The morning of Katie's appointment, Kendall knew something was up. Katie had a pretty laid back schedule, often times going in as late as 2 in the afternoon if she felt like it. It was one of the perks of being your own boss. Still, Katie had a pretty set routine for the most part, especially when caring for her dogs. Her schedule was just a bit off and she spent the morning doing some last minute paperwork and filing before Kendall finally asked what was up.
"What's going on today?"
"I'm not going into work today, I don't think."
"You don't feel well?"
"No I feel fine, I just figured I'd spend the day with you. Plus I have a surprise."
"You do?"
"Yep! In fact, it's just about time anyway so come on."
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see!" she said as she hustled down the stairs.
Kendall followed and jumped in the car after her. She drove them to the hospital, Kendall questioning her the entire time. He had been blindfolded so he couldn't guess by his surroundings. She helped him out of the car and through the hospital and to the doctors office where she took off the blindfold. Kendall was met with several diagrams of babies and other baby themed material. He knew right away and turned to her with a big grin.
"Really?!"
"Yes!" she squealed back.
Kendall picked her up and spun her around, excited at the thought of having another kid. He couldn't wait for the appointment and took charge of everything for her. The secretary was amused at Kendall's excitement and a nurse brought them in right away. After a few quick checks of Katie's vitals it was time for the moment of truth. Kendall wanted to know everything and Katie agreed, they wanted to be better prepared for any surprises this time around. The nurse prepared Katie's small baby bump with ice cold jelly and then the process began. It was a hard start trying to find an image at first but soon the image popped up on the monitor. The nurse checked over the growth patterns to herself, documenting what she saw before turning it over to the anxious parents.
Kendall was holding Katie's hand tight, a big smile on his face. He was a proud papa already, even more so with all the added excitement. When the nurse showed the screen, Kendall cocked his head to the side in confusion trying to understand exactly what he was looking at. This was his first sonogram and he expected things to be more clearer and defined. The nurse chuckled at Kendall's expression, noting that it's a common occurrence among not only fathers but many first time parents. Katie had seen sonograms before during her veterinary courses but also during her last pregnancy. All her sonograms had unfortunately been scheduled when Kendall was away on tour or other business so he had never seen one before. The nurse was calm and patient though as she pointed out what Kendall should look at.
"Right here is the baby's heartbeat; and this is the little tail of the spine." she said calmly, drawing on the screen. Kendall wanted to be sure and he pointed back on the screen to make sure. She smiled at Kendall he was nearly jumping for joy as he stared at the screen, touching it and outlining the fetus with his finger. "Did you want to know the sex?" the nurse asked. Kendall turned to Katie to make sure she agreed and she nodded.
"Yes." Kendall said happily. The nurse smiled and looked at the screen.
"Alright. Let me just look around a bit more and finish the exam then the doctor will come in to talk with you and check everything over, ok?" she smiled. She continued going over Katie's belly checking things out closely and writing things in her notebook profusely. She took a quick break and looked at Katie's chart. "Oh! I see you're last pregnancy was twins; do twins run in your family?"
"On mine they do. Both my mom and dad had family with lots of twins or almost twins. I was the only child my mom had, but she said she had a few sets of twins and a set of triplets that didn't make it full term."
"I don't know about mine, never really looked that deeply into my family tree." Kendall said.
"That's alright. Genetics arent the only influences of twins. Your endocrine disorder could play a part; even though you've been cured of it, it still might have done a number on your system. It isn't a bad thing though, since you're cured, you arent in any more danger, your body functions just as it should! That's enough from me now though; let me finish my charts and the doctor will be in to see you shortly." she said as she gathered her things. She put away the machine and cleaned up all the jelly then turned on the lights before leaving the couple to stew for a bit. Katie repositioned herself in the chair to be a bit more comfortable after laying down and getting her stomach pressed with cold liquid. Kendall comforted her as they waited for the doctor to arrive. After about 10 minutes of talking, the doctor knocked on the door and slowly came inside.
"Ah, Hello there! You must be Mr. Knight! It's a pleasure to finally meet you sir." The doctor replied with a cheery grin.
"Hello, Doctor." Kendall replied.
