked my head in to check on Stormi. She was usually making breakfast for the kids by now.
“Babe?” The shower was still going, so I walked in. I saw her, palms against the glass door of the shower, headdown, groaning, the hot water hitting her low back. Opening the shower door, I took her in. “Babe? Are you okay? Are you in labor?”
She nodded her head, eyes closed tightly, forearms pressed against the wall, leaning towards the wall, her hips shifting back and forth. Looking at her, I could feel the panic rising. She was in labor! Our court date was in less than an hour! How…what…what do I do?
Shit.
OH SHIT! We had to reschedule our court date, Jett’s adoption day. There was no way she’d be able to sit through that long ass process. Not on that hard wooden bench. I pulled out my phone, ready to make the call to either of our parents, who would be there at Court in a matter of minutes to meet us there. I was ready to call and tell them whatever we needed. If that was needing our parents to reschedule for tomorrow, or to ask for a quick one because Stormi was in labor.
“Do we need to go to the hospital right now?”
“No. The contractions are really far apart. Like, close to an hour. I’m just sore and using the hot water to massage my muscles.” She sounded calmer now, more at ease, and her face didn’t look like she was in pain anymore.
“Are you sure they’re real contractions? They’re not Braxton-Hicks?” The exacerbated look she gave me was almost comical, but I kept my thoughts to myself. This was her third time doing this. She knew. I just wanted to find a way to make it all work.
“Every hour on the hour. Plus, the plug is gone.” My eyes went wide. Stevie took forever to get here, but Sage came quickly. “We should get—” I was getting ready to call my parents when she cut me off.
“Going so we can adopt our son today. Our other son will be here tomorrow, or later today, most likely.” She tried to comfort me as I helped her out of the shower, quickly, gently, drying her off so she just had to lean on the vanity to do whatever made her comfortable.
I still felt like I needed to make sure we were ready. I had a feeling we weren’t going to have as long as she thought we would. I grabbed the diaper bag, as well as her suitcase and mine, and took them to the SUV. I hurried back inside to start getting the kids shuttled out to the SUV and buckled in. I made sure I had my phone and called my parents and father-in-law. I let them all know that Stormi was in labor, but we were proceeding to the courthouse because she wanted to make sure that Jett became a part of our family. They all let me know they would be putting their suitcases in their cars to take shifts watching the kids at our house while we went through the birth of our little guy, and I heard her dad confirm he had three car seats in his car for the kids. We had a luxury pull-out couch for them to stay on, and there was still one guest room left.
The whole way to the courthouse, Stormi seemed like she was alright, and it wasn’t until we had to park and walk in that I noticed her grimacing again. She shook her head when I started to try to get her back in the car. She insisted she was fine, and she wanted Jett to be a part of our family. Walking in, I made sure that she was comfortable. The judge had been informed of what was going on with Stormi from my mother, and as soon as we were all in the courtroom, he asked us all to rise as he announced Jettson to be our son, officially. We all signed a document, and the judge banged the gavel. Jettson’s grandmother cried and asked if we would still let her be grandma. Of course, we said yes.
We were all taking our first official family pictures, everyone had happy tears in their eyes and down their face,when Stormi winced and put her hand to her belly. I had been so caught up in the moment, loving how Stevie and Sage and Jettson, jumping up and down together, so happy. I had turned to fully look at her, and she was almost doubled over. I reached out, catching her just before her knees gave out.
“Fuck. Me.” She gritted out as the contraction ripped through her body. I stood behind her, my arms under hers as I helped her to the ground. She sat in a squat position, holding onto my arms like a lifeline. I knew before the questions left my lips, but I had to ask.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” She let her head lull back, face full of pain and concentration.
“Con…tract…tion,” she said through clenched teeth, eyes screwed shut, breathing deeply through the pain.
“How far apart?” I needed to know how much time I had to get her there.
“Seven.” What?! Seven minutes?! Sage came about thirty minutes after that! We had to hurry!
“Shit! Mom! Dad! We have to go! Now! The baby’s coming!” I shouted as I lifted her up, slipping under one arm.
“Go! Go!” Dad shouted, showing us the way. Her dad came rushing to her side, Emily right in front of us, opening all of the doors as we hurried as quickly as she could move to the car.
“I’ll get the car! Sandra! I’ll call you to let you know when you all can come up. Thank you!” Emily called out to my mother as she ran to move the car to the front of the building.
“Will you be able to get her in and to the hospital? I need to help your folks with the kids and getting them settledbefore coming up.” I nodded to Andrew who kissed her head and promised to be there as soon as the rugrats were settled in.
Four hours later, my parents and our kids were at the hospital with the rest of us. They had just walked through the door, making everyone do a double-take. We had no idea we had another little princess hiding behind her brother. Jettson and Sage held their little brother, Ziggy, while Stevie held her little sister, Olive, whom Stevie had already affectionately nicknamed Ollie. She was our hidden bonus baby. Her dad and Emily, who was in town visiting us, ran out to the store and bought everything we would need for little Ollie, like a second everything, but in pink, Emily said. She had invited us out because she and her fiancé were getting married soon, and Stormi loved him. She remembered Jefferson and liked him.
Our family was finally complete. My beautiful wife was at the head of it with me as her first mate. Then our three boys, and our two girls. Life was perfect.
I couldn’t imagine anything better.
