Vignette: Milandra's Birth
Who: K'ndro, Madilla, Milani, NPC: Milandra
When: day 15, month 9, turn 21 of the 10th interval
What: Birthing! From Milani's point of view. Nothing gross. Just one take on what goes through a woman's mind when she's shoving the equivalent of a watermelon out of her lady bits.
Out of nowhere, the sudden wave of pain woke Milani from what had been a deep sleep. Groggy and disoriented, she wasn't sure what had just happened, other than that she felt sick to her stomach and the after-effects of that surge were still rippling through her lower back and down into her thighs.
She lay still, curled up on her side, breathing in and out. Was this just another one of those ... shoot, she never remembered the name for fake contractions right. It was a funny name, almost like the name of a person or two people, instead of you know, a proper name for what happened. Madilla had explained a lot of things about stretching ligaments and muscles that had kind of gone over Milani's head, but she got the general idea that the body liked to practice ahead of time and it did that a lot and it felt different from the real --
Holy /shit/.
Her breath all went out of her in a sudden exhale as the contraction built up and curled her spine forward, tucking her into a little ball. Barely aware, she realized that she was whimpering softly and her hands were knotting up the pillow case and her sheets. Puddle, who usually slept through everything, chittered at her side, eyes whirling orangey red in the darkness as his head ducked under her chin. There was something wrong with his person! What was he going to do?!
Slowly the wave faded out, just like the tide rushing away from the beach and Milani took a gasping breath, reached for the little brown, hands shaking. "Mik," she croaked and blinked to find her voice so affected. "Madilla," she said next, repeated it and made herself focus on the brown enough to think of both of their faces, over and over and repeated the names.
Oh good! This was something he could do! Puddle could get the big-funny-guy and the-wort-smelling-girl! He liked wort-smelling-girl, she was always sweet even when she shooed him away from her things.
For once in his very lazy and sleep-riddled life, Puddle took off fast fast and flicked Between to find the Healer first. He chittered and bounced around making a nuisance of himself until he was sure she was awake and had said his person's name before he flew off to find big-funny-guy next.
Alone in her room, Milani held on as another wave washed through her, stronger this time and all of a sudden, she just couldn't stay in bed anymore. She had to get up, she had to move, she had to do something, get away, run, walk ... anything. On her feet, she felt better and paced to and fro, to and fro, the whole length of the room. Between one wave and the next, she pulled the lid off a glow, let it fall to the floor and then leaned heavily against the wall, hands bracing her weight, arms bending as she pushed into the hard twist of muscle that started low down in her spine, wrapped around her mid-section like a vise and just ... tugged like a riptide trying to drag her out to sea.
She was losing all ability to think coherently, like the world was out there somewhere, not quite touchable, alien, apart from her, but still /there/. She was just the moment, the pull of her body, the pressure along her lower back that felt like so much sharp glass being driven into her flesh. Her cry rang out in the silence of the room, was met by soothing hands and a calm voice. A woman's voice. /Madilla/. Milani latched onto that voice, one hand flailing for the healer's arm. "I can't ... I can't ..." she moaned, but Madilla would have none of that and steered her to the bed between contractions to check things out.
Convinced she had hours of this ahead of her, Milani felt the little stirrings of panic and fear. How could anyone do this? It hurt so badly. Such big overwhelming pain. No one could face this, could they? Agitated, she pushed up away from the bed and paced again, only to double up against the wall in something like a lunge. Strong arms wrapped around her, held her up and the deep burr of Mik's voice sounded. Oh, he was here, that was good, that was very good. She leaned into /him/ instead of the wall and there was something ineffably reassuring about havin K'ndro there to support her instead of cold stone. Fleetingly, her brain jumped to another man, the other who held her heart, blue eyes not brown, golden curls, but Milani had no time to try to form words to ask for K'del. Her arms tightened around K'ndro's neck as she breathed into the next body-bending clenching of muscles.
Madilla was saying something about transitions that Milani couldn't make heads or tails of. All she knew was that she couldn't stop whatever was happening to her and then she was throwing up into the basin the healer held into her hands. Trembling when that was over, she was only vaguely aware of the two others cleaning her up, tying back her hair. Clinging to Mik, she suddenly realized that the bad pain was gone. The contractions had been coming one on top of the other, leaving her no time to breathe, but suddenly it didn't hurt anymore. She still felt like she was being squeezed hard by some very large, invisible hand, but the grinding-glass pain along her spine was over. She rested her head against K'ndro's shoulder and breathed in and out a few times, realized her head was clearing up some too.
Milani turned her head to really look at Madilla for the first time since it had all started and suddenly, she smiled a stupidly giddy little smile and cuddled into Mik's chest.
"It won't be long now," was the promise and Milani closed her eyes, rested a little in that space between pain and no pain, feeling like she was floating someplace outside of time. The slow creeping tug started to wrap around again after maybe ten minutes of rest, bringing Milani out of that surreal state quickly. This time it was different and she felt this strange urge to breathe in, dig her feet into the floor and push.