"My name is Thomas Dean; you can call me Tom. My wife is good friends with your wife's father. Katie is in good hands, don't you worry." He said, pulling Kendall into a half hug.
"You can keep all this a secret right? I mean I don't want word getting out, that we're expecting another child, not yet anyway. Plus, as you know with our celebrity status, things can get crazy quickly if we arent careful."
"Yes, yes, I'm well aware. Katie did her research before coming out to me. My wife told me of the circumstances and I'm more than happy to oblige, it's part of my job anyway! Now on to business, shall we? I've got a busy schedule ahead of me today, so unfortunately no time to chat. I hope you'll be joining in on appointments more often, Mr. Knight."
"My name is Kendall. And I hope I can, I finished my show for the year and tour plans are still up in the air."
"Such is the life of the Hollywood star it seems…what a life indeed! I understand you want to know the sex of your child correct?"
"Yes." both replied together.
"Great. I have the notes here from the nurse but…hmm… seems like the pictures are missing…let me go grab them from the print-" the doctor said before being interrupted.
"Sorry to interrupt, the pictures just came out." said a nurse who just poked in.
"Ah! Thank you, Alice." the doctor replied, taking them from her. The nurse left, closing the door behind her and the doctor looked carefully at the pictures. "Hmm….now I see…"
"Something wrong, Tom?" Kendall questioned.
"Not at all, Kendall. I was just a bit confused at some notes here but looking over the pictures, everything makes sense. Twins seem to run in your family, does it, Katie?"
"Yes."
"You had the twin girls in December of 2018..." Tom said, trailing off with his thoughts. "Let me pull up the video of your sonogram so you can see a better picture." he continued as he worked the monitor. He pushed it around to face the couple then wheeled himself around to point at the monitor. "Right here is the heartbeat, this line here is the spine, and right over here is the key to finding out the sex. The trick is, with boys, there is often a little tiny protrusion where the penis sits and on females, naturally there isn't a protrusion. As you can see over here, there is no protrusion, which means, your having another girl."
He was met with silence as the couple couldn't find the words. They were happy about having another child but a little down that it was another girl. They expressed their happiness non the less as they held each other for a while, Katie in tears of joy. Boy or girl, it'd be loved unconditionally.
"I have a little bit more news though. Looking around, things seem to be a bit different and when I looked it over again, I can see another spine. There might be another baby behind the girl but I cant be certain. In a couple weeks, when you come back, we'll take another look and hope that they move around a bit to really see everything, alright?" Tom said. As he got up and gathered the file. He left the couple to themselves and whenever they were ready, they were free to leave. They talked the entire way home, happy as a clam although Katie did express her concerns about not having a boy.
"I really wanted a boy to pass on the family name though…"
"I know, sweetheart, I'm sorry. I know the father determines the sex of the baby, so maybe there's something I can do to prepare myself if we decide to have another."
"3 is a good number though. Besides, with both of us working full time in Hollywood, my parents working full time, 2 toddlers and my business, we need to be sure we can devote time to our kids."
"You're right. But at the same time, we wont be working in Hollywood forever, no matter how much we might want to. Once we retire from the star life we can try for more. Our 3 girls will be older and be able to take care of themselves."
"Or they might be out of the house. Who knows how long we'd be in Hollywood. I'm not ready to give up that life just yet!"
"My girls arent going anywhere! They arent allowed to date or even be around boys until they are 30! No, 40!"
"Easy there, no need to worry about dating just yet, they are only 2 you know!" she chuckled.
"Still, I want to make sure they are always safe; that they can depend on me for anything."
"Don't worry, they will. You've been a great dad this far into it, and it wont be any different with this one." she assured. Kendall was satisfied and settled down. They soon returned home and naturally Katie's parents were all over them. Katie played it off that the doctor wasn't quite sure yet, the development is slower in this pregnancy but that he thought it might be a girl. Katie would return in a few weeks for another check up that would determine the sex.
