It all started with a bang, and not just any bang, a glass shattering, heart wrenching bang. Maggie winced as the sound rang throughout the house. Her guilt-ridden husband called “I got it!” up the stairs before bending down to clean up. He kept telling her not to worry about a thing and that he would take care of everything, yet so far all she could do was worry. The nursery was supposed to be done weeks ago, now she was practically a ticking time bomb. She tied her black hair up in a messy bun and peeked over the hand railing, Alex stood in the foyer holding the remains of her grandmother’s lamp. “I can fix it; I promise,” he said apologetically. She laughed and shook her head before walking back to the nursery. The rooms were painted yellow, a neutral color, since they decided not to find out the baby’s gender. Pieces of unbuilt white furniture were strewn around the room. She couldn’t help but let out a small laugh of pity. The only thing they had ready was the crib. She picked up a light box and carried it over to the crib. She slowly lifted her old stuffed bear out and placed it in the crib.
Alex walked in and rested his chin on her shoulder, looking into the box. Staring straight back at him was his favorite childhood friend. “Oh hey that’s my blanket,” he said breathlessly. It seemed not long ago his tiny self would bring it along with him everywhere.  It seemed impossible that the same blanket would soon belong to his own child. He instantly felt too young to have a baby; a child can’t have a child! Well he wasn’t much of a child anymore… 29 now but the time had flown by so fast! Maggie’s fingers wove between his and his burst of nerves ended.
“You okay?” She asked, concern evident in her voice.
“Yeah, more than okay actually.” He assured her.
“Good, we wouldn’t want it any other way.” She looked up into his blue eyes and smiled, she hoped the baby got his eyes.
“It’s just weird, I mean that was my blanket.” Alex admitted.
“Now it’s the baby’s.” She smiled lovingly. He kissed the top of her head and went back to building a chair. “What if I help?” Maggie offered. He looked up at her confused so she continued. “Just, you know, putting things on the walls, pillows, blankets, those things.”
“I told you I can take care of this.” He reminded her sternly. The last thing he wanted was her to lose faith in him. As he said this his hand slipped and he hit the screw driver into his knuckle. He shook it a few times and went back to tightening screws. She stood sadly in front of the crib. Maggie was one of those people who always had to be doing something, and being on maternity leave was driving her crazy. If anyone, she wore the pants in the relationship, but when she hit seven months he gained full control over the nursery. Alex was trying his hardest, but when he took three steps forward in the process, he took five steps back. “I’m taking care of this Maggie, I’m a man and I make this for our baby.” Her face dropped and she started walking away. There was no point in arguing him on it, if he felt like he needed to do this he would. He could see the defeat in her eyes and it made him sad. “I guess…” He started, she spun around to face him, “if you want though, you can.” She smiled and got to work. He made her promise she would stay away from everything heavy and ask for his help if she needed it. He finally finished the chair an hour later. He made her take a break from decorating the shelves to test it out. A proud smile spread across her face as she stood back up again. She took a few steps forward and stopped. “What’s wrong, you don’t like it?”
“It’s not that.”
“But you don’t like it?” He said sadly. All he wanted to do was make her happy; he practically lived to make her smile.  He couldn’t wait to make their little child smile too.
“I think my water just broke.” She gasped. She looked down at the ground, now soaked in the very thing that made her panicked. There goes that rug. She instantly knew she wasn’t at all ready for the hours ahead of her. Alex’s jaw dropped and he froze. “Well are you going to do something or are you just going to stand there?” That seemed to shake him out of his trance. He jumped up and ran across the hall into their bedroom to get the bags they had packed. He ran back and stood in the doorway.
“Well, let’s go?” He said, wondering why she hadn’t moved. He was panicked enough without interference.
“We can’t have the baby yet,” she declared.
“Why not?”
“The nursery isn’t finished!” She cried motioning to the room around them.
“I don’t think the baby cares; I think it just wants out.” He told her.
“Alex-” He ran to her side and started to lead her towards the stairs. “It’s not done!” He didn’t listen he just ushered her into the car. He ran around to the passenger side and started them down the snowy road to the hospital. To Alex everything seemed to go by so fast. They were quickly ushered into a room and soon he was running around welcoming the family in the waiting room and explaining they would probably only have a few hours left to wait. For Maggie, every second was an hour. She was in unbearable pain and she just wanted the baby out of her. Though at the same time, she wished she had the ability to wait another 9 months. Alex ran back in and soon it was time to push, more excited than ever. Maggie couldn’t help but think about the months of doctor’s appointments, Lamaze class, working on childproofing the house, the nursery, and none of it had prepared her for this. Nothing seemed to go as planned yet everything always turned out alright. At 3:02 am Lydia Grace had arrived to the world.
“She’s beautiful.” the proud papa sniffed, wiping away tears he wasn’t ashamed to shed.
“She has your eyes.” Maggie grinned, exhaustion visible from a mile away. Her worries about the nursery were now obsolete as she stared at her little ball of sunshine. She knew that they would make it work, and now that they had a little kid, she couldn’t control everything. She’d have to start to learn to take things as they come.