Cantrell: The Early Years, Part Five

Oh, Baby, a Cantrell: The Early Years, Part Five, Update

The Baby shower had been wildly successful. Erik kept an eye on Kayleigh, watching for signs of fatigue. The doctor had warned them both not to allow her to get over-tired, or exhausted.  Erik took that as a mandate. 

When all was said and done, the last gift unwrapped, the family headed out on their way home. Happily, Kayleigh’s four sisters, Brianna, and both prospective grandmothers had worked throughout the evening to tidy up the place.  There was very little for the couple to do to put their place back in order.

Finding his wife in the downstairs bathroom, he began to regale her with love sonnets.

Since that went over quite well, he decided to entice her into a silly kiss, tapping at his cheek.

When she leaned in, Erik quickly turned to look at her straight on, so she ended up kissing him on the mouth.

Kayleigh’s response was more than desirable, as she grabbed him and planted one unabashedly right on his lips.

For a moment Erik felt very encouraged and said, “So, what do you say? Shall we go to bed?” He nodded his head a little toward the staircase.

At that moment Kayleigh was suddenly clutching at her very swollen belly and groaning.  Erik turned to look away.  “Seriously? Am I that bad at woohoo? A simple no would do.”

“How can you think of that at a time like this?”
“It’s been days, that’s how. And what time is this like?”
“Erik, Sweetheart, it's go-time!” She panted.

The color drained from his face. At once he began the most ridiculous little dance, Kayleigh had ever seen. “Erik, did you hear me? We’re having a baby, tonight. Right now.”

Suddenly, as if driven to do so, Erik pulled his little notebook out of a pocket and wrote something down in it.

The next moment, he held his face in his hands, while dancing his strange little jig.

“Erik, honey, unless you help me upstairs, I’m going to end up having this baby right here in the kitchen.”
“Oh, right, okay,” he said, getting control of his panic.  He wrapped his arms around her and gently assisted her up the stairs. Once at the top, she waddled over to their bedroom. “You might want to call the doctor and advise him I’ve gone into labor.”

Erik nodded and taking out his phone, he made the call. “Yes, my younger brother is a physician. Yes, I’ll do that. Thanks, Dr. Beltone. He wants me to call Joey to check in on you and the baby. I think this is a bad time for him . . . I got the impression he was at the ballet or something.”
“Make those babies, plural. We have twins!” Kayleigh would forever marvel at how the second baby suddenly just appeared in the second bassinet. Just like that.

“So that story you gave me about the second bassinet was just a ruse? A clever way of having me get up with the baby, from time to time. Is this how your parents conduct their marriage? That’s pretty strange, if you ask me. What happened to us being open and honest with each other? And while we’re on the subject, why would you keep this information from me, huh? Kayleigh, why have you been so secretive about this whole thing. I just don’t understand. I thought we were both in this marriage together.  We're not just you and I, we're Us. Same with the parenting. I’m not at all happy with you at this moment. Just so you know.”

“Oh, stop fussing like a newborn and come meet your sons.”
“Kayleigh!”

Erik opened the bedroom door to join his wife. Taking out his phone again, Erik made a group call to their families. “Yes, we have twins. Darn straight I’m surprised. In fact, I’m totally gobsmacked. Didn’t see this one coming. At. All. Apparently, I’m just the gamete donor.”
“You mean it didn’t surprise you the gifts were two of everything?” Brianna said, “You didn’t start putting two and two together? Ah, me, you’re slipping a little, dear brother.”

Ending the call, Erik walked over to the bassinet on the other side of the bed.  Glancing inward, he smiled at the wee boy, who wiggled a bit at the sight of him. Carefully, he reached in and took the little guy up into his arms. “Hi, there,  Andrew, it’s me, your Daddy.”

“I am very pleased to meet you.” Erik smiled and began to lightly tickle the baby’s tummy. “Okay, time for bed,” he said, carefully placing the boy in his bassinet.

In another moment, Erik was jotting something down in his infamous notebook.

Once Kayleigh put Twin A back into the bassinet, Erik stepped up to hold his firstborn son. “Jamison, I’m very happy to meet you.”

"Wait a minute? Jamison and Andrew? That's not the name we settled on."
"Exactly, we never settled on a name."
"But I thought we narrowed it down to either Peter or Michael."
"Jamison and Andrew go well together without being sing-songy."

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

After a pretty rough night, wherein the babies were awake, needing to be fed just about every three hours, Kayleigh laid in bed appreciating how quiet it was. All she heard were the sweet little noises they each made.  Turning to Erik, she said, “I’m sorry for withholding certain facts. You’re always one to prank . . .I’ve come to the conclusion I’m just not so good at it. My timing is horrendous, in fact.  Forgive me?”

“Of course,” he said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t more gracious about the entire thing. For the record my family thought it completely strange that I had no clue it was twins. I’m fine with twins. It will be a great deal of work, but as long as we work together and not against each other, I believe we can handle this. Truly. Now, since it’s Sunday, I suggest we procure a sitter and get ourselves down to church.”

All for now, thanks for reading!