Vetted Again

by K'Anne Meinel

  * * * * *

  Fey took her pump and the bottles of milk out to her brother, and she updated her two siblings on Allyssa. She also gave them a twenty-dollar bill to get something to eat from the cafeteria. It turned out the vending machine was the only place they could get food since there was no cafeteria. “Could we walk into town and get something at the store?” Sean asked, looking outside.

  “You’d have to make sure Erin is covered up. Are you sure you want to carry an eight-pound baby and all his stuff around?” she asked him, worrying that it was all too much for the teen.

  “We can do it,” Traci said confidently.

  “Here. Take my cell phone and call me on Allyssa’s phone if you need to get hold of me,” she said, still worrying but knowing they were responsible. She glanced at her son several times, wondering if this was a bad idea. Still, Allyssa needed her, and she hurried back to her wife. She arrived at the room just as they were wheeling Allyssa to the delivery room.

  “Hey! What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Allyssa’s in the final stages and we’re taking her to delivery,” Leslie told her with a smile. She tried to sound cheerful and encouraging, but she knew the young woman was exhausted because this had taken twelve hours already. She wouldn’t tell her that some patients sometimes took two or even three days to give birth.

  Allyssa began to push harder, and Fey took her hand, surprised at her wife’s strength. Leslie encouraged Allyssa, gauging her reactions and watching the monitor they had on the baby as the labor increased. Fey wondered what they looked for on the monitor that told them it was time for the mother to push. She usually just patted her patients to encourage them and left it all up to them. As the head began to crown, she had Fey come and look.

  Seeing Allyssa in this state was not romantic, but it felt totally real. This was as intimate as it got, and she looked up at her wife, who was trying so hard to expel their baby from her body. She felt a genuine feeling of gratitude and love for her wife that she couldn’t explain. She wondered how Allyssa had felt when she had been in the same position and watched as Fey pushed the baby from her body, slowly and surely. Once the baby was in the doctor’s expert hands, Fey was thrilled to see it was the girl that Allyssa had wanted.

  “It’s a girl,” she announced for her wife as they put the baby on her stomach, the cord still attached.

  “Oh, good,” she said, laying back, exhausted.

  Tying off the cord, Leslie indicated where Fey should cut it between the knots using the sharp scissors. “She’s all yours,” Leslie said with a smile. Allyssa looked on gratefully, eager to hold her daughter as Fey brought her to her.

  “You’re not done,” Leslie told her.

  “She means the afterbirth,” Fey told her as she reached to hand her their daughter.

  “No, I mean there is a second baby, and we need you to start pushing again, Allyssa,” Leslie commanded, looking intently at the two moms.

  “What?” Allyssa squeaked faintly. She had been thinking this was finally over and was almost panicking.

  “Come on, you can do this,” Leslie ordered. “Push!”

  Allyssa couldn’t help herself. Her body wanted the baby out, and she watched briefly as her daughter was plucked from Fey’s arms to be cleaned, weighed, and assessed, then focused on Leslie’s commands. She thought she was exhausted before, but she pulled from reserves of strength she hadn’t even known she possessed.

  “It’s a boy!” Fey announced a few moments later, crying as the twin was expelled from her wife’s body. He was much smaller than the girl, and she watched as Allyssa subsided again, exhausted beyond belief at all that had happened to her. She wasn’t awake as Fey cut his cord and they took him to clean him up, but Allyssa suddenly came awake, crying out at the pain, as Leslie stitched her up because they had forgotten the shot to numb the area where they would be stitching.

  “Ouch! Ouch! OUCH!” she cried, trying to pull away but too weak.

  “Oh, shit,” Leslie murmured as she finished the last stitch and reached for a syringe, belatedly shooting it into the suture site on her now very aware patient. It wasn’t like an episiotomy and she felt terrible that they had missed the anesthesia.

