Chapter 6

Nine months later...

Kaylee and I sat at the computer in the pool house. Her hand expertly moved the presentation mouse that was just the right size for a five year-old. As she clicked on each of the eggs, she counted along with Elmo until all the eggs showed a number and then we got out of our chair and did the chicken dance. Then we did it all over again.

"When's Momma gonna have her baby?" she asked me.

"I don't know, sweetie, any day now," I replied, then kissed her cheek. "I wanted to tell you that you've been a great big sister to Bryan, Gwen and Gabi and I know you'll be good to your new sisters, too."

"What about Momma's baby?" Kaylee said. "Is she having a boy or a girl?"

"We don't know," I told her. "We wanted that to be a surprise. What do you want her baby to be?"

Kaylee thought for a minute. "I'd like another sister."

"Are you sure? That would make six little sisters."

"Yes, I'm sure," she replied in her grown-up voice. "Girls are more fun than boys."

I laughed. "You know what?"

"What?"

"I love you," I said.

"I love you, too."

"You know what else?"

"What?"

"You did something your brother or your sisters will never do," I gave her a big hug.

"What's that?"

"You made me a daddy," I said. "With everyone else, I was already a daddy, but you made me a daddy for the first time."

Everyone else was in the big house. All of our parents had come in—except Katie's mother, of course—and it was a zoo. A part of it was that it was Christmas time. Another part was that we were expecting four babies.

Yes, you heard that right. Four kids.

All of the girls got pregnant that weekend we were away, and as a bonus, Leah had twins, which we later found out were fraternal. One of the nice things about being wealthy is that we could afford the best medical treatment available. After repeated visits to the doctor, all three girls were declared to be in good health, so instead of going to the hospital to have our babies, we opted for home delivery.

Leah was first, on December 19, giving birth to healthy little girls. Melinda was next on December 21, also with a girl. Now it was Christmas Eve day. Besides our seven parents, both of Katie's sisters, Melinda's brothers, and my brother and sisters showed up (Leah is an only child). Of course, they all brought their spouses and children. Our house was bursting at the seams; I think we had thirty guests.

Plus there were the eight of us and our three—soon to be four—newborns. Thank God the addition was finished.

After getting back from our weekend getaway, the girls started nesting. The first thing we did was to move into one bedroom. What used to be Melinda and my room had the better morning view, so we had a custom-made Tempur-pedic® mattress and frame delivered that was big enough to fit all four of us (plus the kids if we didn't mind being close).

Then we started planning an addition of four more bedrooms and a living room intending to use the other master suite as a temporary nursery and later for guests. At first we wanted to save some money by doing a lot of the work ourselves, but after a couple of weeks we decided to let the contractor do everything because, quite frankly, with three pregnant women and four kids in the house, none of us had the inclination to lift a hammer, hang drywall or paint. Even though it wasn't cheap, that was the best money we ever spent on the house.

When the four new bedrooms and a new playroom were completed, we started moving people around. Kaylee wanted one of the new rooms (she thought they were bigger; they're not), so we moved all four of the older kids downstairs. For right now, all twelve of us will be on a single floor and when the babies get old enough, we'll move them upstairs, which are already wired for baby monitors, both video and audio.

Let met say right now that if you ever get a say in the matter, don't do anything that puts three pregnant women in the same house together. I'll be polite and call it a "million dollar experience". That is, I wouldn't trade my three wives and four new children for a million dollars, but nor could you pay me a million bucks to do it all over again.

If you're a guy who has ever endured and survived your wife or girlfriend's pregnancy, you know a little bit of what I'm talking about. Remember the cravings? Hormones? Mood swings? General craziness?

Take all that and then multiply by three. No, make that thirty. Most of the time we had good days. But some days were downright awful. Sometimes the girls were there to support each other and help one another through the rough spots, but other times, they fed off each other. It's a good thing our memories tend to erase the bad times because there are about eight days of the last nine months that I'd like to forget.

Even though she had her moments, Melinda was the rock for us all. Part of it was her even, unflappable nature. Part of it was that she had done it before (twice, in fact). And part of it was that she is simply the strongest willed of all of us, and she tried her damnedest not to have too many bad days or let us have bad days ourselves.

Somehow we survived the whole pregnancy thing and Melinda and Leah had healthy little girls. Our folks have also been invaluable to us, not only as resources, but as babysitters for the other four kids. One thing that we wanted to make sure of was that Kaylee, Bryan, Gwen and Gabi didn't feel like we were pushing them aside.

Having their grandparents around to spoil them with attention made the older four kids a lot more accepting of the new situation. We also tried to tell them that even though there were going to be more children in the house, and we might not pay as much attention to them as we'd like, we still loved them all. Hence me and Kaylee sneaking off to pay a visit to SesameStreet.com.

"Kaylee, are you and Daddy out here?" Katie called.

"We're upstairs, Momma!" our daughter yelled.

"Why don't we go meet her?" I said. Katie was ready to go literally at any minute and I didn't want her walking up steps unnecessarily. Just as Kaylee was hopping off my lap, I threw my arms around her in one of my patented "octopus" hugs. "I love you, sweetheart."

She gave me the look that always melts my heart. Kaylee has already learned that if she's judicious in its use, she can get pretty much anything she wants. I don't know what I'm going to do when the girls become teenagers. "I love you, too, Daddy."

Hand in hand, we went downstairs into my garage/woodshop. Katie was wrapped in a long coat for the short walk from the big house to the pool house; it was Christmas time in the North Carolina mountains, after all.

"Grandpa and Grandma are looking for you," Katie said to our daughter. "I think they want to take you, Bryan and the twins to Billy Bob's."

Kaylee's face lit up at the mention of her favourite place. My parents must be gluttons to take four kids under the age of 7 out for pizza, video games and ski ball. I hoped they were taking reinforcements (probably some combination of my siblings, in-laws, and their kids). She gave her Momma a kiss on the cheek, a pat on the belly and then bounded off, leaving Katie and I alone.