Holy shit. Pushing. This is what pushing was like. Holy smokes. Shells and shards. Something was burning where it really shouldn't burning like fire and ... PUSH!
Her body arched against K'ndro and suddenly Madilla was gone, out of sight and the next thing she knew she felt the oddest feeling ever in her entire life. She wouldn't be able to describe it properly afterward, all attempts ended in helpless flailing of her hands. But as the baby slipped free she felt ... hollowed out, empty, almost like the biggest burp ever. All the pressures eased and then she heard it, even as she hung on tight to Mik: her baby's first cry and shortly after, Madilla's triumphant: "It's a girl!"
Hazily, Milani lifted her head to look up at K'ndro and just beamed, happy, but crying and she didn't know why, but she had to cry. "Milandra," she croaked out and then all the strength went right out of her legs. Startled, Mik reached for her, held her up. It was an awkward transition to the bed, but somehow they all made it and Milani leaned back against the headboard, propped up on pillows as the baby was curled to her chest wrapped up in a blanket.
She didn't even notice all the things that Madilla was doing down there, she was too absorbed in the sight of her daughter's face, the little round eyes, so blue, the slope of her forehead, the wisps of reddish brown hair at her temples, the shape of those perfect tiny lips and the curl of itty bitty fingers as she tucked her forefinger beneath them.
"Oh ... " she breathed out softly, instantly in love with this little creature she'd just brought into the world. In that moment, she suddenly got it, understood something about her own mother, other mothers, other fathers, other /parents/. Her own reservations about being a mother from when she was younger flew out the window as she stared into her daughter's eyes and Milandra stared back and ... yawned. Which made Milani laugh all over again. There was nothing in the world she wouldn't do for her. Nothing.
When everything was all cleaned up and a couple of towels had been slid beneath her, Milani finally looked up to really touch base with the two who stood alongside her.
"Thank you ..." she said with that smile on her face again.
Eventually, she passed Milandra to her father and he held her while Madilla took care of some more things, things that were, frankly, kind of ooky and Milani was glad when they were over. Then Milandra needed to get a little bit of a bath and then she started fussing and sucking on her hand and Madilla said that meant she was hungry, so Millie tried the whole nursing thing and boy was /that/ ever a bitch.
Somehow though, they all managed and after a while, Milandra fell asleep and Milani realized she could barely keep her eyes open, so she slid down in the pillows with the baby tucked into the curve of her arm and went to sleep, with two guardian angels to watch over them both.
When: day 15, month 9, turn 21 of the 10th interval
What: Birthing! From Milani's point of view. Nothing gross. Just one take on what goes through a woman's mind when she's shoving the equivalent of a watermelon out of her lady bits.
Out of nowhere, the sudden wave of pain woke Milani from what had been a deep sleep. Groggy and disoriented, she wasn't sure what had just happened, other than that she felt sick to her stomach and the after-effects of that surge were still rippling through her lower back and down into her thighs.
She lay still, curled up on her side, breathing in and out. Was this just another one of those ... shoot, she never remembered the name for fake contractions right. It was a funny name, almost like the name of a person or two people, instead of you know, a proper name for what happened. Madilla had explained a lot of things about stretching ligaments and muscles that had kind of gone over Milani's head, but she got the general idea that the body liked to practice ahead of time and it did that a lot and it felt different from the real --
Holy /shit/.
Her breath all went out of her in a sudden exhale as the contraction built up and curled her spine forward, tucking her into a little ball. Barely aware, she realized that she was whimpering softly and her hands were knotting up the pillow case and her sheets. Puddle, who usually slept through everything, chittered at her side, eyes whirling orangey red in the darkness as his head ducked under her chin. There was something wrong with his person! What was he going to do?!
Slowly the wave faded out, just like the tide rushing away from the beach and Milani took a gasping breath, reached for the little brown, hands shaking. "Mik," she croaked and blinked to find her voice so affected. "Madilla," she said next, repeated it and made herself focus on the brown enough to think of both of their faces, over and over and repeated the names.
Oh good! This was something he could do! Puddle could get the big-funny-guy and the-wort-smelling-girl! He liked wort-smelling-girl, she was always sweet even when she shooed him away from her things.
For once in his very lazy and sleep-riddled life, Puddle took off fast fast and flicked Between to find the Healer first. He chittered and bounced around making a nuisance of himself until he was sure she was awake and had said his person's name before he flew off to find big-funny-guy next.
Alone in her room, Milani held on as another wave washed through her, stronger this time and all of a sudden, she just couldn't stay in bed anymore. She had to get up, she had to move, she had to do something, get away, run, walk ... anything. On her feet, she felt better and paced to and fro, to and fro, the whole length of the room. Between one wave and the next, she pulled the lid off a glow, let it fall to the floor and then leaned heavily against the wall, hands bracing her weight, arms bending as she pushed into the hard twist of muscle that started low down in her spine, wrapped around her mid-section like a vise and just ... tugged like a riptide trying to drag her out to sea.
