Love Sick

Date of Birth

Eva

One Week Later

I sighed as I stretched and blinked the sleep away from my eyes, looking over at Chris who had finally drifted off to sleep. I could hear my baby's murmurs from the monitor on the nightstand made me carefully slide out of bed and silently pad down the long hall where the nursery sat.

I cracked the door open and smiled at Lucia who was now bouncing her chubby legs in the crib, reaching her arms out with a wide smile, giggles spewing from her mouth. "Mama!" She cried, grinning wide with the teeth that had sprouted from her gums.

"Hi birthday girl!" I cried, pulling her out of the crib to hook her onto my hip. Her grey eyes looked up at me pulled herself up once I situated myself on the rocking chair, blinking softly as she stared at me intently.

"Mama, cake!" She cried, my preparation for her birthday finally paying off as she clapped in excitement. I could hear my husband passing the closed door to begin getting the house in order for the birthday party.

"I know you want cake, daddy is gonna set up your cake for you." I smiled, watching her crawl all over my lap, her eyes landing on the new change in my figure. "Ma! Tummy?" She cried, her advanced language worrying me, now threatening my efforts to keep this pregnancy a secret.

"Yeah! Tummy...and nose, and toes." I managed, exhaling once I began to tickle her little toes, distracting her from the observation I had made.

...

I exhaled and fixed my sundress, my paranoia over my growing body now showing as I tried to fix my spandex underneath, hiking them up over my bloated stomach.

"Fuck!" I cried under my breath, making my husband rush in worriedly, but I just huffed and flopped back onto the bed, my dress pushed up to try and aid the process.

"I'm getting fat! What if I keep getting fat like I was before?" I cried, but he just smiled softly and scooted next to me, resting his hand on my newly grown stomach. "You're not fat, you're pregnant, there's a difference, and you don't need these, it'll just make you uncomfortable and you won't be able to enjoy the party." He reminded as he carefully slipped the spandex off my knees, placing a soft kiss on my bare stomach, rubbing it while he rested his head on it.

"Can you believe she's one?" I whispered, but he just remained silent and continued rubbing his hand up and down my stomach, the ticking of the clock providing the only sound in the room. "I invited my mother." He groaned, shocked washed over my as I propped myself up and onto my elbows to look over at him carefully.

"And?" I started, but he chewed on his lip and began to pace the floor, the gears in his head turning intensely as he tried to formulate the perfect answer while picking out his favorite short sleeve button down, his muscles flexing with stress. "I don't know. Honestly, I have no idea who this woman is. I know she gave birth to me, my brother and sister, but that's pretty much it. She came to certain birthdays and holidays, but was never constant. I know her name is Margot Ann Ellis, and that we both have blonde hair and blue eyes." He rambled, his thoughts now spiraling out of control as he began to imagine every worst possible scenario.

"What if she offends someone? Or feeds Evan watermelon and he goes into anaphylaxis! She could say something horrible to Emily or Alyssa about abortion and ruin the whole party!" I could tell that he had been going over these scenarios over and over, and that it was beginning to drive him up a wall.

"Just breathe, everyone knows how to act at a baby's birthday party."

....