Happy Little Accidents

baby when it rains, it pours

Zak was no stranger to baby showers. With two older sisters and a slew of older cousins she had definitely been to her fair share. She wasn’t particularly keen on the idea of having one of her own but Faye seemed so excited at the prospect of planning one that Zak didn’t have the heart to say no. But she did put her foot down on some of the suggested games. There would be no diapers full of melted chocolate or belly measuring contests. Instead, there was a clear vase full of pacifiers with a note that encouraged guests to guess how many were in it and little cards asking who the baby would look more like and if they would come on their due date or not.

Penny was kind enough to lend them the Hard Deck for the afternoon. She, Amelia, and Faye spent the morning decorating it with purple, blue, and black streamers and hanging stars in the windows. Payback and Fanboy rearranged the furniture to make room for a gift table and hung a solar system mobile over the chair designated for Zak. Somehow the theme had shifted from Space Oddity to just space but she didn’t mind. 

The nursery was in between styles, anyway. She got as far as painting the walls a soft yellow and the trim a nice, light blue-green before her doctor ordered her to take bedrest more seriously. Her dad built a crib for them and planned to drive down with it in the next week or so.

“I know I could jus’ ship it and Robert could put it together,” He’d said when he called to let her know it was finished, “But I’d jus’ feel more comfortable if I did it m’self.”

It was hard to argue with that. And she loved that her dad had come around to her… non-traditional life. He’d always said there was nothing any of his children could do that would make him stop loving them. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t occasionally question their life choices. And he told her she would feel the same when it came to her child.

Zak arrived half an hour early for her shower, wanting to get comfortable before guests started arriving. At just under thirty-five weeks she was back to feeling permanently exhausted. First trimester fatigue was one thing, but now she felt huge and like her limbs were giant weights and altogether very done with being pregnant. 

Dr. Callisto still advised her to schedule a C-section but she declined. If labor didn’t start naturally on or before her due date, she would wait a week and then schedule an induction. If she did (hopefully) start naturally they had two plans in place. If Bob was at work, she would call Penny to take her to the hospital and then call Maverick or Ice to pull Bob out of the sky if they were flying. If Bob was home, they’d time her contractions and go to the hospital together. 

She’d been having Braxton-Hicks on and off the last two weeks or so and Dr. Callisto advised them both to look out for signs of preeclampsia. But she tried not to think too hard about it; already more than a little anxious about giving birth. 

She shifted as much as she could in her seat to get more comfortable, Jenny having brought over a plate of snacks and her water bottle. Bob was picking up Mira from the airport and left his cousin in charge of doting on Zak. It was the first they saw of each other since the wedding and Jenny happily filled Zak in on all her travels, asked three different times about the baby’s due date and how she was feeling, and offered to plan her and Bob’s wedding.

“Honestly I haven’t given it much thought.” Zak admitted, fidgeting with her engagement ring. “Ask me again in like, six months.”

“I will hold you to that!” Jenny declared and Zak had a feeling she would follow up on the hour. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to start planning her wedding. She was just too tired to think about it.

“Did you do a maternity shoot?”

“Was I supposed to?”

“Zaaaaak!”