ONE MONTH LATER
It had been a long journey but both Lucas and Andrew had finally come home, on a Sunny California day. Andrew's survival had been nothing short of a miracle, his sucking reflex had improved enough to be given formula from a regular bottle and his lungs had improved enough that he didn't require an oxygen mask, just a nebulizer and some breathing medications which the doctors assured the Harts were just temporary, but their whole family was now at home and they had reason to celebrate.
Although nothing ever goes right when it's supposed to….
Once the boys were home, Aubrey suddenly began wetting the bed, common for a two year old but not for her, since she'd been home it had never happened. When they'd first gotten her back they'd put a diaper on her at night, but after two weeks of them being completely dry each morning they stopped. So when she started wetting the bed her Mama was at her wits end wondering why.
"Jonathan, I told you not to give her liquids before bedtime!" Jennifer grumbled as she changed the bed sheets, while he watched from the doorway with Baby Andrew in his arms, who was working his way into a good cry giving his once troubled lungs a good workout.
"Darling, she was thirsty," Jonathan said not admitting that he'd screwed up. They had both just fallen asleep when Aubrey had screamed out
"I WET MY BED MAMA!"
Of course she woke up one baby but the other slept through the noise, for identical twins they were exact opposites, when one was up, the other was asleep, when one was hungry the other wasn't, trying to get them both on a schedule wasn't working and Mama was on the verge.
Throw in a two year old who was slowly becoming evil, and you've got the makings of one wrong nerve ending away from sitting on the roof with a bottle of wine, swearing not to come down until the bottle was empty.
Aubrey was perfectly fine when they brought the boys home, although she'd gotten too close to Lucas's car seat, in order for her to get a better peak at her baby brother, she braced her knees against the side and flipped over the carrier, sending herself and the baby into the floor.
Jennifer had just gotten out of the bathroom and Jonathan was getting Aubrey some juice when they heard the scream and a loud chorus of "Not my fault!"
Slowly she was becoming more and more adventurous when it came to her baby brothers, from trying to dive into the crib with Andrew to tying Lucas's carrier with him in it to the back of her tricycle with a jump rope, she would have gotten away with it if her mother hadn't come around the corner and screamed. There was no way they could take their eyes off her for a second and this adventurous attitude was part of the reason Jennifer couldn't sleep, she constantly worried that Aubrey would do something to the babies or herself. The lack of sleep meant she was so exhausted that more than once in the middle of a conversation with Jonathan, she'd fallen asleep standing up.
While Jennifer changed the sheets, Jonathan stood watching her with Baby Andrew, Aubrey was having a blast playing with her dollhouse, she'd never been up this late, Usually she was in bed around 8pm, with the sun just coming down but now according to the clock it was flashing 2:10 am and very dark outside.
"Alright Baby, let's get you out of those wet jammies" Jennifer adjusted her patience after taking a deep calming breath.
"No Mama! I playing" She was indignant; she was going to stay up as long as possible.
"Aubrey Rose, those jammies are wet and they need to come off!" Jennifer said tersely, still trying to retain some patience with her.
"Darling, why don't you take him and I'll get her into her jammies," He said handing her the baby, who was pulling up his legs in a wail
She tried rubbing his belly, knowing sometimes that calmed him down but more often than not it was the bathroom fan that soothed him.
She kissed her baby, gave up her daily thanks that he was well and home, and tiptoed into the nursery because Lucas was fast asleep. He usually slept through anything and it seemed that lately he was going through a "Daddy's boy" phase, he would scream when she would get into his eye line so she'd given up trying to breastfeed him, after a few days of him refusing to nurse she switched him to formula and gave Jonathan the duty of feeding him..
It only added to her guilt that she felt he knew on some level that she had spent more time with Andrew in the Neonatal Unit, maybe thinking she'd preferred his brother to him.
She put Andy in the crib and went back to the master bedroom, where she collapsed onto Jonathan's side,
"I got her washed and into new jammies," Jonathan said from the bathroom
"That's nice," she muttered into the pillow, already asleep
"I guess Dad won't be getting any loving tonight," Jonathan chuckled
Sex was the last thing on her mind, there were days if she was lucky to get the spit-up out of her hair, gone were the days of expensive clothes and making love twice a day, now she was lucky if her clothes were changed by dinnertime.
