I don't think Vylad has ever been a heavy sleeper. I can normally wake him up by gently calling his name a few times or a soft shake of the forearm.
It was always Garroth that was hard to wake up. I had to raise my voice, or vigorously shake him until he stirred. He snored, but I was able to overlook that with time. Vylad, thankfully, does not.
Rolling over onto my side brings discomfort as I throw the comforters off of my body. Shaking his arm, I try to coo him awake. Vylad stirs because of this, appearing rather groggy from being woken up.
"Chérie, what's wrong?" he asks, his voice deepened from sleep.
I can't help but smile slightly before sudden pain takes it away. His eyes widen as he begins to sit up.
"Either I just pissed the bed, or the baby's coming," I tell him, placing my hand on my stomach.
Vylad nods, with nothing else said. He's quick to stand up and absentmindedly run around. If you took a look at us, you'd think that we were first time parents.
I yell at him to call Kandi and his parents, but I'm not sure if he heard what I said. I know he's worried about Paris and making sure he brings the bags out to the car.
I can't find my slippers underneath me as I reach for my phone on the bedside table. The phone is far easier to find as my slippers play a game of hide and seek with my toes. Laurance's contact is already pulled up and ringing when I've forced myself up and found my slippers.
". . . 'ello?" Laurance sounds tired and can't even form the full word. I force myself to hold back an eye roll as I go to brush my hair. I may have to push a baby out of me, but my hair is at least being brushed. "Al, it's. . . four in the morning. What do you want?"
"What do you think? I'm pregnant," I remind him, throwing the hairbrush into the bag on a nearby chair. Vylad, surprisingly, hasn't taken it out to the car yet. "I need you to call Cadi, daddy and Lisa. Wake the boys up. The baby wants out now."
"But it's two weeks ear—"
"The baby wants out, so the baby is coming out. Call our damn family and wake up the males. Someone needs to babysit Paris while I push a human being out."
°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
Despite my aggressive state during labor, everyone was kind to me. When we arrived, Kandi was one of the first people to arrive. Jeffory had stayed behind with Abby, as he was going to see if his parents could babysit her. But since it was four in the morning, they hadn't been awake yet. Kandi was delighted to watch over Paris for Vylad and I, but she always takes it as her "godmother duty." Laurance showed up slightly after her, a thermos of freshly brewed coffee sitting in his hand.
Cadenza, despite never having a child of her own, thought that combing through my hair once more and braiding it would do me some good. She also thought I would look better for the pictures Zianna was constantly taking, and I would supposedly appreciate it more in the future when I reflect on this day.
It was a few days later they were kicked out of the room. I was ten centimeters dilated, and it was time to start pushing. A sudden fear kicked in about having two children and if I would be a good enough mother to both children, but Vylad jokingly tried to make me feel better by saying it was too late to go back to having one child.
Now, there's a baby resting against my chest, and I can feel a large sense of tiredness taking over me. Two girls. I have two baby girls: Paris Rose and Andromeda Eloise Ro'meave.
When I first learned of Andromeda's gender, I was slightly disappointed. It has been a wish of mine to have a boy and a girl, but I'm thankful that my children are healthy. Now, it doesn't matter to me that I have two little girls. These are my children.
Vylad told me back in high school that he thought Andromeda was a pretty name. We were doing a school project about constellations and their mythology meaning behind their names, and he stumbled across the constellation Andromeda. Without any prior knowledge of the story, he found the name to be pretty and something he'd want to name a daughter if he ever had one. We both forgot about this until recently when I remembered his words.
Before, when we named Paris, we based it off of how important the city was to us. When Vylad spoke about traveling the world and wishing I'd come with, that was the city I wanted to visit. I thought of it being beautiful and romantic. Paris was the first place he surprised me with, and he proposed to me there. From Paris onward, we traveled around France and onto different countries. Because of this, Paris remained a special place in my heart and had special memories within.
Vylad holds Andromeda's little hand in his arm, admiring the sleeping child. The nurses have allowed the others into the room to meet Andromeda for the first time.
"Gar, Cadi, do you want to meet your goddaughter?" I ask, smiling tiredly down to the child in my arms. Vylad takes her from me and steps forward, watching as Garroth and Cadenza stand around us.
"She's so tiny," Cadenza whispers, eyes darting all over the baby's figure.
Garroth reaches for one of her hands and admires how small it is inside his palm. He looks up, tears and fear in his eyes. "What if we break her?"
"You won't break her," Vylad says. "She's a baby, not a doll."