  “Are you kidding me?” Allyssa protested, but she was just too tired to fight them. “Fey,” she said, reaching out for her wife, who was gazing down on the baby. Was there something else niggling at her mind? There were two babies, weren’t there? Or had she just dreamt that?

  Fey came over carrying the little girl to tuck it in beside her wife. “Thank you for the beautiful daughter,” she said as she leaned in to kiss Allyssa’s sweaty cheek. “And our son is adorable and perfect.”

  “How did they not know there were twins?” she murmured sleepily as the anesthetic took the pain away from her crotch.

  “How about that Leslie?” Fey looked to where the doctor was busy cleaning up her wife.

  “He hid,” she said with a grin. “I saw some irregularities and checked each time, but he must have hidden behind his much bigger sister,” she gestured to the bundle next to Allyssa with her chin. “You can definitely see she blocked us.”

  “Cock blocked,” Fey murmured with a teasing note to her wife, who tried to grin at the joke. She was exhausted and closed her eyes for a moment but woke up again as they brought the little boy over. There was a noticeable difference in size between the twins.

  “Shouldn’t the ultrasound have...?” Fey began to ask Leslie as the room was cleaned around them.

  “Yes, it should have, but as I said, he hid behind his much bigger sister. Look at him...he’s beautiful,” she said with a smile, liking the scene before her with the two moms and the two healthy babies. There could really have been a tragedy in the making here. “Now, you are not to get pregnant again, either of you, for at least two or maybe three years,” she warned, shaking a finger at both women.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Fey saluted her, gazing lovingly on her wife through her tears. Allyssa drifted off, content to know that both babies were healthy and not in danger.

  They wheeled the twins to the nursery but not until Fey had been assured they both had their identification bracelets on. Like her wife, Fey had been horrified at the possibility of someone mixing up their babies. Allyssa was still asleep when they moved her back to her room. Fey decided to check on Erin and her siblings and left the room. Her siblings weren’t in the waiting room, but Renee was.

  “Hi, there,” she greeted her assistant.

  “Hi. Well? How’s it going?”

  “She’s just delivered a little girl and a little boy,” she announced with a grin. She was so happy she had to share it. She wished her baby and siblings were here. Should she worry?

  “Twins?” she asked, surprised. “Were you expecting twins?”

  “Nope, the little boy hid behind his bigger sister, so no one saw him. Come see the difference in size,” she said, inviting her to the nursery where they kept the babies.

  The size difference was so substantial they could see it right away.

  “Did you have names chosen for a boy and a girl?”

  “Well, we tentatively chose names for both, just in case but nothing definite.”

  “I bet that little girl ends up being Molly, no matter what name you choose for her,” Renee teased, having read the journals as often as the two wives.

  “I bet you’re right,” she agreed, wondering if she should go look for her son and siblings. “Um, could you do me a favor?”

  “Want me to blog this?” she asked, surprised.

  “No, I won’t take that joy from Allyssa. Could you go look for my brother and sister? They were going to walk to the store to get something for breakfast. They took Erin with them, and I’m worried it was too much for them.”

  “Sure, I’ll go look for them. I don’t have a car seat though...?”

  “I’m sure no one will notice, and they have the carry-all with them.” They were just walking away from the nursery and heading
towards the front of the clinic when they saw the young people walk in. They both looked flushed from walking to the store and back in the cold with the baby. Fey walked faster to meet them. “Everything okay?” she asked as she looked down at the carry-all with a baby blanket over her son. She took the carry-all from her brother and pulled the blanket back, relieved to see her son looked fine. “Well, you have a sister and a brother,” she announced to the now awake baby. He didn’t seem to have an opinion either way.

  “A girl and a boy?” Traci asked, delighted, clapping her hands together.

  “Yep, the boy is small, and he hid behind his sister,” she explained.

  “Wow, that’s a full house!” Sean contributed and then pointed out, “You don’t have enough stuff for a third baby.”

