Chapter 43: Ups and Downs

The BBQ broke up after midnight and Sofia offered to take Walter back to his hotel in her car. I think there was going to be some sparks there. The same was true for Wendy-Wendy and Tim.

I found out through the wife grapevine that ever since she went to take care of him after he’d been shot, Wendy and Tim had been seeing each other. They’d been dating when she didn’t have a late gig. Who’d have thought that of ever-changing hair colored, she who we thought was gay, Wendy-Wendy would fall for a long hair, overly shy biker. Takes all sorts to make the world go round.

I should know that.

There was a trial and Rockwell Kennedy and his friends were sentenced to five to seven years for arson. He had to get a public defender because his church no longer had any money, thanks to Lynn.

Life got amazingly boring after Boz visit. Boring, actually, except for the members of the band going to Los Angeles and Nashville to do some studio work thanks to contacts with XYZ Records and because of the new songwriting sensation Sofia Papadopoulos. We never did sign a recording contract with them but we did take the idea of a live show at The Club-Club and began to do a monthly Saturday night streaming show.

The only Saturday nights we skipped were the nights we had friends visit. Appearance contracts, and so on, sort of made it impossible to pull off most of the time. Although there were a few times when a strange musician wearing a disguise sat in with us and shredded the house.

Over the next six months Lynn supplied us with a friend a month. Our favorite was Tower of Power. I thought the horns were going to blow the walls of the Club-Club out into the parking lot. That was also the night that the Herd and the Kids got their wish to have a swing dance party. As it turned out there was a social group in Boise that was into swing dance, Jitterbug, and boogie woogie. The children turned out to be dancing machines and that live stream got huge positive responses.

Margaret Erin walked into the family room the evening after the swing party and got up on her mother’s lap for the first time in a long time. She wiggled herself into place around her mother’s huge belly and wrapped her in a hug.

“Margaret Erin, are you OK?”

“Yes.”

Erin took note of the one word reply.

“No,” Erin said lovingly. “Darling, you never answer me with one word. What’s going on?”

Margaret Erin took a deep breath and sighed.

“The Babies, mother. Something strange is happening. They can’t tell us but I’m feeling something really weird is going on. It has to do with our new brothers and sisters.”

“But you don’t know what?”

“No.”

“The Babies haven’t dreamed anything to your daddy or the other moms. So, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens. We’ve had some struggles and challenges but we’ve stuck together as a family and we’ll continue to do that.”

“Yes, Mother. I love you.”

A week after the swing party we found ourselves at the hospital. Shortly after Lynn and Erin both woke up, their water broke only minutes apart. I dropped them off at the entrance to the hospital and they walked into the OB department to be greeted by an old friend.

“They’re baaack,” Nurse Georgia Brown chanted as she walked into the OB ward. “Who’s going to win the pool this time?”

“Blossom had today as the day. I had yesterday,” Erin said.

“You should have seen her at home yesterday.” Lynn chuckled. “Erin was doing jumping jacks and running around the backyard trying to get the kids to drop.”

“You did NOT do that, Erin O’Dell!” Georgia Brown scolded. “If you hurt my babies I’m not going to be a happy nurse!”

“Your babies, Georgia? I don’t see you as big as a Clydesdale!” Erin complained trying to stick out her belly even further than it already was as she waddled around the room.

The laughter from Georgia and Lynn brought a few other nurses into the room and everyone was having a wonderful time until a loud commanding voice boomed out.

“OK, enough of this fun and frivolity!” Doctor James Grand said as he walked into the overly joyful birthing room. “You two are acting like this is an everyday event. Oh wait, you’re O’Dells. Never mind. Carry on!”

“Are they acting up again?” I said coming from parking the SUV.

“Hi Paul. Yes, they are obviously nuts.”

“Fifteen children between them and you’re just now figuring that out? Hell James, I figured that by now we’d have paid you enough so that you’d retired to some tropical island.”

“I can’t, the last orthodontic bills aren’t paid.”

We all laughed at that and then Erin grabbed her belly and let out a loud “Shit!”

“Georgia! Back on the clock! Erin get back in bed,” James ordered as he waved another nurse to help Lynn into bed.

James went to the sink and washed his hands before a nurse helped him put on gloves, a mask, and a gown. Georgia got all the monitors hooked up to Erin as Lynn quietly got into the bed next to her wife’s. She looked concerned. Erin didn’t usually have sudden pain with her other births. Georgia turned on the monitors and they beeped and made their usual noises. She then got Erin’s feet into the stirrups and by that time James had on gloves and a mask.

“Let’s see what’s going on here.”

He looked and lifted his head and looked at me. Now I was worried. I’d never seen such a look on his face during one of our births.

“What Is it James?”

“Paul, at her last exam, everything was going along really well. Nothing was out of the norm for an O’Dell woman. And I’m used to your wives popping out multiple babies but I think this one is going to be different.”

“Different?” I said at the same time as Lynn and Erin.

“Yeah. Different. It looks like this is going to happen pretty soon.”

“Paul,” Erin said catching her breath. “Call Blossom and have her tell everyone that I’m having my babies. And tell them, especially Margaret Erin, not to worry, everything is going to be just fine.”

I took out my phone and left the ward, which didn’t want phones used there. In the lobby I called Blossom and told her it was going to happen soon. She said she would call Bill and Gwen and Bosco. She would also have the children packed into the bus and on their way as well.

