Chapter Sixteen: The Not So Secret, Secret

I went to the doctor several days later and she confirmed what I had suspected. I was indeed pregnant again. No sign yet of twins but it was still too early to rule that out.  As I drove home I thought about telling Chuck about being pregnant again.  I hadn’t told him what I suspected yet, I wanted to make sure first before I told him. I was also a little worried about telling him. It wasn’t that long ago that I was stressed about working and taking care of the twins. Now we were going to add at least one more child to the fun chaos of our house.  He had told me everything would be okay but that was before the news of us having another child.

When I got home I headed straight for the barn.  The kids were over at Honey’s house while I went to the doctor.  I had told Chuck that I needed to run some errands in town so he wouldn’t get suspicious of where I was.

I entered the barn and saw him standing outside one of the stalls. He looked up and smiled at me.

“Hey! How’d your errand running go? Did you get everything done that you needed?”

“Umm…yea…about that, I actually didn’t go and run errands.”

He got a questionable look on his face. “Well then what were you doing?”

Just like with the twins, I was trying to figure out a way to tell him.  He was going to be so surprised by this and this time I really wasn’t sure what he would say.

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” He asked me.

“How…how did you know?” I asked him in disbelief.

“I may not have known the signs to look for with the twins, but I did this time.  I’ve had my suspicions for several days now.”

“So you’re not upset?”

“Amanda, I will never be upset about being a father again. Sure, we may have more stress and we’ll have to reevaluate things like finances and what we spend our time on.  But no matter what, I will always be thrilled when you tell me you’re pregnant.”

“I love you!” I was overcome with emotions and started kissing him.

“I love you too.” He said after we stopped kissing. “So any idea if it’s twins this time?”

“Nope, it’s still too early.  I don’t think anyone in my family has ever had more than one set of twins though. So maybe that won’t be the case this time.”

“Well, in any case, we better start looking at names again!” He grabbed my hand and we headed into the house.

This time when I went in for my 20 week checkup the nurse only saw one baby on the ultrasound. I was honestly a little relieved.  I had just finished writing the movie soundtrack and was ready for a little relaxing before the baby was born. Having twins would have added a little more stress. Not that I would have minded, but it was nice to only be having one baby this time.

As I neared finishing the movie score I began to realize that as much as I enjoyed writing, I wanted to spend more time with the children. The twins were already close to starting school and I didn’t want to miss any more of their childhood. I approached Chuck about the subject.

“Chuck, now that I’ve finished the score, I’ve been thinking that now would be a good time for me to take a break from writing.”

“Do you want to take a permanent break?”

“I don’t really know. I know that right now the kids are the most important thing to me and I want to spend more time with them. Maybe someday I could return to writing. I guess it would depend on if or when I was asked again. What do you think?”

“Financially we’re fine. We have the ranch and you’ll be making royalties off your music forever.  And believe me, I understand about wanting to spend more time with the kids, that’s why I eventually wanted to stop working at the precinct.  Do you at least think you’ll go to the movie premiere this time?”

“No, I think the movie will again be released soon after the baby is born, and I really don’t want to leave the baby and the twins.”

“Whatever you want to do sweetie; no matter what it is, I’ll still be the cowboy standing next to you.”

The next several months of my pregnancy went by quickly and I had never felt better. I spent  a lot of my time in the nursery with the kids and every once in a while I would find some time to paint outside. 

I was walking in the upstairs hall when Bridgette ran out of her room begging me to pick her up.  I reached down and swung her in the air.

I all of a sudden felt a shooting pain in my abdomen and yelled for Chuck.

“What’s wrong?”

“I was picking up Bridgette when all of a sudden I had a shooting pain.” I looked at him and was scared. “Something doesn’t feel right Chuck.”

He quickly rushed Bridgette and Charlie to Honey’s house and took me to the hospital.  The doctor scolded me about picking up Bridgette in my condition but reassured us that everything was alright and would remain that way as long as I remained on bed rest. I was not happy about staying in bed for the next two months, but there wasn’t much of a choice.

After one and half months of being on bed rest I was really becoming restless.  Chuck always took good care of me and I was able to tell him if I needed anything by using a walkie talkie. Talking to Honey on the phone helped too since she herself was pregnant again.  I felt like I had read every book in the house.  There wasn’t much else I could do. 

“How are you doing?” Chuck had been working out in the basement and had come to check on me.

“I’m just here, reading yet another book.”

“I’m sorry sweetie. I can only imagine how frustrating it is to stay in bed.” He moved further onto the bed and maneuvered to where I could lay on him. He reached down and rubbed my belly.

“It’s okay. It’s just hard sometimes not to feel down laying here.  I just want to see people again.”

“Maybe you can.”

“What do you mean?” He was always coming up with ideas.

“Well, we could invite everyone over for a pre birthday celebration for the twins. We could move the piano out of the family room and have the cake and other events in there. You could sit or lay on the couch and still be able to see everyone.”

Where did he get these ideas from? He never secede to amaze me.

“I guess that could work. I can plan most of it from the laptop and the phone. You might have to go and pick up things like the cakes.”

“That’d be no problem.  I’ll start asking the gang if their available to come.”

The day of the twins party arrived and I was excited to see everyone.  One thing I noticed soon after everyone arrived was how hard it was for me not to stand up.  I wanted so much to walk around and talk to everyone. They all tried their hardest to stay around where I was but every once in a while I felt out of the loop.  When it came time for Bridgette to blow out her candles I gave in.

“Amanda, be careful! You really should sit down honey.” Chuck  begged me.

“I’m fine Chuck.  I’m sure standing for a couple of minutes will be fine.”

I watched both Bridgette then Charlie blow out their candles and returned to sitting on the couch.  The men decided to go out to the barn and look at the horses while Honey, Josy and I sat on the couch for a little bit before they decided to go in the kitchen to get a drink.  I sat on the couch watching the kids playing when all of a sudden I felt excruciating pain in my belly.

“Oh my gosh! Maybe I shouldn't have stood up.”

“Charlie, you and Bridgette play nicely with Katie while Mommy goes to get Daddy.”

I was able to make it outside when Tom and John saw me.  They started yelling for Chuck who came out of the barn and freaked out.

“Is it time?”

 All I could get out was “Car…NOW.”

He rushed us to the hospital where they had to perform an emergency C-section. Thankfully Jefferson Allen Hobble was born perfectly healthy.  Jefferson was my Dad’s name and Allen was Chuck’s uncle who helped raise him.

I ended up having a much tougher recovery then I did with the twins. The doctor even told us it might not be a good idea for us to have any more children. I was a little sad at the thought about not becoming a mom again but Chuck wasn’t willing to put my life at risk again. We made the painful decision to not have any more children and to love the ones that we were blessed to have.


Credits:
Poses:
Pillow Talk - Cuddly Couple's Poses by Spladoum
Babymoon - Pregnancy Couple Photography Poses by Elexis