The weeks passed quickly and her next appointment finally rolled around. Kendall drove Katie to the hospital and followed her to the office, helping her along the way. Katie was about4 months pregnant now and had started to show a bit now. The lobby was busy and they had access to a back door to get to the office unnoticed and took advantage of it. Katie opened the door and arrived in the back of Tom's office where his wife Geraldine was helping out. She was ecstatic to see Katie and even more excited to hear about her pregnancy as she congratulated her.
Geraldine got Katie set in one of the unoccupied rooms and told the secretary up front. A nurse came by soon and got Katie situated and started the exam once more. It was quick and although dark, the light of the screen lit up the nurse's face enough to gauge a bit of reaction. She took notes and when she was finished she left, telling them the doctor would be in soon. Tom came in a few minutes later with a huge grin on his face.
"Well now, it seems we finally have a clear shot of everything. As I thought, you are having another girl!" He started. He was met with pleased faces and Kendall hugged Katie. "Look as though you might be busy for a while…"
"I know, 2 toddlers at home and another child on the way. I'm going to have to sort out another schedule." Kendall said.
"Not only that, it's a good thing you can afford it because you're expecting triplets."
"TRIPLETS?!" they asked together stunned beyond belief. They looked at each other and then to the doctor for clarification.
"You're having 1 girl and 2 boys by the looks of things. I assume this might be it on the kids for a while, eh?" he said with a light laugh
"We're having a boy!" Katie said ecstatic.
"2 of them." the doctor corrected
"Are they twins, Tom?" Kendall asked
"Hmm…I'm not certain. They were hiding behind each other and things are hard to see, I could perform some tests and find out but I usually don't recommend it." he said
"That's ok, we can wait." Katie said, not wanting to go through any tests she didn't have to.
"Have any names picked out?"
"I had one boy name I loved for the longest time, we need to pick out names for the other two. There is so much to do still!"
"Well, you still have plenty of time for planning. I might suggest bed rest in your 7th or 8th month depending on how big you get. Triplets can take up a lot of space pretty quickly. Don't worry though, you'll be closely monitored and everything. Congratulations to both of you and good luck! I have to meet a patient at the hospital so I'll be on my way." Tom said as he excused himself.
Kendall and Katie stayed quiet for the longest time just holding each other in excitement as they stared at the sonogram printout they were given. This was going to be a big step and so many thoughts were racing through both of their minds. Kendall was still very active in LA and things were showing no signs of stopping just yet. He didn't want to leave Katie home alone with 5 kids, there was no way she could handle that. Although she hadn't had any issues with her help since the end of her treatment a few years ago, Kendall still worried about her health, especially as she pushed her self at work. Katie was stilled concerned about her health of course but she had gotten used to living that way for so long and even now that she was all fixed up, she still took it easy to prevent any down time.
Kendall thought about how life would change for both of them. He had 2 beautiful twin girls and soon he'd have triplets. He had wanted a small size family, about 2 or 3 kids and now in such a short time he had 5 kids! He wanted to be there for his kids, but he also wanted to be able to provide for them and the longer he worked in the industry, the richer he became; in fact he was earning money just standing in the doctors office right now.
A few months later, Katie's small bump had really begun to show and her energy level had fallen slightly. She got winded doing some of the basic tasks and soon had to take a break between work days. She rearranged her schedule to continue teaching for as long as possible. Her students were more than happy to help out when they could and didn't mind when she had to sit out during practicals.
Around 7 months, her work time was cut in half. Kendall was currently on a short tour around the states and would be back in a few weeks, more than enough time before the estimated due date. Katie was getting pretty big, bigger than last time even and she found it difficult to do some basic tasks. luckily her dogs were trained pretty well and helped out much like service dogs do for disabled people. She had enough trouble keeping up with the twins. With her trusted canine pals at her side, she was able to keep up enough during times when the nanny nor her parents were available.
Melinda, the current nanny, would be moving soon sine her husband had received a new job offer in Oklahoma. Katie would need to search for a new nanny and Melinda had several suggestions from the company she worked for. Melinda had worked for Katie since the twins were born and was very trustworthy and friendly. It would still be difficult to adjust to a new a nanny. Melinda was able to stay for another few months while her husband finalized his new job and settled in first during training. this gave Katie some extra time as Melinda would be available for 24 hour care while Katie gave birth to the triplets and recovered.