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I took my butt over to the couch, breathing through the occasional contractions, watching Riff as he rushed around the house, grabbing our hospital bags as well as the luggage we had packed for each of our kids because they were going to need to go spend the next few nights with a set of their aunts and uncles.
“The babies are coming?” our daughter asked, rushing inside to sit next to me, pressing her hand to my belly like she always did, marveling at how her siblings were in there, kicking at her.
“I think they are,” I agreed, watching her brothers move into the room, looking a lot less enthusiastic and a lot more horrified.
It wasn’t their fault. They’d recently gotten a pretty in-depth explanation of pregnancy and childbirth. They were a little traumatized by the schematics of it.
“I’m gonna be okay, guys,” I told them, patting the couch and waiting for them to come sit next to me. “And then you’re gonna have two new siblings to play with.”
“To boss us around,” our older twin said with a head shake as he looked at his little sister.
“Probably,” I agreed. “But it will be different since you’ll be so much older than them this time,” I told him. “It will be more like you guiding them and teaching them stuff,” I told him.
I was still explaining to them, for the third time, that we would only be gone for a few days, that they would get to come visit us at the hospital as soon as their siblings were born, when there was the slamming of doors out front.
Not a minute later, the front door was bursting open, and there was Raff.
“Uncle Raff!” the kids cheered, rushing toward him, all worries about me disappearing at the prospect of spending time at their uncle’s house.
Let’s just say… Raff let them get away with a lot more than we did.
“I’ve got all the goods for tonight,” he told them all. “Two movies. Three different kinds of popcorn. Candy. Ice cream. Soda. Pizza is ordered. Don’t tell your mom,” he said in a low voice as he shot me a wink.
“Hey, it’s your sleepless night,” I said, wincing as another contraction started.
“We got company,” Raff said, glancing outside as he heard another car door. “Looks like your birth coach is here,” he said, pushing the door open to let, well, Coach in.
He’d been there for both of my births so far. Mostly because with our first twins, I’d had such a panic attack about the pain and the invasion of privacy with so many people looking at me unclothed that I’d asked to have Coach to come and help me meditate and calm down.
He’d just offered the next time too.
And now, well, it was a tradition, it seemed.
“I think it’s my husband who needs the anxiety relief this time,” I said, watching Riff come back out into the living room, then backtrack down the hall three times before he seemed somewhat satisfied that he’d gotten everything he needed.
“You know I have a key to your house, right?” Raff asked, smiling at his brother. “I can pop by and get whatever they need.”
“Right. Yeah. Okay. Um, I think I have everything,” Riff said, rushing out to our car with all the luggage.
“He forgot the keys, didn’t he?” Raff asked, smiling just before Riff came running back in, grabbing the keys, and heading back out.
“You’d think he’d be calmer on the third go around,” I said, letting Coach help me back onto my feet.
“I mean, he’s not sweating and passing out,” Raff said with a chuckle at his brother’s expense, “so, I guess it’s an improvement.”
“He only passed out the one time,” I reminded him.
Let’s just say that he’d made the mistake of wanting to watch. And immediately regretted it. His club brothers had made fun of him about it ever since. The jokes about needing smelling salts never failed to get a laugh.
“Alright, lady and gents,” Raff said, clamping his hands on the boys’ shoulders, “go give your mom a hug. We gotta get going.”
With that, the kids came with hugs and kisses, the boys looking worried, and our girl demanding she got to hold the babies first.
Raff grabbed the old and somewhat grumpy Vernon, taking him to drop off at the clubhouse for the next few days before bringing the kids to his house.
Then they were gone, and we were on our way to the hospital.
We made it this time.
