All Grown Up: The Story of Jacob and Renesmee Part I

Thirty-Four Seconds

Edward

I'd been spending more time at my daughter's house then she realized. Carlisle was concerned. He was able to estimate the weight of my twin grandchildren, well, his also, by their images on the ultra sound screen. And it was not much. She'd been on steroids to help the babies lungs develop in preparation for the early birth. Carlisle had tried, but there was nothing else he could do to stop them from coming. They would be here any day now.

Jacob was having to work a little to maintain composure around Nessie. When he came downstairs he let his guard down and spend a lot of time with Bella, with her fingers laced through his and his head hung. He hadn't told anyone, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to have any more children after this. He didn't know if he wanted to go through this again. To see Nessie go through this again.

Nessie was mostly optimistic, but she was still a little afraid. and she knew exactly how Jacob felt. She may as well have been present for all of his conversations with Carlisle. Nessie also knew many of the risks to this pregnancy, we hadn't needed to tell her, she took it upon herself to find out. I must admit, I told Carlisle what she knew. I thought he should be aware. I wished we hadn't kept those things from her, we'd been wrong. She was able to handle it, and was stronger than we thought. She knew she hadn't been told everything, but she understood why, she wasn't angry.

In those last few days of her pregnancy, mostly her thoughts contained the repetition of her mantra. "I'll hold on to them as long as I can." Once I counted, she thought that phrase 472 times in a day. The relaxation techniques Carlisle had suggested Jacob try helped her. Even though she was in pain, she could be distracted.

On a Friday morning, she told us today was the day. She told Carlisle this was the worst the pain had ever gotten, and so today they would be born. Rachel came over to assist with the birth, and Nessie was set up in the hospital bed. Carlisle wanted to closely monitor everything, so Nessie had plenty of wires around her. Swan found that upsetting, she seemed to think, from what I could gather, that the wires were hurting Nessie. She cried from Bella's arms until she was taken from the room. Anthony was concerned, but when his parents told him everything was fine, he believed them.

Ness had been wrong though, that day was not the day. We had not yet seen the twins final in utero growth spurt. Carlisle was keeping her well medicated, I was thankful he knew the ways to ease her agony, but keep the children still inside of her safe. She was only slightly "Loopy" as Jacob had said, but she requested Anthony and Swan be kept away. She didn't want them to see her and get upset, but she missed them off in a corner of her somewhat cloudy mind, and they missed her as well.

Anthony had never acted up before, but he was now. In the late morning of the second day, Nessie had insisted was "the day" Anthony threw a fit. It was a fit for him anyway. He slammed his fork down onto the kitchen table. He nearly growled at Bella. He missed his mother and demanded to see her.

Since she was sleeping then, we took him up to peek in on her for just a moment.

A fit for Anthony was a normal day for Swan. Without her mother around, she could have cared less what anyone thought of the way she was acting. She was such a Daddy's girl, but she wouldn't even listen to Jacob on the rare occasion he left Nessie's side to come downstairs. A dream had given her a general outline of the day, and she knew which rooms would be vacant and when. This provided her with a perfect opportunity to express her displeasure by knocking over an end table in the living room. I mostly just let her be.

The day ended, and the sun came up with no change in Nessie. Everyone waited. She was beyond the point where she could be distracted from the pain. She became quiet and continued to repeat her mantra to herself.