Authors: Barbara Speak
"Hell no!
What's wrong with our baby?"
I was
instantly balling.
"I'm
sorry, Mr. Williams, but I am a tech. We are not authorized to release any
information. We give the results to the doctor and they talk to the patient.”
She turned to me and said, “I wish I could say more, Sadie. It is just that
something is different than a typical scan. I wish I could tell you more. Now
will you please, excuse me?"
I was so
devastated that all I could do was scream for my husband. Ash was at my side in
seconds telling me to breath. He wouldn’t lie and tell me everything would be
okay. He knew just like I did, if something was wrong with our baby, it would
never be okay.
The doctor
came in the room in a hurry and grabbed the probe thing and placed it on belly.
"Dr.
Weiss, please tell us! What is wrong with our baby? Please!"
The doctor
turned to us and said, "Well, one of the babies seems to be taking more
nutrients than the other one. With a significant size difference, we need to
monitor this closely."
"Did
you say
babies
? There is problem with
our
babies
?"
Ash never
spoke. His jaw looked like it was going to hit the ground any second.
"Well
technically, only one of your babies is in distress. Your son seems to be
stealing your daughter’s food. That is the problem."
"A boy and a girl!
Wow! So, can this be fixed? Or is
she at risk to die?"
"In
most cases, nature kicks in and it fixes itself. There are other possibilities,
but I'm not going to go there yet and scare you more than you already have been
today. This is fairly common in a set of twins. I wouldn’t worry or stress
yourselves
about this. I would like to see you back in two
weeks. We will keep a close eye on both of them and make sure they get here
healthy and strong. Congratulations on the twins, by the way. Oh, and Jesse
feels awful for scaring you so badly, but you need to blame me. I made that
rule and she would lose her job if she broke it. Too much wrong information can
be given if techs start reading scans. Anyway, I will see you in two weeks.
Take care of yourself until then."
"Thank
you, Dr. Weiss. I will see you then."
He walked
out of the room and closed the door behind him.
"Holy shit!
Holy shit! We are having fucking twins,
Sadie! Two babies!
Holy shit!"
"Ash,
watch your mouth. We are still in a doctor's office. But I totally agree.
Everything you said, pretend it just came out of my mouth too."
"A boy and a girl.
No wonder you’re growing so fast.
Two babies.
We are screwed."
"Yes,
we are. One for each of us, I guess. That was so scary. I feel so much better
after talking to Dr. Weiss. You do know that means God blessed us twice,
right?"
"Princess,
he has blessed me so much more than twice. I have you, don't I? Besides,
everything is going to be okay. I just know it. This is the coolest news ever.
Twins!"
"That
is, if our son doesn't eat our daughter."
"Good
point. Let’s go schedule your next appointment."
We got the
schedule down for the remainder of the pregnancy. Apparently with twins, it
changes everything. It definitely meant I was going to be bigger than a house.
Poor Heather.
I was going to look just awful by then. On the
way home, we turned the Bluetooth on in the car so we both could hear. We called
my mom and dad first, then his parents. Kate came next. After her, came Heather,
followed by Kaleb and then finally, Tony. Every one of them screamed into the
phone. All of them wanted to name them for us. I think they had names lined up
before we ever found out. Maybe we should have listened. Probably could have
made it easier.
We went out
to dinner early because I had worked up an appetite and didn’t feel like still
having to cook. I was craving Chinese food, so we hit the buffet in town. Ash
held the door for me as I made my way in. No one was there. Maybe five o'clock
is early for Chinese? The employee led us to our booth and Ash joked that I
wouldn't be sitting in a booth much longer. We were going to have to start
sitting at tables because I wouldn't fit. I didn't laugh. I gave my drink order
and then went straight for food. I found black pepper chicken and rice. I just
needed a couple crab
rangoons
and I was good to go.
"Sadie,
is that you?"
Every fiber
of my being wanted to run as fast as I could. I did not even turn around. I
continued to make my plate and pretended he wasn’t there.
"Sadie, who knocked you up?
If you would have stayed
I
..."
I couldn’t
stop myself. With that comment, I found myself spinning around and saying,
"If I would have stayed, you what? You would have been the one? Never, you
piece of shit. You’re nothing to me.
Nothing but a sad,
pathetic, piece of worthless shit that feels the need to beat on girls."
"Sadie,
you know that what we had was special. I loved you."
"James,
fuck you. You need to just leave me alone."
"Sadie..."
And then he hit the floor. I looked over and Ash was shaking out his hand. He
looked up at me and said, "I'm guessing that was him?"
"Sure
was."
"I have
dreamt of being able to do that and it felt great. Let’s get out of here, princess,
unless you would like to add a kick or something?"
"No,
I'm done with him, but I really did want to eat my food."
"Oh my God!
James, what happened? Are you okay? I heard
it before I saw her. Cindy was coming out of the bathroom one
second,
and on the floor with douche bag the next. I
couldn't believe it. She was back with him!