“Oh, and tell the children that Erin Mom says not to worry, that everything is going to be just fine. She said to especially tell that to Margaet Erin. Any idea what that’s about?”

“No, but I’ll tell them. I wonder if the Babies have been at it again.”

“Anything is possible with the Babies. I gotta get back. James said she could give birth any minute. I love you.”

“I love you, Terry.”

I went back into the OB ward and several nurses were walking into the birthing room my wives were in. As I got closer I heard the sound of busy people doing their jobs. I walked to the door and stopped, not wanting to get in the way.

“Paul!” Erin cried out desperately, holding out an arm towards me.

I looked at James and he nodded his permission for me to go to her. It took three steps and I was there. I gripped her hand and she squeezed hard as a nurse was tying a mask on my face. She immediately had a contraction and groaned.

“Breathe, Erin,” I reminded her “You know what to do.”

Erin looked at me. Instead of telling me I was a smart-ass, I saw a look of pain and concern. I looked at Lynn in the next bed and she was in stirrups and her monitors were attached. She was sitting up looking at her wife. I saw no panic, but a lot of concern on all faces present.

“Paul,” Dr. James Grand said softly. “Once again your wife has thrown me a curve ball. Three weeks ago everything I saw was perfect. Erin was carrying both babies with no problems at all. A couple of days ago, same thing. Now? Well, daddy, you are about to get a real surprise. Erin next time you have the urge to push go ahead and push hard. And I do mean hard.”

Seconds later, Erin announced that she was going to push.

And seconds later, after a horrendous scream of pain, there was a freaking huge girl laying on her stomach and I was being handed a scissors. I cut the cord and, in amazement, said, “Abby Erin.”

Georgia took my huge daughter and ran out of the room to have Abby cleaned and weighed. I was looking at Erin for what seemed like several long minutes when her face was contorted in an expression of extreme stress.

“Push Erin. HARD!” James called to her.

Erin let out another ghastly scream, and with her face as red as I’d ever seen, she pushed. James eyes got large and he placed another huge girl on Erin’s stomach. I was handed another scissors and I cut the cord and said, “Diane Erin.”

Another nurse picked up the large girl and was off to the nursery.

“Erin, can you push again?” James asked my exhausted wife.

She nodded and ejected the afterbirth. James handed the pan the mess had landed in to a nurse and instructed her to tag it for the lab to consult him. He then proceeded to clean up Erin’s vagina and he let out a quiet exclamation.

“Amazing.”

“What?” I asked.

“Paul, Erin just pushed out the two biggest babies I have ever delivered. She pushed them out before I could do an episiotomy. I was worried that I’d have to do some serious repairs down here. There’s nothing to do. Erin I don’t know how you did it but there is no tearing or excessive stretching.”

“It might not feel excessive to you,” Erin said, pausing to take a breath. “It feels all stretched to hell from this end.”

As James finished cleaning Erin, Georgia returned with a big, pink bundle in her arms. She handed Abby Erin to me and I was shocked at how heavy she was. I looked at Georgia and she shook her head and said, “Paul, that little girl is eleven pounds two ounces and twenty three inches long. Other than being huge, she is a very healthy baby.”

Just then Abby Erin proved her health by letting out a very loud scream. Being the brave father and knowing what to do at all times, I immediately handed my new daughter to Erin. She’d pulled the blanket down to expose her massive, dripping, breasts and when she took Abby Erin from me, Erin said, “Oof!”

She looked at me, as amazed as I was, before she mom-handled her daughter to her huge right breast and Abby latched onto the thumb-sized nipple, getting milk right away. Her color was perfect and she curled her hands into fists and tucked them under her chin as she fed.

A few minutes later my second daughter was handed to me and I swear she had to be ten pounds heavier.

“Paul, Diane is eleven pounds five ounces and twenty three inches long. She is in perfect health as well.”

I took her in my arms and wondered at the silent beauty I held in my arms. I handed the quiet girl to Erin and she reached out her waiting left arm. She placed Diane’s cheek against the large leaking nipple. Diane turned her head and latched on.

“Paul, please get a picture,” Erin asked quietly, her face now a mask of exhausted relief and pleasure.

I took a picture and then started a video. Both girls had bright yellow hair and had their fists tucked under their chins in the normal O’Dell nursing pose. Erin looked up at the camera and quietly said, “Thank you, Sweetie. I love you.”

It was at that point that I remembered Lynn in the next bed. She was crying her eyes out and smiling. I looked at her and she nodded at me and said, “Good job, Lover.”

“James, they’re so big,” I said, still amazed.

“Yeah, Paul. They are both very big. And when I examined Erin a few days ago both babies were normal sized. If I’d made a guess back then, I’d have guessed both were going to be six and a half to seven pounds at birth. You people are going to make me crazier than my wife thinks I already am.”

“Lynn, if you have the same thing happen we may have to do a cesarean.”

“Why? Erin seemed to pull it off.”

“Lynn, listen, there was no indication that those babies were going to be that big. It was almost like they grew just before they came out. If that happens to you ... my God ... they could be another ten to eleven pounds apiece. I’m afraid that would kill you. You’re so much smaller than Erin.”

Lynn looked at me and then back at James.

“If you think that’s best but only if you have to. I’ve pushed out all the others, I don’t really want to change things now.”

“Lynn, Lover, if your life is in danger...”