No Matter What

Adult Things

I really liked my job at Aaron's office. I thought I'd hate it, but it was actually pretty great. Being pregnant with twins, I was already extremely exhausted. I wanted to sleep almost all the time now. On top of being in school all day, I was running on fumes by the time I arrived at the office.

Aaron was the manager of the local public television station. The studio was downstairs, and everyone that had the boring jobs worked in the office above it. I got my very own cubicle, which was a great place to hang the dozens and dozens of ultrasound photos I had, along with the Andromeda Galaxy poster that had been curled up on a corner of my bedroom for who knows how long.

I had to switch clothes before I sat down because this environment was "business professional." I didn't understand the concept of people dressing up so nicely to sit alone in a cubicle, but I had to do it. Connor and I found some blouses at the second hand store, and his mom bought me a few pairs of stretchy maternity dress pants. It was always hard to find fancy clothes with fabrics that didn't bother my sensory issues.

On Tuesday, I was sitting in my cubicle and listening to some music with my headphones on. I loved when I could just work and tune everything out. Today, I was making "new member gift packages." I had to put a magazine, pamphlet, and bumper sticker into an envelope and seal it. I legit couldn't believe I was getting money for this. It was awesome. It made me feel like such an adult.

"Alrighty, Ayla. Are you ready to go?"

I peered over the top of my cubicle and saw Eileen, the sweet southern lady who I'd be going on an adventure with today.

"Yup. Let's do it," I said, pausing my music and taking off my headphones.

I took my puffy winter coat off the hanger and zipped it over myself. It was tight around the belly area, and more than usual. I'd grown a lot in the past two weeks, and was feeling a lot of relief now. At twenty-two weeks, my boys would survive if there was an emergency and they needed to be taken out. I was so proud of my two little fighters. I'd officially made it to my main goal, so every extra day was the icing on the cake.

Unfortunately, at my last appointment with Dr. Khan, we officially had some umbilical cord entanglement. It wasn't that bad, but he was worried about it getting worse. Going to the hospital was on the horizon, but thankfully, not yet. Today, I just had to stay focused on work.

Elieen and I carried bags of craft activities down the elevator and into her car. After loading them in the trunk, we were on our way over the bridge to downtown, where we'd go to the kid's wing of the state museum.

Since I'd never even really looked at a child, Aaron thought it would be a good experience for me to help Eileen out at this character event we were hosting. The kids were going to have an opportunity to meet Big Cat, a character from the network's most popular kids show. It was free to the public, so she told me to "brace myself."

I walked with Eileen through the museum and down to the kid's wing, where we took an elevator all the way up to the event room. It had big windows that overlooked the city and the river. With the snow covering everything, it looked good enough to be a cover photo for my social media.

"I'll set up the tablets. Can you start laying the crafts out? Put a different one at each table," Eileen said.

"Got it," I said.

I dumped everything out of the shopping bags so I could sort it. There were coloring pages, kits with foam shapes, and packages of modeling clay. Apparently Big Cat was an artist who loved to sculpt.

When that was all done, I sat down next to Eileen and started snacking. The boys were getting bigger and I was measuring where I needed to be. I never thought that eating would be so much work, but for them, it was worth it.