Mallory's POV:

Becoming a mom was something that I had wanted for as long as I could remember. I remember dreaming about the day that I would tell my husband that we were expecting. I remember dreaming about holding my child for the first time, gazing over him or her, and trying to figure out who they would look like more -her father or me. I remember planning out how I would want the nursery to look, right down to the perfect shade of paint on the walls. But what I don't remember ever thinking about was just how painful childbirth would be. Especially when you were petite like I am but you have a husband that is six foot four inches of former college football player turned country music superstar.

Oh sure, I'd heard stories about people saying that it was painful, but deep down I think I'd always just thought of them as exaggerating. I'd heard people talk about how their doctors had shoved their hands inside their vaginas to turn the baby because it was breech. I'd heard people talk about how fast -or how slow- labor could progress and had brushed it off as one of those things that wasn't going to happen to me since I was doing everything that the baby books suggested that I do to make labor easier. I mean, I was fit, I ate right, I watched my weight, I even did the damn bouncing exercises on the giant ass yoga ball that Chase had brought me. Yet here I was dealing with full blow labor that was progressing so fast that there hadn't been time for me to get an epidural to help alleviate the pain. Looking back now, I could honestly say that the pain that I was dealing with right now was my karmic payback for ever doubting that the universe could and would in fact prove me wrong. Moral of the story: never say "oh that won't happen to me" because it almost always will happen and will be worse than anything you could have ever imagined.

"Let me page the doctor. It's time to push." Said the nurse who had been sitting beside me watching the screen that showed every time I had a contraction. Honestly, the device looked like it was used to track earthquakes. Which I was guess was pretty fitting since every time a contraction took hold of my body, I felt like everything inside of me was shifting and crashing violently into my other organs.

As the nurse walked out of the room, Chase leaned down and pressed a kiss against my lips. When he broke it, he rested his forehead against mine and said "I can't wait to meet my son. I know she's going to be just as beautiful as her mama."

"And have you wrapped around her little finger too." I replied, lifting a hand and letting my fingers sift through his overly long hair. "But I think she's going to look more like you than me. Mama always said that a baby always came out looking like their daddy because if they looked like them, they couldn't deny that they were theirs."

"Well, the Rice genes are strong." Smirked Chase.

"Yeah, yeah." I said, a loud moan cutting off anything else I could had said as yet one more contraction took hold of me. I heard Chase telling me to breathe, that the contraction would ease in a minute, as he gently stoked my hair. Hair that I was pretty sure was sticking up in every direction.

The contraction was just starting to ease when the nurse walked back in with the Doctor. In a flurry of movements, the other nurses that had been in and out of the room since we got here moved things around.

"Alright Mallory, I need you to scoot down on the bed for me. Just keep going until I say stop." Said the female doctor who hadn't been my doctor this whole time but was the doctor that I was stuck with since Mr. Carson James Rice had decided to make his arrival into the world today and not next week when Dr. Ridgecroft would be back from his vacation. I'd seen the ratchet doctor in Dr. Ridgecroft's office a couple of times and absolutely hated her. Let's put it this way: if there was a real-life version of Bride of Chucky ever made, she could play Tiffany. She had the matching personality and the makeup down to an art.

Pushing my distaste with the doctor away for now, I slipped down to the edge of the bed as instructed while the nurses adjusted the back of the bed, stuffing pillows behind my back. All the while, Chase was by my side, his fingers entwined with mine as he whispered little words of encouragement. Truthfully, I didn't want his words of encouragement since he was half of the reason I was in so much pain; I knew I played just as much of a role in creating our son as he did. But I was the one laying on the bed with my legs spread wide open, dealing with contractions that felt like they were about to rip me in two pieces.  

"Alright Dad, I need to you hold one leg while the nurse holds the other." Said the doctor, pulling me from my thoughts as I watched her settled between my legs. "On my count, I need to you start pushing Mallory. Are you ready?"

"More than you fucking' know." I said, as another contraction took hold, making me grip Chase's hand tightly. Later, I'd be ashamed of my sure of such foul language and be worried about mama breaking out her bar of lye soap but right now, with the pain I was in, the words were needed to express my level of pain and I was willing to gnaw on that bar of soap if I had to. It didn't matter to her that I was 28 years old. According to her, a woman was never supposed to use such language. 

"Alright. Then lets do this." Said the doctor. Did I mention her voice was just like Tiffany from Bride of Chucky. Like I said, she would be perfect for the role...

Everything happened fast then. One minute I was screaming in excruciating pain, the next, the sweetest sound I'd ever head and ever would hear again filled the room. My boy had a set of lungs on him. Tears began to stream down my face in joy as I watched the doctor give Chase instructions on how and where to cut the umbilical cord before he was passed to me.