Although Max and Pearl were amazing, they were establishing a relationship, so much so Max had pretty much moved to the guest house plus it was the only time he got to sleep with hearing the boys and Aubrey screaming. It was nice that someone in this house was getting some rest.
She'd barely been asleep when Lucas started to cry.
"No please please go back to sleep," She whined into the pillow
"Do you want me to go?" Jonathan offered
"Why not? You're his obvious favorite," she said with her eyes closed
"Come on, Darling you know that's not true."
"Just go before he wakes up Andy…"but it was useless to say because then Lucas started wailing
"We may never sleep again." She got off the bed and walked into the nursery
"Ooh baby please go to sleep," She begged him while changing his diaper, sat with him in the rocking chair hoping the movement would settle him down but he wailed even more and hit a high note, waking up his brother
"Oh No… Jonathan!" She called but no answer
This was an impossible situation, one she'd never imagined with the two babies, she put Lucas in his swinging chair, which he hated and picked up Andrew who had large tears on his chubby cheeks, she felt so helpless, where did everyone go?
Jennifer stood in the middle of the nursery for a minute while the boys cried, and decided that she could either burst in to tears too or she could try and recapture some of her go getting, no nonsense attitude that the pregnancy hormones and lack of sleep had been keeping at bay. She decided it was time to take back control – she was the Mommy after all!
Fortunately she was wearing a front opening night shirt so she unfastened the buttons, lifted both boys and sat in the rocking chair with one in each arm. It took a bit of maneuvering but within a few minutes of gentle perseverance they were both latched on and feeding, their bodies were close together and their hands and feet were touching which seemed to help calm them and within 20 minutes they were both asleep again. It was the first time Jennifer had attempted to feed them both together and she had no idea how much milk they'd managed to get but since they'd fallen asleep she'd have to see how long it would be before they woke up again. It had been easier than she thought, although that was because they were both still small. If it was going to become a regular thing then she'd need to research some kind of cushion to support their bodies. She was surprised that Andrew had done so well; it had certainly felt like his sucking reflex was just as strong as Lucas'!
She laid the sleeping boys back in their crib then fastened her nightshirt again as she walked out of the Nursery and in to Aubrey's room. The night light was on casting a soft glow and the sleeping Aubrey was looking angelic. Jennifer stood looking down on her and decided she probably needed a bit of one to one time with her, the problem was how to manage that with the boys, she'd need to give it some serious thought though, she couldn't let Aubrey's behavior get any worse. She felt guilty for her earlier annoyance, after all Aubrey was a two year old whose whole world had been turned upside down; she was bound to be confused. She needed boundaries and she needed her Mama and Daddy to be consistent so they were going to have to make a greater effort – no matter how tired they were. She hadn't expected parenthood to be easy, but she hadn't reckoned for how tiring it would be. They were going to have to get a routine established…. And fast!
Jonathan was snoring softly when Jennifer went back to bed and he never moved when she climbed in next to him. Sinking back in to her pillows she sighed and within minutes was sound asleep too.
Amazingly the boys slept for 5 hours and Jennifer felt a lot more refreshed when she got up with them. When she'd fed them again and they'd all had their breakfast she left the sleeping babies with Max and Pearl and took Aubrey upstairs for a bubble bath with her. They played with bath toys and Jennifer listened as Aubrey chatted, amazed at how much her vocabulary had increased recently. She hadn't really noticed and she felt guilty that she'd pretty much left the care of her daughter to the rest of the family while she concentrated on the twins.
"How would you like to go shopping with Mama?" Jennifer asked as she gently soaped Aubrey's back. "I think you could be doing with some new clothes, you're getting so big! Then we can go for lunch."
"To Mickey Dees!" Aubrey laughed
"Who took you to Mickey D's baby?"
"Daddy!" They said in unison and Aubrey laughed again.
"Well Daddy can look after your brothers while we go shopping."
"Mickey Dees!" Aubrey sang out
"We'll see!" Jennifer wasn't committing to anything.
Since Jonathan had a longer sleep Jennifer didn't feel guilty about leaving him with babysitting duties, and since the boys would take formula from a bottle he could feed them if they woke up hungry. When she and Aubrey got out of the bath they got dressed and then went looking for Jonathan who was catching up on emails.
