All Yours Somehow

It was late October and John and I had invited both our families to our house for a late summer barbecue in our garden. We tried to do this as often as possible when John was home so everyone could take advantage of the chance to spend time with him. Today, my parents were coming, Summer was coming with Joel, who she’d now been with for a year, John’s parents were also coming with Shane. The only person missing would be Ross who was away at college but promised to come back in a few weeks time instead to meet his nieces or nephews.

Everything was near enough ready for the arrival of the twins at our house. My bump was now huge, something everyone like to comment on as much as I didn’t like it. Everyone kept telling me that I looked as though I was about pop but my due date was still four weeks away and according to my doctor, the babies grew the most during those last four weeks. It worried me because if I became any bigger, I’m not sure I’d be able to move.

“Hannah!” John’s mom called as she walked through the house. “Look at you, you are absolutely glowing! You look wonderful.”

“Thanks,” I smiled, however I didn’t feel wonderful.

“I hope you’re looking after my nephews properly,” Shane said as he walked into the kitchen.

“You know they could be girls, Shane,” John told him, walking around the counter to stand next to me.

“I hope not, I don’t know how to act around girls,” Shane answered.

“How are you ever going to find a girl that likes you, you little freak?” John joked.

“Hey, don’t be mean,” I said. “You know, if you ever need any girl advice, you can always come to me, I won’t judge.”

“Erm, thanks,” Shane said, nervously. “I think I’m alright.”

“Oh, dude, you totally have a crush on a girl! Who is she?” John questioned.

This went on back and forth with the two brothers for a while as John’s dad started up the barbecue and Jenny and I began to take food outside to the table and we waited for my family to arrive.

“You handled those two really well in there, you know,” she told me. “I don’t think I could trust my boys with any other woman. And it just shows you’re going to make a fantastic mother, whether those two grandchildren of mine you’re carrying are boys or girls.”

“Thank you, that means so much,” I smiled at her as we made our way back inside.

“Where’s my beautiful daughter?” I heard my dad call as he walked through the house. He walked over to me and kissed the top of my head as my mom followed him in.

“I wish people would stop calling me beautiful, because I really don’t feel like it today,” I groaned.

“Nonsense, pregnancy looks great on you,” my mom commented.

Once my sister and Joel had arrived, we all moved out to the garden where we left John’s dad and my dad to sort the barbecue while our moms, Summer and I sat talking about the babies and John, Joel and Shane played with a ball.

As always, these were the moments I really enjoyed. All our families together, enjoying the weather and something as simple as a barbecue. John and I both knew that when the twins arrived we wouldn’t be able to do things like this as often as we liked because it would never be as simple as it was before.

“So do you have names picked out now?” my mom asked.

“Yeah I think we’ve got a few planned, just depends on the outcome of the sex of each of them,” I said. “But you’re just going to have to wait until they’re born to find out what we’ve decided on,” I teased.

15th November 2013

“Keep pushing, keep pushing!” the midwife instructed. Sweat ran down my face as I groaned. “You’re almost there!”

When she said ‘almost’, I let out a scream. She said it as if I could do anything other than keep pushing. And I hadn’t even pushed out one baby yet, so there was no way I was ‘almost there’.

“Take my hand, baby,” John said, trying to calm me down. I grabbed his hand and threw my head back as I continued to push. These babies had to come out of me and I want them out NOW.

“Keep going, we’re almost there with the first one,” the midwife said, again. She basically just rearranged the words she’d already said and it didn’t make me feel any better.

“It hurts, John,” I whined.

“I know, I know,” John sighed. “Just pushed one more time, you can do it, baby.”

Another contraction triggered and I pushed hard again. Seconds later, I felt a sensation between my legs and the pain ceased slightly.

“The first baby is here, it’s a girl,” the midwife smiled.

“A girl?” John repeated, turning from me to the midwife.

“A girl,” she smiled back. “Congratulations, now we need to get ready for the next one,” she continued, as another midwife took the baby away and I watched her go.

“I wanna see her,” I whined again. “Is she alright?”

“She’s fine and healthy,” she said. “We need to prepare for the next one, Hannah, they’ll be along very soon.”

“Come on, baby, one down, one to go,” John told me.

I pushed and pushed again, with more encouragement from John and the midwives. After what felt like hours, but in reality was only minutes, the pain was getting worse and worse until I felt a sensation again and heard a cry come from the baby that had just come out of me.

“Congratulations, it’s another girl,” the midwife told us.

“Two girls?” John asked, grinning widely. “Wonderful.”

“Here you go, mom,” the second midwife said, handing me the first baby I’d given birth to now she was cleaned up and wrapped in a blanket. I took her in my arms and cuddled her close and John leant over me and kissed my cheek.

“Well done, baby, you did so well,” he said.

“Dad, here’s your other daughter,” a midwife said, handing the second baby to him.

“Hello, little girl,” he smiled down at the tiny child in his arms. “I’m your daddy and this is your mommy and your sister, and I am going to love all three of you forever.”

I gazed down at the scrunched up face of my daughter on my chest. I went to speak but no words came out. The was not reaction I could make that would come close to conveying what I was feeling.

“We’ll leave you alone for a few minutes,” the first midwife said as they both finished clearing up and left.

I looked up at John and smiled, “we have two beautiful baby girls, John,” I said, softly. My eyes lit up as I watched John staring down at our baby that he was holding.

“We have the most perfect babies ever,” he breathed. “Thank you for bringing them into my life,” he continued as he sat down on the bed next to me.

We spent a few minutes talking about each of the babies, comparing any similarities or differences we could find so far. The midwife re-entered the room with forms and such and stood at the foot of the bed.

“So do we have names?” she asked.

I looked up at John and he nodded as confirmation to what we were discussing when we’d been alone with the babies.

“This is Kaitlyn Jennifer O’Callaghan,” I said.

“And this is Lily Anne O’Callaghan,” John then answered.

We’d thrown a few names around while I’d been pregnant, boys names and girls names. We had chosen to not find out the sex of each of the babies so had picked out a few names for each depending on what we had. When deciding on girls names, we thought it would be a great gesture to each of our mothers to include their names, so decided that each girl would take one of their names, Jennifer for John’s mother and Anne for my own.

“Kaitlyn and Lily, lovely choices,” she commented.

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Thanksgiving was upon us again and the twins were now two weeks old. We were going to John’s parents for dinner so we didn’t have to worry about it. All the fuss all day had been over the girls, who had actually spent most the day sleeping.

I couldn’t believe how much mine and John’s lives had changed in the past two weeks. Everything we did now revolved around our daughters and as hard as it was to adjust, I now couldn’t imagine it being any other way.

We had arrived back home and the girls had both fallen asleep on the drive home, so we carefully took them upstairs to their room. As I set Lily down in her crib, I turned to see John placing Kaitlyn into hers. I smiled at the girls and slid an arm around John’s waist as he put his arm around my shoulders. I looked up to him and my smile grew wider and watched as his mirrored mine.

“I’m so thankful that I have you in my life and that I now have these two beautiful babies as well,” John said, as Marius ran into the bedroom. “Yes, I have you too, Marius, you’re very cute as well,” John laughed. “I cannot wait to watch them grow up and grow old with you.”

“It’s a good life, O’Callaghan,” I said.

“It’s a great life,” he corrected, as he kissed my forehead.