"He's perfect." I whispered as tears streamed down my face as I looked down at that little bundle of joy that had just been placed on my chest. Tearing my eyes off her for a split second, I looked up at Chase and saw his gray eyes glowing with tears of his own.

"Just like his mama." Said Chase, leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on my forehead. With his lips still close to mine, he added "you did good baby girl. I love you so much.

"I love you too." I replied.

*****

   After the nurses were done checking Carson over and he was swaddled tightly in the blanket my nana had made just for him, it was time for me to get a shower. And lord knows I needed it. Who knew that you could sweat so much in an air-conditioned room while giving birth? I mean seriously, I hadn't sweat as much as I did during labor since the last time I thought I was going to workout with Chase's trainer. He'd run me thought the ringer, leaving me drenched from head to toe and unable to move for nearly a week. But it wasn't all bad. That week of laying around had been the weeks that Carson had been conceived so for that reason alone, I was going to be thankful for the most strenuous workout of my life. Didn't mean that I was in any hurry to every do it again though. 

With help from one of the nurses still hanging around in the room, I walked towards the bathroom, surprised at just how sore I was. Gingerly, I stepped into the bathroom while the nurse adjusted the water in the shower.

"Do you need anything ma'am?" asked the woman.

"Just the overnight bag." I replied.

"Be right back." She smiled.

Stripping off the hospital gown, I stepped under the spray of the shower gingerly, letting the hot water wash over my body. Damn it felt good. The squeaking of the bathroom door told me that the nurse was back with my bag before she ever even said a word.

"You can just set it by the shower. I'll get my things out." I said.

"Are you sure? I don't mind." Said the nurse.

"It's fine."

"Then I'll just be outside of the door. If you need anything, be sure to yell. Don't do anything that would end up getting you hurt."

"Okay." I said.

Making my way over to my bag as soon as I heard the bathroom door shut, I cautiously bent down and began raffling though the bag looking for the comfy clothes that I'd packed inside a few days ago. Once I had the clothes, I began grabbing the toiletry items that I'd asked Chase to toss in the bag when the contractions had started.

"Where is that damn bottle of body wash." I whispered to myself when I couldn't find it. "Ahha, there it is."

But what I thought was body was turned out to be the bottle of dog shampoo that had been sitting on the edge of the tub from where I'd given Jack a bath a few days ago. How Chase had managed to grab the dog shampoo when my bottle of Dove was shaped completely different, I will never know. I mean the shampoo was safe for Jack and left him smelling clean and fresh even after rolling around in some of the foulest smelling things known to man, so it was safe for humans to use right?

Deciding to take a chance, I grabbed the bottle of dog shampoo and climbed into the shower, all the while shaking my head at the fact that my normally cool, calm, and collected husband had been so flustered that he'd mistaken the bottles. As if today wasn't going to be a day that I would remember for the rest of my life already, knowing that it was the day that I bathed in dog shampoo was something that I wasn't going to easily forget.

*****

I was fully prepared to rag Chase about the dog shampoo when I walked out of the bathroom a few moments later. But when I walked out and seen our son snuggled on Chase's chest and Chase sleeping, I wondered if I had ever seen anything more beautiful. Careful not to make a sound, I grabbed my phone from the rolling table and quickly snapped a photo of Chase and Carson to set as the wallpaper on my phone.

"Didn't mean to doze off." Said Chase, his voice sounding groggy.

"No worries." I smirked as I set down on the bed. "But I think you've hogged Carson long enough. Plus, he needs to eat."

"I'm a little jealous that he gets to suck on your nipples and I cant." Said Chase with a fake pout as he stood from the couch he had been lying on, snuggling Carson tight to his chest as he did. I watched as he placed a kiss atop Carson's head before stopping at the edge of the bed.

"Breast is best." I said with a smirk, quoting one of the many posters that had been hanging in the doctor's office the entirety of my pregnancy. Sure, I was going to miss the feeling of his lips wrapped around my nipples but he could use his mouth in other places.

"Yeah. Yeah." Said Chase, passing Carson to me.

"Look at him, already a breast man." I said with a smirk as situated Carson on my breast. Like he'd done it a million times before, he latched on and immediately began to suckle. "But even if I wasn't going to breast feed, the fact that I just had to take a shower with Jack's shampoo ought to be penance for the mix-up."

"Shit. I'm sorry." Said Chase, running his fingers through his hair.

"It's all good. I just smell like eucalyptus instead of cucumbers."

"I love you so much. You are the most go-with-the-flow person I think I've ever met in my life." Chase said, bending down and placing a kiss on my lips.

"I love you." I smiled back. "I wouldn't say I'm easy going. Just glad to be doing experiencing this new adventure with the love of my life."

"Woman, if we weren't already married, I'd marry you right here, right now." Said Chase, sitting down on the edge of the hospital bed.

"Best decision I ever made was eloping that night in Vegas." I smiled.

"Same here baby girl. Same here."