  “Yeah, I hadn’t thought of that,” she put in, suddenly worrying. “We are going to have to buy a third car seat and bassinet right away.”

  “I could–” Renee began but quieted when Fey added, “I can’t wait to shop for it.”

  She chuckled and then asked, “Who wants to shop with me?”

  “I do,” three voices volunteered.

  “Well, maybe later today or tomorrow,” she conceded, realizing how tired she was. “I have to get back to Allyssa and see how she is.” She stopped, turning back with Erin to hand him to her brother, who grinned.

  “Sure, he needs a diaper change, so now, I get him back?” he teased. He didn’t really mind; the little guy was kind of cute, and he was happy to help his sister.

  “Could you look up the dealerships in Pendleton? We are going to need a bigger SUV,” she asked Renee.

  “Can I help?” Sean asked eagerly.

  “Me too?” Traci asked, not to be left out.

  “I need you two to stay here with him,” she said, pointing to Erin. “We’ll head home later and see what Renee has found.”

  They subsided, a little disappointed. “We got you a breakfast bar,” Traci said, digging into a grocery bag to hand her sister the packet.

  “Thank you. I’m starving,” she admitted, taking the bar and waving as she left them to check on her wife. She found Allyssa sitting up sleepily in the bed and talking to Leslie.

  “How could you miss him on the ultrasound?” she was asking as Fey walked in eating the breakfast bar. “Doesn’t an ultrasound ensure you can see whether there are twins?”

  “It is accurate like ninety-nine percent of the time, but that other one percent always gets us,” Leslie said apologetically.

  “Are they fraternal or identical?” she next asked.

  “Well, if they shared a placenta, they would be identical twins but even that isn’t foolproof. Twenty to thirty percent of identical twins have separate placentas. Usually, identical twins are the same sex. I would like to take a blood sample from each of the twins, so we can do a DNA analysis. Your healthcare provider probably won’t pay for this, so expect to receive about a one-hundred-dollar bill...that is, if you want to know?” She waited for the two moms to nod before continuing. “In about two weeks we will be able to determine if they are identical or fraternal, although fraternal twins still share fifty percent of their DNA.”

  “Couldn’t we tell as they grow up?” Allyssa asked, confused about how this had happened. It hadn’t even occurred to her yet that something might have gone wrong or how much extra work having twins was going to be. That would come later and completely freak her out!

  “You could wait, but don’t you want to know now?”

  “Why?” she asked, now becoming a protective mother not wanting to cause the twins any pain.

  “It isn’t about satisfying my curiosity,” Leslie assured her with a smile, “although I admit I don’t like being fooled, and he did fool us,” she teased. That was true, but she also didn’t want to scare the new moms. “It will be important to know later for medical reasons. If anything is wrong with one twin, the other might have similar problems. Also, the boy baby is so much smaller than the girl baby, and I want to rule out any problems. He appears healthy, but I want to make sure.”

  “What might be wrong?”

  “Nothing is wrong, so far as we can tell. I just want to make sure,” she assured her, not wanting to cause panic in her patient. “There is a condition known as twin-to-twin syndrome or TTTS. That is where the blood flows more to one twin than the other, but it only happens in about fifteen percent of twins. Since the boy baby is so much smaller, I suspect this might be the case, and the blood work will tell us a lot more.” She didn’t tell Allyssa how dangerous TTTS could have been for the babies. Had they known about the second baby, they could have monitored for this to prevent complications and keep both babies healthy. “Regardless of what we find, we are going to monitor their weight gain and see if the baby boy catches up to his sister. You know, sibling rivalry,” she teased.

  “Oh, I know sibling rivalry, all right,” Fey sighed, thinking of her brother and sister and their stupid fights.

  “We can also screen for genetic anomalies and diseases...not just from you,” she said to Allyssa, “but from the father, which might affect Erin too,” she looked at Fey who nodded, understanding now. “You do know people are going to ask if these three are triplets, and you are going to have to explain it time and time again?” she grinned in anticipation.