"Unbelievable!
You two deserve each other. Have a nice life. Ash, I lied, I have no appetite
any more. We should go."
We ended up
ordering Chinese delivery. Ash went on and on about how great it was to be able
to punch James. I went on and on about the fact that Cindy was such a fool. It
felt good to confront him finally and say what I always wished I had said
before. When the adrenaline wore off, we were back to talking about the babies,
plural. Names seemed very important all of a sudden. The only problem was we
could not agree. I went to bed that night and had a dream that I had all the
Oompa
Loompas
from Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory jumping out of my crotch while giving birth. I think this
multiple birth thing scared me more than I thought.
CHAPTER
53
Heather
and Jason's wedding day was finally here. I was so excited for her. Her showers
and bachelorette party all went smoothly. The rehearsal and the dinner that
followed were perfect. Everything fell into place. All of our friends got back
in town and I could not wait to see them tonight. I missed them like crazy. In
such a little amount of time, so much had changed. We all Facebook, but seeing
them in person couldn’t be beaten.
Them
seeing me was a different story. I wish I could say I
was feeling as beautiful as a matron of honor should. But do you remember me
telling you I was going to be as big as a house? I was a true double wide.
HUGE! A small framed person like
myself
, carrying two
large babies is not easy. Did you catch that? Both of my babies are healthy and
strong. I think my daughter figured out how to fight back. She started
depriving him at one point later on. The doctor said that I needed to take it
easy in my last trimester due to the fact most twins don’t make it to their
full prospected due date.
Ash asked me
to consider leaving my job temporarily so I could take better care of myself. I
hated the idea of being home with nothing to do and missing my clients and my
coworkers. In the end, it just got to be too hard working all day, standing on
my feet and trying to reach my client because my babies were in the way. I quit
the week before the wedding and I have got to say, sleeping had never felt so
good. Well that is, when I was not uncomfortable or getting up to pee.
The nursery
was almost finished. We decided to not theme it so much, but to use colors and
patterns instead. Chocolate was throughout, but one side was done in pinks,
purples and yellows. The other side had blues, greens, and oranges. It sounds
awful, but the room is large enough that the space could hold that busy of a
color pallet. Each crib was placed parallel to each other in the center of the
room. Ash wanted to do something special for them, so he and his dad hand
carved the cribs. They are just perfect. I had no idea they could do something
like that. Apparently Ash's grandfather was a furniture maker. He taught his
son, who taught his son. They made them from maple and stained them dark
chocolate. I couldn’t imagine how much they would cost to purchase. The cribs
were hands down, my favorite part of the room.
"Sadie?
Hello, Sadie?"
I snapped
out of it and focused in on the person standing in front of me wearing a
wedding gown.
"Sorry, girl.
La-la land and I have become great
friends."
"Can
you put my tiara and veil on me?"
"It
would be my pleasure, if I can reach you, that is."
"No
kidding. You are fucking huge."
"Heather!"
"I
could lie and say I was kidding, but what would be the point. I love you.
That's not a lie either."
"Wow.
If it weren't your wedding day, I would be really mad at you."
"Sadie,
you barely look like you have gained a pound anywhere other than your gigantic
belly. And who can fault you there, when you’re carrying not one, but two
babies. Stop making me make you feel better on my wedding day. Tell me how
pretty I look again."
"You
suck. Turn around so I can put this on you."
"Girls,
be nice."
"I'm
sorry, Megan. We’re just being us. It’s just a different version of nice. I
promise."
I turned
back to Heather.
"There,
you’re done. Tell me if it's where you want it?"
She looked
in the mirror and started to cry. "It’s perfect. I look so damn
pretty."
"Yes,
you do, absolutely perfect. Now stop crying or you will ruin your makeup.
Waterproof doesn't mean cry proof. Let’s go see if it’s time to start. I have
no idea where either of your parents even went."
"Good
idea."
We did eventually
find her parents. The ceremony did start on time and Heather did make one of
the most beautiful brides I have ever seen. Jason looked so handsome, as did
Mike and Tony. The purple taffeta gown I had to wear on the other
hand,
was going to be burned as soon as I was able to take
it off. I would have worn whatever she had asked me to though. Being able to
witness two of my best friends take on the vows of forever was amazing. I
remember a time when she couldn’t even work up the nerve to talk to him. Now
they are officially husband and wife. They didn’t choose to write their own
vows, but it still brought everyone to tears when it was done.
After the
ceremony, we all got on a party bus. Ash and Jeff got to come with us. We drove
around everywhere so Heather could get the pictures she wanted. All of them
were drinking heavy and having a blast. I didn’t miss drinking as much as I
thought I would. I was still having just as much fun. Tony came to sit by me on
the bus. He looked at me right as I made a face.
"What's
the matter?"
"They
just move so much now. It’s like they are wrestling in there."
"Can I
feel?"
"Of
course, you know you don't have to ask me every time. You are one of the
Godfathers, for goodness sake."
"What?"