"Aubrey and I are going out for some Mother Daughter time Darling. A couple of hours of shopping…"
"And Mickey Dees, Daddy!" Aubrey shouted and Jonathan tried to look innocent but failed.
"Mama and Daddy will talk about that later." Jennifer said with a smile which Jonathan recognized as meaning he was in trouble!
20 minutes later they were off out leaving Jonathan, Max and Pearl with Lucas and Andrew, in their bassinettes in the living room, to avoid having to carry the baskets up and down the stairs, they'd just bought two of everything and keep everything they need on each floor.
"We're In trouble," Max said he'd only been around babies briefly and seeing how they were on different schedules he knew that one would cry while the other slept and vice versa
"Come on Maxxy, Cake Walk" Pearl said having been a mother herself she knew the basic elements were keeping them calm, quiet and dry…
Just then the doorbell rang, waking up both babies, "Remind me to put a note on the door,"
"Mr. Hart?" A delivery man handed Jonathan a box, he quickly signed for the box and the delivery man left
"Must be a baby present," Pearl remarked walking around the couch with Lucas
Jonathan took the box and his keys out of his pocket, over to the coffee table and opened it to find a rag doll with red hair and a knife stuck in it's hard, "What the hell" a note was taped to the doll's forehead, " I know what you did, it makes me sick, give me back my baby"
"It's gotta be a joke," Max said picking up Andy, who was wailing so hard his little face was red
Jonathan was studying the doll and didn't even hear Max; something was on the Horizon between this and the incident at Mickey D's but what?
One thing he knew for sure, Jennifer wouldn't know about either, because she was already a basket case and this would just push her over the edge
"Charlie?" Pearl touched his shoulder; he jumped a mile and dropped the doll
"Pearlie, watch the boys for awhile, I gotta go to the office," He picked up the box and went to the car without waiting for a response.
"What the hell's going on," Pearl demanded while Lucas quieted down in her arms
"Believe me, Doll if I knew I'd tell you" Max said while Andy wailed, "I know let's try the swing"
"He hates that,"
"Got any better ideas?" Max was growing frustrated and deaf at the same time
"Well babies respond to music so let's try some music," Pearl laid Lucas down in his bassinette
"Somehow I don't think there a fan of the Andrews sisters," Max said handing Andrew to Pearl, who seemed to have the magic touch and he calmed down instantly," How'd you do that"
"Simple, Babies sense fear, when you tense up so do they," Pearl sat on the couch with Andrew in her arms
"I'm glad I've only got the one kid and he came walkin, talking and able to take care of his own needs," Max went into the kitchen
Jennifer had taken Aubrey to an indoor playground after shopping for a few new items where she could burn off some energy with bouncy houses, Ball pits and Slides, a kid's dream but first she wanted to get something healthy into her child since apparently her Daddy was content on giving her junk food
She took Aubrey to an organic restaurant where they specialized in kid foods but without processed sugars and chemicals except her child seen the ways of Mickey D's and refused to budge
"Baby you love Macaroni and Cheese, it's just like the kind Max makes at home," Jennifer tried putting a fork full to her lips but Aubrey wouldn't have
"No Mama, yucky!" Aubrey wasn't stupid, this looked nothing like Poppa's plus this one had chopped spinach and carrots inside it
"Please Baby you have to eat," Jennifer wasn't above begging especially when it came to Aubrey's health
"It looks like Barf!" Aubrey yelled
Jennifer tried not to laugh but couldn't help it, "Alright that's it, let's go," She picked up her daughter, tossed down a twenty and left, She could always try again later...
After the lunch from hell and some time at the bounce house, Aubrey was tired and due for her nap, slowly becoming whiney and Jennifer decided to take her home but when she pulled into the driveway, she noticed the extra security
"Oh my god, the boys!" Jennifer panicked as she stopped the car, quickly jumped out, released her daughter from the car seat and ran into the house
"Hello? Max? Pearl?" She called frantically
"We're up here," Pearl called quickly from the babies' room
"What's going on?" She ran up the stairs two at a time, which with a two year old at your feet is never easy and ran into the boys' room, taking a sigh of relief when she saw Andrew in his crib
"We don't know, these guys just showed up and started searching the house and gardens," Max said from the chair holding Lucas
"Oh my babies, I was so worried," She said picking up Andrew and cuddling with him, but not before noticing a key member of their family was missing
"Where's Jonathan?"