Take the Hope for a Good Life

Eighteen

LA, USA
September 9th
Miley's POV

Liam left July 20th, and has been gone since. We've video chatted and talked a lot. I was at my doctor appointment with River. I was now twenty-four weeks pregnant, and I had a little baby bump.

"See river, now doesn't that look more like a baby?" Dr. Cooper asks River, pointing at the screen. "There's the head, there are the arms."

"Yeah I guess." River says.

"Would you like the pictures, Miley?" Dr. Cooper asks me.

"Yes, please." I reply. Then Dr. Cooper wiped off my stomach and I put my shirt down and sat up.

When River and I got home, I put the pictures of the ultrasound on the fridge and went on my phone to see if I could video chat with Liam. I logged into the video chat and tried connecting to Liam. When he answered, I smiled.

"Hey baby, I was just thinking about calling you. What's up?" Liam says, answering me.

"Nothing, I just got pictures from Dr. Cooper for the baby."

"Oh you had an appointment?" Liam asks.

"Yeah, is there any way I can send them to you?"

"Um, I think I can give you an address. It's for the director and stuff but I'll tell him you wanted to send me something. I'll give you the address now and you can send them. It will take a while though for them to get here. How does she look?" Liam replies.

"She is so cute, I can't wait to meet her." I say excitedly.

"Me neither. I'm sorry I'm gonna miss the big day."

"It's fine, like I said. I can have someone take pictures or video it or something. You will see it some way or another. I'll make sure you get something. Anyway, so how's the movie?"

"I can't really say but it's going alright. We are actually a couple hours ahead of schedule. Oh crap, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later." Then I sigh.

"Okay, talk to you later. Love you."

"Right back at you, baby. Hey maybe next time we chat we can think of names."

"Okay." I say, then we hang up.

"Mommy was that daddy?" River asks, coming out of his room.

"Uh, yeah. It was only a small quick little talk though. He had to get going." I reply.

"Okay. How is the baby?" He asks, then I help him up on the couch next to me.

"She's good. Remember what the doctor said? She is healthy." I say, reminding him. Then he nods.

"When will she come out?" He asks.

"The end of January. That's four months away. You will be four when she comes. Are you gonna like your little sister?" Then he nods with a smile.

"How did she get in there?" He asks, poking my stomach. Then I get very red in the face.

"Uh...how about we wait until daddy comes back? Then we can both tell you."

"I wanna know now."

"Well...think about a chicken egg. The eggs need fertilized to make the baby chickens. The eggs people buy in the store aren't fertilized so there aren't baby chickens in the eggs. Same thing with moms. Except my eggs are very small and you can't see them with the eye. They need to be fertilized by daddy."

"How does that happen?" River asks, then I get red in the face again.

"When moms and dads love each other very much, they decide they want a baby. So then they get together and try to have a baby. The daddy fertilizes the egg inside the mommy, and that is really all that happens." I explain.

"Mommy?"

"Yes River?"

"How does the baby get out of you?" He asks, then I get extremely red.

"Um...the doctor helps me push the baby out."

"Where does it come out?"

"Well, um. Girls and boys have different body parts and the lower parts of the girl is where the baby comes out."

"Do you poop it out?"

"No, River." Then I laugh. "The girls have another hole where the baby comes out, it's called a vagina. But you'll learn more about that when you're older."

"Okay." He says, then I let out a huge sigh of relief. We were finally done talking about it. "Can I watch my sister be born?"

"Um, no." I say.

"Why?" He pouts.

"It's something that adults do, baby. You'll be able to know how everything happens when you're older, don't worry." I reply.

"Fine." Then I smile.

"Are you excited for your sister to be born?"

"Yes. What are you naming her?"

"The next time daddy and I talk we'll talk about names."

"Can I pick a name?"

"Sure, River. Whatcha got?"

"Ray."

"Oh like a ray of sunshine? That's so cute!" I say. It honestly was. I thought he was gonna say a boy name or something.

"It that a girl name mommy?"

"Actually it's unisex. Meaning it can be for boys or girls. Do you know Ray is my middle name?"

"No it isn't." He denies.

"Really?"

"Yup!"

"Then what's my middle name River?"

"Hope." Then I smile.

"Who told you that?" I ask.

"Daddy. Daddy said your name is Destiny Hope."

"Well I changed it. Now it's Miley Ray."

"Oh!" He says, then I laugh. "I didn't know."

"That's okay. You probably missunderstood him. He was probably saying it used to be Destiny Hope."

"I don't know mommy, I only call you mommy." Then I smile.

"Good, you're supposed to." I say, then kiss the top of his head. "Woah." I say, touching my stomach.

"What?" River asks.

"Here, feel here." I say, taking his hand and putting it on my stomach where the baby was kicking.

"What's that?"

"That's your little sister kicking." I explain. "She's letting us know that she's in there."

"We already knew that silly." River says to my stomach, which makes me laugh.

"Oh, River. I just got a text from daddy. He gave me the mailing address so we can send the ultrasound pictures to him."

"Can he talk to us?"

"I'll ask him." I say, then send a quick text. "No, he said maybe some other time. He's really busy."

"Okay." River says upset.

"We can talk to him tomorrow though, okay?"  Then he nods with a smile.

"Okay." He replies.

River and I had some more alone time before it was time for him to go to bed. I stayed up half the night, hoping Liam wasn't flirting with any of his co-stars...he wouldn't though, would he?