by Alyse Zaftig
“You need to buckle up, too, little one.” Blue came to hug me and kissed the top of my head.
I sat in the passenger seat while Blue sat in the middle with the babies. Jasper drove us a few miles to the pediatrician’s office. Inside were a bunch of small kids who smelled of urine and coughed. I clutched my baby carrier a little tighter. Taking them to the pediatrician meant exposing them to sick children. What if my kids got sick?
“Please take a seat,” the receptionist told Blue, who’d checked our sons in. “A nurse will be with you shortly.”
We took a seat in the corner, as far as I could get from the coughing children. I watched as one sneezed all over her mother’s lap. Maybe we shouldn’t have gone to the pediatrician.
Blue was reading a book to the son he had, while I peered into my sleeping son’s face and wondered how much illness I was currently exposing him to. Maybe I never should have left the house.
“Chill,” Jasper whispered so quietly I could barely hear him. “It’ll work out.”
“Wolfe twins,” the nurse called. I got to my feet, still carrying my baby. The three adults carried the kids into the backroom, where they were weighed. I answered questions about their eating and sleeping habits, feeling my anxiety mount by the second. If I could’ve cut and run, I would have. Rationally, I knew that I needed to be there. Emotionally, I needed to get my kids away from anything that would ever hurt them.
“Let’s go into Exam Room Three,” the nurse said after she’d done all the preliminary work on my kids.
“You’re okay,” Blue said. “Breathe deeply and this’ll all be over soon.”
It was dumb of me to get so worked up about going to the pediatrician, but here I was, completely freaking out over my kids and their health.
The doctor didn’t take long once we were in the exam room. She took a glance at the folder that the nurse had left at the door. I guessed that this pediatrician didn’t believe in digitizing things.
“Hello there,” she said. “You’re the Wolfes, I presume?”
“Yes,” Jasper said smoothly. “I’m Jasper, and this is Jasmine. That’s Blue.”
She hadn’t commented on the fact that there were three parents during previous visits, even though I could see the questions in her eyes about three people with the same last name. She talked about their habits and Blue and Jasper answered her. My fists were clenched as I wished that I could go anywhere besides the doctor’s office. I could hear a crying baby and needed to go to it. In a few minutes, my own babies would be crying.
“Well, your sons seem healthy enough. I’ll sign off and have a nurse come in so she can administer their shots. Good day.”
“Bye,” I said with my husbands. Almost as soon as the doctor left, a nurse was coming in with a giant number of needles.
“How many vaccines do they need?” I asked.
“Seven.”
I could barely breathe. Adults didn’t get that many shots at once. I wanted to protest, but all I could do was watch her stick needles into my sons as my babies burst into tears. I almost started crying as their faces turned a little bit red with how much they were crying. I was nearly hyperventilating.
She put the needles into the box labeled SHARPS and gave us a piece of paper. “Go to the receptionist. She’ll take care of the rest.”
“Thanks,” I heard Jasper say to her. Blue was trying to calm our little ones down. “Evan and Max, the shots are over and done with. No use in crying anymore.” Evan stopped crying, even though there were tears glistening on his little cheeks. Max was still very unhappy, so I picked him up and nuzzled his cheek. “I’m sorry, baby,” I apologized. “I hated it, too.” Max stopped crying, although he nestled into my body and hiccuped.
I kissed his ear and held him close. “Enough shots for today.” I looked back at Jasper and Blue, who were gathering everything up. I knew that I couldn’t take care of my sons without the support of my husbands. Jasper plucked Max out of my hands to tuck him into the baby carrier. The three of us checked out, then we headed to the car. As the boys closed their eyes, I turned and looked at Jasper.
“I’m so glad that the three of us are taking care of the little ones. I don’t know how single parents do it. I’m not even sure two people could handle our twins.”
“Good thing that there are three of us,” Blue said from the middle seat.
I relaxed in the passenger seat, content and surrounded by my loving family.