Elora and Jimmy had come over to visit one afternoon when I wasn’t feeling up to leaving the house. Aidan had been doing work on the would-be nursery. We had decided to wait until after the babies were born before really putting one together. They would be in our room for the first few weeks after coming home, anyway. I didn’t want to spend my energy working on a nursery. However, Aidan wanted the room ‘baby proofed’ and secured before we did anything. The hammering and saws were really wearing on my nerves.
Elora and I headed to the furthest sitting room since it was the quietest room.
"How is he doing?" I asked Elora, who was relaxing in a chair. She looked tired.
"He is great. Except that he doesn’t sleep at night and it’s killing me." She sighed.
I looked at her with pity.
"Hire a nanny to help you. Seriously." She instructed with a laugh. "You will have two and it is exhausting with just one, I can’t imagine."
"We already talked about getting a person to help but I want to be the one who raises them. I want to be a mom, you know?" I ran my fingers over Jimmy’s little, soft cheek.
"Oh, I know. That’s what I said. We are currently interviewing help." She laughed. "James drives me crazy."
"The baby?" I asked. She usually called him Jimmy.
"No. James, the bigger baby." I laughed. "He frets over every little sound that Jimmy makes." She sighed heavily. "He tries to help with him but then gets all paranoid and wakes me up because he thinks he’s sick." She shook her head. "It’s crazy."
"Well, at least he’s taking an ‘active’ role." I tried to fight off the laughter that was bubbling up.
"Yeah. Active is a great choice of words. If he could breastfeed, he would do it. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s tried when I’m not around." She laughed out heartily and my laughter finally burst through. Apparently, my laughter startled Jimmy. He started crying.
"Ohhhh….I’m sorry." I cooed to him and rocked him.
"You’re definitely a natural at this." Elora observed.
I shrugged.
"I don’t know about that. I’ve never really been around babies, so I don’t know where it would come from."
Elora and Jimmy had been at the house for a couple of hours when James arrived.
"There’s my little man!” James walked over and picked Jimmy up from his state of sleeping in his carrier.
"James, he was asleep!" Elora scolded.
"Oh, he’s fine."
She shook her head and growled. He looked at her quickly.
"I’m doing it again, huh?" He asked and she nodded. "Sorry."
James cooed over Jimmy for about fifteen minutes before he finally went over to Elora and kissed her.
"Are you about ready? My parents want us to come over for dinner tonight."
Elora rolled her eyes. "Let me get packed up."
I fought a giggle.
"If you don’t hear from me tomorrow, send out a search party ‘cause I may be held captive at his parents. They always try to get us to stay over with the baby." She rolled her eyes again. "Like we don’t have a hard enough time getting him to sleep at home."
After saying goodbye to Elora and James, I headed toward the kitchen. I was almost to the doorway when I felt a sharp pain in my lower back.
"Shhit!" I screeched out.
"Lilli?" Rachel came from the stove and found me leaning against the wall. "Oh my god, are you okay?"
I panted.
"I don’t know." I was about to go on but the pain hit again. "OH, fuck!" I grabbed my stomach and slid to the floor.
"Jay!" Rachel ran from the doorway and returned with a phone.
Jay appeared and ran to my side, knees to the floor.
"Mrs. Iverson, are you okay?"
I shook my head.
"It hurts. Pains in my back and upper thighs." I croaked out and panted.
"The car is on the way up and the hospital is waiting." Rachel stated as she ran around yelling for Alex.
"I’ll call Mr. Iverson." Jay stood quickly and grabbed the phone. I couldn’t hear the conversation. I was too lost in the pains.
Rachel appeared with Alex.
"Lilli?" His little face was horror struck.
"It’s fine…little man… I got this." I forced a smile for his sake, panting through the pain. All I really wanted to do was shove my head through a wall.
Jay returned and scooped me into his arms. We all climbed into the car as the driver rushed us to the hospital.
Rachel was right when she said that they would be ready. There was a wheelchair, a gurney and three nurses standing by the door. They helped me into the chair and wheeled me to the maternity floor.
I had only been in bed for about five minutes when I heard running feet. The door made a thud sound as Aidan slammed into the door and moved to me quickly.
"Are you okay? What happened? Did you fall?" I put my hand up to stop his questions.
"I’m having pains." I said simply. The doctor appeared then with Dixon at his side.
I looked at Dixon through my panting.
"I called him." Aidan stated. "Just in case he could get here before me."
I smiled at Aidan and then panted through a pain.
The doctor performed his examination and then did some tests. I was moved into another room to do an amniocentesis before being returned back to my room.
I had spent the night at the hospital. The next morning I was greeted with a disheveled Aidan, who hadn’t left my side, Viola, Liam, Maggie, Phoebe, Celia, Oscar, Dixon and James and Elora. The room was packed full.
"Is everything okay?" Celia asked as she slid into bed next to me and wrapped her arms around me, her hand on my stomach.