Chapter Text
As soon as Hana got the text that her family had made it to Baton Rouge, she immediately left her and Jaehyun's apartment to go meet them, letting Jaehyun know to get an Uber to their rental house when his clinicals were done for the day. Within 15 minutes, she was at the house, waddling up the driveway from her car to the front door to knock. Eunji was the one to answer, her face lighting up at the sight of her older sister. "I hope you're taking care of my niece in there." She said as she pulled Hana into a hug.
"Of course, I am." Hana giggled. "No matter how much she beats me up inside."
Hana made her way into the house, hugging everyone she came across until her mom finally appeared from one of the bedrooms. "I didn't think you'd be here this early!" He exclaimed as pulled her into a warm embrace. "I thought you'd wait until Jaehyun was home."
"I was too excited to see you." Hana said. "And I had some questions."
Her mom nodded. "Well, you can come keep me company while I unpack my and your dad's clothes." He took Hana's hand and led her to one of the bedrooms.
Hana eyed the two beds in the room. "Are you sharing?" Hana asked in surprise.
"There are two bedrooms with only one bed." Her mom said. "One of them we gave to Halmeoni, of course, and instead of fighting over the other one with Seokjin, we agreed to let that be a space for you, Jaehyun, and Puppy since you want to stay here after you give birth. So Sunwoo and Eunji are staying in here with your dad and me, Hyunbin's staying with Namjoon and Seokjin, and Hajoon and Charlie are getting the pullout couch in the living room."
"That should be interesting." Hana mused as she eased herself to sit on one of the beds while her mom resumed unpacking his and her dad's suitcases.
"So what did you want to ask me?" Her mom inquired.
Puppy decided to kick Hana in the ribs right then, so she had to take a moment to breathe before responding. "As you know, Puppy's estimated due date is two weeks away, which means labor could be happening any day now. And I was wondering what your labor experiences were like. I know you've talked about it a little before, but never really in detail, and I kind of want to have an idea when I go in so that I don't feel completely out of my depth."
Her mom gave a nod of understanding. "Well other than your sister, I was blessed with having fairly easy labor and birth experiences. With you, I started having contractions at around 3:00 in the afternoon. Your halmeoni and halabeoji had flown in from Korea to be there for your birth so I was at home with them. Your dad was out with your jeungjomo at the time, and I was stubborn and refused to go to the hospital without him, so despite my mom trying to convince me it was time to go, I stayed at home even after my contractions got to the point that they say to go to the hospital."
"What do contractions feel like?" Hana asked.
"They're different for everyone." Her mom shrugged. "For me they felt like preheat cramps but extremely amplified. Anyway, when your dad got home, he immediately turned around to help me into the car. That was when my water broke." Before Hana could even ask, her mom said, "It felt like something popping inside me and then my underwear was wet. But, again, that's different for everyone. We got to the hospital, and I didn't get an epidural. Not that I think it's a bad choice, but I personally wanted to feel my labor, and I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of having a giant needle stuck in my back to do it. Your dad was of course in the room with me the whole time. So was Taehyungie. Seokjinnie was at first, but Jaehyun actually had a fever, so he ended up going back home and came back after you were born. Your halmeoni was there for a little bit but I eventually kicked her out because, while I know she had good intentions, she kept giving me outdated advice from when she gave birth to your uncle in 1997, and it was stressing me out more than I needed to be while in labor. I was in labor for about eight and a half hours total, and you were born just before midnight. Then with Hajoon, it was around 9:00 at night when I started having contractions. Again, I stayed home for the first part of it, mostly because we didn't want to wake you up. My water broke a little after midnight, and that's when we got you up and called your dad's parents to meet us at the hospital to take you. Two and a half hours after we got to the hospital, and about six and half hours of labor total, Hajoon was born at 3:26 in the morning. With Sunwoo, my contractions started right after breakfast. Your dad immediately started getting things ready for us to go to the hospital while I had to console you because you were being extra clingy that morning." He giggled as Hana gave a sheepish smile. "We took you and Hajoon to your grandparents and went straight to the hospital. My water broke in the parking lot. My labor with Sunwoo was the longest, about 10 hours, and he was born at 5:21."
"So you had relatively short labors then." Hana said, as she knew that many times, labor could be 12 or more hours. "What about your c section?"
Her mom grimaced a bit. "Honestly, I really only remember how worried I was for Eunji and hoping she'd make it out okay. I don't remember much about the c section itself at all." He walked over from the closet and reached out to run his fingers through her hair. "No matter what your labor experience is, you're gonna have Jaehyun and me in there, unless you pull a me and kick your mom out." Hana giggled. "And you'll have a whole waiting room full of people for support to."
"I know." Hana smiled.