[Growing More Than We Thought]

~~

Artem

~~

It didn’t take Doc long to prep the clinic. He wanted to start doing the routine check ups on both Dakotah and Star. In truth, he wanted to start Dakotah’s already, but she had refused because of the grief she had been feeling. Now though, she was a little less oppositional than she had been. I think that she had been so scared to go through the pregnancy alone.

Now that Star was pregnant as well, she seemed a little more easygoing about it all. I was happy to see that too. I didn’t want to watch her make herself sick or hurt the baby because of her grief. We needed to keep her moving forward, not just for her sake, but also for Larson and the new baby’s sakes as well.

Kent and I took Dakotah and Star to the clinic the day after we had announced our pregnancy. Kent was chosen because he was also one of Morgan’s best friends, but he wasn’t married to one of the triplets so he was the one chosen since he wasn’t going to be standing in the middle of the sisters and their loss.

“Come now, Dakotah, you first.” Doc coaxed her, and Star was there to help encourage her as well.

“It’s alright, Dakotah. Do you want me to hold your hand?” Star offered with a smile.

“Would you?” Dakotah was still looking so lost.

“Of course.” Star smiled and held onto her friend’s hand.

Doc started with finding the baby’s heartbeat on the doppler. I remembered how he had done that for Star before. After he located the quick yet steady heartbeat I saw Dakotah give the first smile that I had seen from her in weeks.

“That’s my baby.” She was grinning. “That’s part of Morgan.” She was crying happy tears. “I plan to name the baby Morgan.” She said while looking at me. “It’s a universal name, male or female, so I want to give the baby his name so that I know that he left behind a piece of him when he died.”

“That is a very good idea.” I took her other hand and squeezed it tightly. I think that Morgan would be happy to hear that.”

“He would, wouldn’t he?” She was still crying, but it was soft, happy tears now.

After that Doc pulled over the ultrasound machine and started to check the baby on the machine.

“Everything looks fine so far. You can see the baby right there.”

“A new little baby blob.” Kent joked as he looked at the ultrasound. “It looks just like Morgan already.” That helped to break some more of Dakotah’s tension, and she laughed, she genuinely laughed when she heard those words.

“Morgan would have made a joke just like that.” She giggled. “Thank you, Kent.”

“That’s why I am here.”

“I am happy for you.” I squeezed my cousin’s hand and helped her to sit up now that her ultrasound was over.

“This is going to be a good thing, you will see.” Star beamed at her. “We are going through it together this time.”

“Yeah, preggo friends.” Dakotah smiled. “Can I stay to watch your ultrasound?”

“Of course. I would be sad if you didn’t.”

I helped my wife up onto the bed next. I was being a little too helpful though, cause when I tried to help her lean back she yelled at me.

“I’m not that pregnant yet, Artem. Let me be a little independent.” Everyone else in the room laughed at me when she snapped at me.

“I was just trying to help.” I hung my head sadly. “Sorry.”

“I know, but still, it was a little too much for right now. Save it for when I am further along.”

“OK.” I grinned at her. She gave me permission to coddle her when she was further along, she just doesn’t realize it yet.

Doc started by trying to get the baby’s heart rate on the doppler next. He had cleaned the other gel off of it and pressed it to Star’s belly. However there was a strange echo coming from it.

“What the hell?” Doc sounded frustrated. “It’s all messed up now.”

“Did it get messed up when you cleaned it?” Kent wondered.

“It shouldn’t have.” Doc shrugged. “No worries, I can just check the heartbeat on the ultrasound. I only use the doppler so I know where to focus the ultrasound.” He shrugged and got right to work.

Doc put that now familiar blue gel onto Star’s belly and grabbed the ultrasound wand. He pressed it to her belly, and it showed an image similar to what Dakotah’s was. Right there, that’s what I saw on Dakotah’s scan just a moment ago. That is the baby.

Only, why is there more than one?

As I was looking at the screen, I counted the items that Doc had pointed out before and said that it was the baby. OK, one, two, three.

Three?

Three?

Are there really three babies in there right now?

“Th..th..this is unexpected.” Doc was a little nervous. but then he laughed. “What the hell, Artem? Did you put in triple the effort or something?” He was laughing harder now.

“What is it?” Star was looking nervous now.

“Star, w..w..we’re having t..tr..tri..triplets.” I was grinning like an idiot while Kent and Dakotah looked at the screen with bewilderment.

“He is absolutely right.” Doc confirmed. Congratulations Star, you’re having  triplets. And they will be identical since they all seem to have come from one egg.”

That was news that we hadn’t expected. We were overjoyed though. Three more babies all at once. That would be fine, we could manage it. And when we told all of the kids and the rest of the family, they were just as happy as we were.

Only now, I kind of hoped it was all boys. Could you imagine all the other boys if they had three sisters who started to date all at the same time?