She was losing all ability to think coherently, like the world was out there somewhere, not quite touchable, alien, apart from her, but still /there/. She was just the moment, the pull of her body, the pressure along her lower back that felt like so much sharp glass being driven into her flesh. Her cry rang out in the silence of the room, was met by soothing hands and a calm voice. A woman's voice. /Madilla/. Milani latched onto that voice, one hand flailing for the healer's arm. "I can't ... I can't ..." she moaned, but Madilla would have none of that and steered her to the bed between contractions to check things out.
Convinced she had hours of this ahead of her, Milani felt the little stirrings of panic and fear. How could anyone do this? It hurt so badly. Such big overwhelming pain. No one could face this, could they? Agitated, she pushed up away from the bed and paced again, only to double up against the wall in something like a lunge. Strong arms wrapped around her, held her up and the deep burr of Mik's voice sounded. Oh, he was here, that was good, that was very good. She leaned into /him/ instead of the wall and there was something ineffably reassuring about havin K'ndro there to support her instead of cold stone. Fleetingly, her brain jumped to another man, the other who held her heart, blue eyes not brown, golden curls, but Milani had no time to try to form words to ask for K'del. Her arms tightened around K'ndro's neck as she breathed into the next body-bending clenching of muscles.
Madilla was saying something about transitions that Milani couldn't make heads or tails of. All she knew was that she couldn't stop whatever was happening to her and then she was throwing up into the basin the healer held into her hands. Trembling when that was over, she was only vaguely aware of the two others cleaning her up, tying back her hair. Clinging to Mik, she suddenly realized that the bad pain was gone. The contractions had been coming one on top of the other, leaving her no time to breathe, but suddenly it didn't hurt anymore. She still felt like she was being squeezed hard by some very large, invisible hand, but the grinding-glass pain along her spine was over. She rested her head against K'ndro's shoulder and breathed in and out a few times, realized her head was clearing up some too.
Milani turned her head to really look at Madilla for the first time since it had all started and suddenly, she smiled a stupidly giddy little smile and cuddled into Mik's chest.
"It won't be long now," was the promise and Milani closed her eyes, rested a little in that space between pain and no pain, feeling like she was floating someplace outside of time. The slow creeping tug started to wrap around again after maybe ten minutes of rest, bringing Milani out of that surreal state quickly. This time it was different and she felt this strange urge to breathe in, dig her feet into the floor and push.
Holy shit. Pushing. This is what pushing was like. Holy smokes. Shells and shards. Something was burning where it really shouldn't burning like fire and ... PUSH!
Her body arched against K'ndro and suddenly Madilla was gone, out of sight and the next thing she knew she felt the oddest feeling ever in her entire life. She wouldn't be able to describe it properly afterward, all attempts ended in helpless flailing of her hands. But as the baby slipped free she felt ... hollowed out, empty, almost like the biggest burp ever. All the pressures eased and then she heard it, even as she hung on tight to Mik: her baby's first cry and shortly after, Madilla's triumphant: "It's a girl!"
Hazily, Milani lifted her head to look up at K'ndro and just beamed, happy, but crying and she didn't know why, but she had to cry. "Milandra," she croaked out and then all the strength went right out of her legs. Startled, Mik reached for her, held her up. It was an awkward transition to the bed, but somehow they all made it and Milani leaned back against the headboard, propped up on pillows as the baby was curled to her chest wrapped up in a blanket.
She didn't even notice all the things that Madilla was doing down there, she was too absorbed in the sight of her daughter's face, the little round eyes, so blue, the slope of her forehead, the wisps of reddish brown hair at her temples, the shape of those perfect tiny lips and the curl of itty bitty fingers as she tucked her forefinger beneath them.
"Oh ... " she breathed out softly, instantly in love with this little creature she'd just brought into the world. In that moment, she suddenly got it, understood something about her own mother, other mothers, other fathers, other /parents/. Her own reservations about being a mother from when she was younger flew out the window as she stared into her daughter's eyes and Milandra stared back and ... yawned. Which made Milani laugh all over again. There was nothing in the world she wouldn't do for her. Nothing.
When everything was all cleaned up and a couple of towels had been slid beneath her, Milani finally looked up to really touch base with the two who stood alongside her.
"Thank you ..." she said with that smile on her face again.
Eventually, she passed Milandra to her father and he held her while Madilla took care of some more things, things that were, frankly, kind of ooky and Milani was glad when they were over. Then Milandra needed to get a little bit of a bath and then she started fussing and sucking on her hand and Madilla said that meant she was hungry, so Millie tried the whole nursing thing and boy was /that/ ever a bitch.
Somehow though, they all managed and after a while, Milandra fell asleep and Milani realized she could barely keep her eyes open, so she slid down in the pillows with the baby tucked into the curve of her arm and went to sleep, with two guardian angels to watch over them both.