The Arranged Series

sleepless nights

Sleepless Nights

By: Katie Wright

          Today, I am forty weeks into my pregnancy and baby Joseph hasn’t made any moves to enter the world yet. Doctor Lisa wants me to come in this afternoon if I haven’t started having contractions, to see what position he is in. We had decided to call Joseph by his middle name because it sounded better to us, but we still like the name Joseph.

          By three in the afternoon, I hadn’t started contracting, so Brantley and I got in my SUV and headed towards my doctors office. We put mine and Kyler’s hospital bag in the car, incase I was hospitalized.

          After seeing Doctor Lisa, she was sure Kyler would make his move in the next couple of days naturally, if he hadn’t within the next week, I was to be induced. I just want to meet my precious little boy, I guess when he is ready he will come.

          When we pulled in the garage, I got out and walked into Kyler’s nursery and sat in the rocking chair in the corner of his room facing his crib resting my hands on my huge stomach. Brantley walked in after putting the hospital bags back in our closet. After he saw me sitting there, he walked over and squatted down in front of me, placing his hands over mine.         

          “Kyler, your mommy and daddy are ready to meet you. We want to see your little face soon.” He whispered to my stomach, placing a kiss in the center. When he pulled back Kyler started kicking like crazy.

          “Oh, so you like your daddy’s voice, huh?” I questioned with humor.

          “But you like mommy’s more, right?” Kyler kicked the whole time we were talking to him. He does this when I read to him before I go to bed. I will be reading one of my favorite novels out loud, with Brantley listening and his hand over my stomach. After sitting in the rocking chair for awhile talking to Kyler, we decided to search for ways to induce labor naturally. We discovered walking, spicy foods, and bouncing on an exercise ball could help with inducing labor. Since I was hungry and we didn’t have a ball, we decided to order hot wings and Mexican food and go get an exercise ball.

          That night I tossed and turned, I could not find a sleeping position that was comfortable. At three in the morning I decided to forget sleeping, as I was now wide awake, and I was afraid that I would wake Brantley up with my constant moving. I quietly moved over to the edge of the bed and slipped my house shoes on and walked to the laundry room. I had a sudden burst of energy and decided to tackle the mound of dirty clothes that we had collected over the past couple of days. As I finished folding the third and final load Brantley walked in the living room clad in only pajama pants.     

          “How long have you been up?” he asked coming over to me, placing his hands on my humongous belly.

          “I got up at three, so four hours.” I stated.

          “Why did you get up so early?”

          “I couldn’t sleep. Kyler thought it would be fun to kick all night long.” Brantley bent down to my stomach and whispered inaudibly. When he stood back up, he helped me up to go eat breakfast. I took maybe five steps and my legs felt wet, I looked down.

          “Brantley,” I quietly stated.

          “Hmm?” he asked while rummaging in the fridge.”

          “I think my water just broke.” He turned around quickly with slight terror written on his face.

          “What do we do?”

          “We wait until my contractions are more frequent.”

          “Have you had any contractions?”

          “No. I am going to go change. You finish cooking.”

          A couple of hours later my contractions were about fifteen minutes apart.

          “Are you ready to go now?” Brantley asked.

          “Yeah” I stated.

Five excruciating hours later, baby Kyler was born. He looked just like Brantley. He had my blue eyes, but his nose and everything else was Brantley. His health was beyond perfect. Let me tell you he had some lungs.

          Two days later, we were dismissed form the hospital to sink or swim. Let the sleepless night begin.

          Five years later, today is Kyler’s fifth birthday. My baby has grown up so fast. Since he was born our family has grown tremendously. We have five sons including Kyler and no girls. Kyler of course is the oldest, Landon and Logan ane twins and are three and a half. Then we had Carter and Cole who are eighteen months and also twins.

          “I found out yesterday that I am pregnant AGAIN. Brantley has wanted a girl since Kyler was born. Hopefully this time we will have a girl because I am done having kids.

          Today’s the day that we find out if we are having a girl. Memaw Jordan decided she wanted to watch the four hellions since Kyler was at school.

          After our appointment we were stunned. We are having twins again. At least this time we are having one girl, but we are also adding another boy to the mix.

                   Yesterday we met baby Mason and Faithlynn three weeks early. All five big brothers are excited to have two new siblings added to our already crazy family. I guess its a few more sleepless nights for us.

                                                13 years later

          All of my kids have grown up to be amazing. Faithlynn is now giving her daddy gray hairs, which I find hilarious. Her and Mason are both in eighth grade and are starting to “date”, and Brantley does not like his little cowgirl dating. Carter and Cole are about to be Sophomores in high school.  Landon and Logan are seventeen and are about to be high school seniors. My first born Kyler is starting college in the fall to become an EMT. He is already on the volunteer fire department, but it still scares me even though he is doing good thing, but he is my baby.

          Oh, where did all those sleepless nights go?