  “Or we could just say no and leave it at that,” Allyssa pointed out. She was so tired already and didn’t want to think about the problems. She just wanted to sleep.

  “People are nosy and are fascinated by twins and triplets, so you two are going to have lots of questions, whether you want them or not,” she explained. “Don’t worry now. Get some sleep.” She patted Allyssa on the arm and smiled at the two moms as she left them to order the blood tests on the twins.

  “Well, you really had to do me one better, didn’t you?” Fey teased as soon as Leslie left.

  “I didn’t want to, I assure you. I just want healthy babies,” she said, but she was slurring her words, already falling asleep.

  “No worries. I’m going to let you sleep and take everyone home for a few hours. I’ll come back tonight and visit with you three.” She leaned over and gave her wife a kiss on the mouth. “Thank you for the beautiful babies to add to our family.” She teared up, cupping Allyssa’s face lovingly as she rubbed her nose with her own.

  “Thank you, Fey,” she said, already drifting off, too tired to think anymore.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Fey was almost as tired as her wife as she drove Erin, Sean, and Traci home. She was grateful they didn’t have a cow to milk, so the chores should be easy. Traci ran off to collect the eggs, and Sean went to feed the horses and a fractious llama. Fey took Erin inside, changed him for the umpteenth time, and fed him, enjoying the quiet time in the rocking chair as she contemplated all she had to do today. She had to shop for a bigger car. There was no way they could have three car seats in the back seat of the Jeep, and where were Sean and Traci going to sit? It was unsafe for Sean to sit in the very back with no seat belt or chair, even if he did find it a lark.

  They needed another bassinet and that should probably be her first priority. She hadn’t talked to Allyssa about what names they would give the twins, but she was pretty sure one of them was going to be a Molly. She smiled. Allyssa loved Fey’s family history almost as much as she did. She’d asked Allyssa to send her father a paperback of each of the six books they published from the journals. She smiled as Erin burped around the bottle he was greedily sucking on. Her life was so complete right now, and she couldn’t even imagine what wonderful things they had before them or the extra work they now faced.

  She thought about Leslie’s admonishment—no pregnancies for two or three years. That would be no problem for her. She was content. Then, she thought about how she had told Allyssa she could do this again. Would she want to? They had a lot on their plates with three children, and it would be ludicrous to think about having more children right now, but who knew where they would be in two or thr
ee years. Then, she thought about her father coming to live on the ranch and her siblings, who were already here. She knew how happy the two of them were living on the ranch, and if her father decided to stay, they were going to have to think about expanding the ranch house. Three adults and five kids in a four-bedroom house was doable until the babies started growing.

  “Fey?” a voice called from the front door.

  “We’re up here in the bedroom,” she called back, startling Erin, who jumped. “Shhh, shhh,” she shushed him as he started to cry, upset that his feeding was interrupted. She turned him, so he wouldn’t choke on the milk in his mouth. She laid him on her shoulder, lining it with a rag to catch any spittle as she began to rub his back comfortingly to help the bubbles come up.

  “Oh, sorry. Did I interrupt?” Renee asked as she came in the bedroom and saw Fey burping Erin.

  “We just finished,” she said, showing her the empty bottle. That was something else she might need to pick up more of—bottles. She didn’t know yet if Allyssa would prefer to breastfeed or pump.

  “I have a list of vehicles for you, but unless you want to pay a lot of money, the Suburban is the best deal, but even that...whew,” she said, fanning herself with the papers she had printed out.

  “Yeah, I knew it was going to cost a lot, but we really can’t handle all the kids in the Jeep.”

  “You should have called me.”

  “It was the middle of the night. I’m sure you would not have appreciated a phone call then,” she teased as Erin let out a strong belch. “Atta boy,” she praised him as she continued to rub and pat his back. He felt so warm and cuddly.