Living On A Prayer

Eloise rubbed the coco butter lotion across the thirty six week belly that seemed to get bigger by the day. James was sitting on her bathroom floor playing with his toys while she got herself ready for her baby shower. A few of her students in each class had brought gift bags with clothes, cute pacifiers, tutu’s for when she was older, bows and head bands. Eloise was amazed by her students and how interested they were in her pregnancy. Hearing her phone start to play Brian’s ring tone, she let out a groan and set the lotion bottle down. Grabbing her phone, she put it on speaker.

“Hey Bri,” She greeted as she checked the curling iron.

“What are you up to?” His voice rang loud through the bathroom, catching James’ attention.

“Just getting ready for the baby shower and I’m running a little behind because James decided to chase Pinkly through the garden and got dirty.” Eloise told him as she started to curl her hair.

“I’m sorry babe.” He told her, the guilt creeping up on him for being away. “Have the papers come yet from the lawyer’s office?”

“No, not yet Bri, they’ll get here soon.”

“So I thought of a few new names,” Brian brought up. Eloise sighed and told him to tell her. “Okay I have Nicolette, Scarlet, Jayden, Jelessa, Marissa, Roxanne—”

“No.”

“No, no what?” Brian asked confused to the abrupt answer.

“To the name Roxanne,”

“Why?”

“Remember Roxy from high school?” Brian was silent for a few moments while Eloise concentrated on not burning herself.

“Oh, that Roxy.” Eloise rolled her eyes at Brian’s revelation. “But what does she have to do with it?”

“Because Brian,” She let out sigh and set the curling iron down. “She made sure to torture me all through high school just because of the way I looked and because of my grades.”

“Baby . . . okay crossing the name off the list. Do you know what happened to her after high school?”

“Four kids, three different baby daddies.” Eloise answered as she finished her hair. “Do you have any more names?”

“Uh, yeah I do.” Brian began listing more names off while she finished getting ready. “Then the last few I have are Grace, Kyla, Lilly . . . did you have any?”

“You know the few I like Brian but you vetoed them.” Eloise answered as she adjusted the shirt over her belly.

“They were old lady names, my daughter won’t have some old lady’s name.”

“Alright, well . . . I don’t know Brian, maybe we should just wait till she’s born.” Eloise suggested not wanting to stress over a name right now. Especially with her work starting to get harder because of finals and taking care of James. Having agreed on that, Brian said his goodbye as he had to go to sound check. “Okay James, let’s go to Grandma Jane’s house.”

Getting all of James things ready, Eloise was finally able to leave the house with Pinkly in toe. Once she got to her parents house, her sister and brother came out and got everything from the car.

“Looking . . . pregnant, sis.” Sam joked as he hoisted his nephew on his hip.

“Thanks little brother.” Eloise mumbled as they walked inside. “So where are you taking my son exactly?”

“A men’s day at an Angel’s game with dad, Dan, and Brian’s dad.” Sam answered as he tickled James. “How’s baby Haner doing? Have you guys even come up with a name?”

“She’s fine and no we haven’t.”

“You’re just torturing mom and Sarah you know that right?” Eloise chuckled and gave her son a kiss. “Okay, I’m going now, dad’s already at the Haner’s house.”

Eloise walked to the kitchen to see her mom, sister, mother in laws, McKenna, the girls, and some women from church. She looked into the backyard to see more family, all her cousins, and grandmas. There were purple and pink decorations and balloons everywhere making her smile since it was different from her baby shower with James.

“Ellie, come sit down, your feet must be killing you!” Jan, Brian’s biological mother said ushering her to a seat. “I remember being pregnant with Brian, one active little boy.”

“Yeah, must be where she gets it from.” Eloise mumbled as she rubbed the spot that the baby kicked. She sat there watching as everyone was cutting string off of yarn for measuring her belly.

“We need to measure you so we can do the prize later. Oh and the due date, what time, how big, and how long.” Her mom rattled off as she wrapped the yarn around her and cut it. “Are you hungry?”

“Just a bit tired, I had some Braxton hicks during the night so I didn’t sleep well. Then James decided to get dirty in the yard with Pinkly. So I had to bathe both of them.” Eloise rubbed her belly as her sister made her plate of food and handed her a drink.

“So I heard there’s no name yet?” Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, we just can’t seem to agree so we decided when she’s born. We’ll end up making a list before hand and whatever comes to our minds first when we see her, that’ll be her name.”

“Okay girls, while we eat, how about El starts opening gifts because there are a lot.” Jane gathered everyone in the seating area in the backyard around all the gifts. “Val, could write who gave what?”

“Sure,”

The first gift bag was handed to Eloise and she held in a sigh knowing that this was going to be a very long day. As she went through the gifts, most of them just clothing and blankets and a few other necessities, Eloise began to run a names through her head. Brian had rejected Abigail, Addyson, Elizabeth, the few that Eloise had really liked.

“El, you okay?” Gena asked.

“Hmm?”

“You spaced out, the other women went inside.” Lacey answered. That’s when she noticed it was just her, Gena, Val, and Lacey. “Where’d you go off to?”

“Just thinking . . .” Eloise answered quietly.

“Really El, are you feeling alright?” Val asked concerned for her friend.

“Just . . . miss Brian I guess. I know I’ve gone through pregnancy alone before but it’s just hard right now.”

“Oh honey,” All three of them cooed, getting closer to her and rubbing her arm or leg in comfort.

“It’s just harder because I have a very active twenty two month old and then taking care of the house and doing work.” Eloise ranted while she rubbed her stomach. “Then to top it off I’m not getting any sleep because I’m too hot then ten minutes later I’m cold and then I get uncomfortable and now, Braxton Hicks are starting up.”

“Okay, okay Ellie just breathe. Brian will be home in a week and you know you can always call us. I don’t mind watching James if you just need a few hours to yourself.” Val told her soothingly.

“And if you ever need help with grading anything you can call me.” Lacey chimed in.

“And I’ll totally help with the house work.” Gena told her. “We don’t want you stressed out, it isn’t good for baby Haner.”

“And that’s another thing! We can’t decide on a name!” Eloise closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming herself down. “Sorry guys, just not having the best day.”

“I understand honey, I was a mess while Matt was out on tour and I was pregnant. Just don’t be afraid to call us, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks you guys.” All of the girls came over and pulled Eloise into a group hug. She kept her eyes close thanking the Lord that she had these girls there with her. Eloise just prayed that Brian coming home came faster because she didn’t know how much longer she could take with constant back pains and doing everything on her own.