play.
William watched the clock.
For the next fourteen minutes, Casey played uninterrupted.
“So, do we actually need to time the contractions now, or wait until your water
breaks? Should I get a towel?”
Casey sighed and paused the game.
“Don’t you remember the class? Water breaking isn’t that common during this phase.
We need to time the contractions. Oh, we should also be timing how long they last.
Maybe we should get a notebook.”
William retrieved a notebook and pen. When he returned, she was focused once again
on Tetris.
“When the contractions are five minutes apart, last for one minute, and that goes
on for an hour, we head to the hospital,” she reminded him.
“Five minutes, one minute, one hour,” William repeated. “Got it.”
“And you put the car seat in the car?”
“I have one in my car. I put the base in yours, but the car seat is in the
nursery.”
“All right. While we wait for the next contraction, go put it in the car. Make sure
the base is secure.”
William obeyed. It took time to fasten the base tightly, but he made sure it
wouldn’t budge on turns.
An hour passed. They had a system now. William wrote down the times from the VCR
and counted “Mississippis” to estimate how long each contraction lasted. They were
seven minutes apart, lasting around thirty- five to forty seconds.
After another hour, the contractions were five minutes apart and holding steady,