Page 17 of Tumbleweed Temptation
She shook him off and used the steps to heave herself onto it by herself, albeit not very gracefully.
“So tell me what’s going on,” Austin said, holding his hand up to Beck when he started to speak. “I want to hear it from Lacey.”
“My stomach started cramping during dinner, but it’s not constant. It’s rhythmic. My stomach gets really hard, and then relaxes.”
Austin nodded, looking right at her. “Have you been timing them?”
“No, I didn't have a watch or phone handy. Not super fast. Not even sure how rhythmic they are, just that they seem to have a pattern.”
“Okay, I’m going to examine you, so Beck, if you’d step out of the room.” He turned to Lacey. “Unless you want him here.”
“No, thanks. This is going to be humiliating enough.”
“We are going to do our best not to make it humiliating. If we were in the city, we’d have a monitor we could put on you to measure everything, but the old-fashioned way is the most accurate anyway. Lay back and let me have a look.”
“Okay, but tell me you’ve done this before.”
“I had an OB rotation and I saw plenty of, er, cervixes.” But this would be weird. He’d known Lacey since she’d moved here. He really didn't want to know her this well.
“God.” She covered her eyes with her hand as she adjusted herself on the table and braced for the exam.
“You don't appear to be dilated at all,” he said from the end of the exam table. He straightened and removed his gloves. “This is probably just Braxton-Hicks contractions, but I’ll keep you here for an hour or two, so we can see if there is a pattern to them, to see if you dilate any. How many weeks are you?”
“Thirty three.”
He made a face. “Twins can be known to come early, but I’d still like to see them hold on a little longer to make sure their lungs are fully formed.”
She put her hand on her stomach and tried to sit up. A cramp hit right then, and she gasped in surprise.
Austin walked over to a chart sitting on the counter. “Okay, that one was at seven twenty three. Let’s see if we can find a pattern.” He raised his voice. “Beck, you can come back in, sorry, man. Forgot you were waiting.”
Beck was through the door before Austin finished talking. “What is it? Do we need to head to the city?”
“We’re going to hold on a bit and see what happens. She’s not dilated at all, do you know what that means?”
“I went to a couple of the birthing classes.”
Austin sat back on his rolling stool and did a half spin. “You did? I didn't think you were that involved.”
“We are involved,” Beck countered. “So you know.”
“I get it,” Austin said. “I mean, I think it was Marianne who told me you were together, I just didn't know how together, you know?”
“We’re timing the contractions to see if there’s a pattern,” Lacey inserted. “Can you let everyone know? Austin thinks it’s Braxton-Hicks.”
“I think, but I want to be sure before I send her home,” Austin said, doing another half-spin.
“I’ll call the house, and Dr. Fredrick, to update her.”
“So,” Austin turned to her. “You’re my traveling nurse.”
“Well, I’m not your traveling nurse. I work for Helping Hearts. But yeah, I’ve been the one seeing all your patients up until now.”
“We really need to get together and you can fill me in on some of them, things beyond what I’m seeing in their charts. Would that be okay?”
“Sure, of course. I’ve been doing this for a few years, and have had most of them the whole time.”
“That’s good. What made you want to go into nursing? I guess I was kind of surprised when I heard that’s what you’re doing.”
