A few days later…
Charlotte rolled over in bed as the violently loud sound of her alarm clock woke her from a peaceful slumber. She rubbed her eyes as she climbed out of bed, and slowly made her way into the bathroom. She laughed when she walked in and heard Cooper singing Don't Stop Believing at the top of his lungs. She walked over to the shower, opened the door, and poked her head inside.
"Mind if I join you?" She asked him.
"Join me in singing, or in the shower?"
"In the shower," she said as she undressed.
"What kind of idiot would I be if I turned down a hot shower with my wife?"
She chuckled, then started to make her way into the shower.
"I'm only gettin' in if you promise to stop singing."
"Hey, I'm not that bad," he laughed as he pulled her in with him.
"I hate to break it to ya, Coop, but you're terrible." She smiled and pressed a kiss onto his lips. "But it doesn't make me love you any less."
Charlotte turned around in Cooper's arms and reached for her sponge and the soap. As Charlotte was washing up, Cooper's hand roamed the front of her stomach and began to wander lower and lower. He obviously wanted to do more than just shower.
When Charlotte felt his hand slip in-between her thighs, she quickly grabbed it and pushed it away.
"Not now Coop, I don't have time."
"Come on, Char," he moaned. "You can't leave me hanging."
"Sorry, honey," she turned back around and gave him a kiss. "How about I make it up to you tonight?"
Cooper grinned and kissed her back. "Sounds like a plan."
Not long after finishing their shower, Charlotte was standing at the sink, blow drying her hair when Cooper walked in to brush his teeth.
"I got the girls up and fed them breakfast. They're in their bedroom waiting for you to get them dressed."
"Alright. Are they cranky?"
"Ella was a little bit fussy, but Eden and Emmy were in a surprisingly good mood."
"Good. I was thinkin' we could tell them about the baby tonight. Everyone else already knows, so I guess we should go ahead and tell the girls. Plus, I don't think I can hide this bump much longer."
Cooper spit his mouthwash out and rinsed his mouth. "Yea, I think today would be a great day to tell them."
"Should we spoil them a little bit first? Maybe take them to the toy store, or take them out for dinner and a movie?" She asked, sounding a bit frantic. "I just want to make sure they know we're not gonna love them any less, and that this baby isn't gonna replace them."
"Charlotte, you're making this a lot harder than it has to be." Cooper said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I know," she sighed. "I don't know why I'm so nervous about telling them. I guess I just want them to be my babies forever."
Cooper leaned in and kissed his wife's cheek. "They will always be your babies, sweetie."
Charlotte sighed and gave him a small smile in return.
Cooper walked out of the bathroom to get dressed, and he shut the bathroom behind him as Charlotte continued to get ready.
Cooper was standing in the closet, trying to decide on which shirt to wear when he heard a tiny voice call out for him.
"Daddy! Daddy! Look!" Emmy yelled, running into her parent's bedroom.
"Give me one second, sweetheart." Cooper called back as he buttoned up his shirt.
Emmy climbed up on the bed and waited for her dad to come out.
When Cooper walked out of the closet, Emmy stood up on the bed and threw her arms up in the air. Cooper put his hand over his mouth and tried his absolute hardest not to burst into laughter.
"Look at me, Daddy!" She exclaimed. "I gotted dressed all by myself!"
Emmy stood on the bed wearing a green sweater with butterflies on it, a pink tutu, red polka dotted leggings, and her favorite purple cowgirl boots.
"I'm a big girl," she grinned.
"You sure are," he chuckled.
Cooper quickly grabbed his phone so he could get a picture.
"Do you like it Daddy?"
"I absolutely love it, princess. You look so pretty." Cooper walked closer to the bed and held up his phone. "Say cheese."
Emmy put her hands on her hips and smiled as big as she could.
"Okay, now you need to sit down before your momma sees you standing on the bed with your shoes on, little missy." He whispered to her.
Cooper grabbed Emmy's feet and playfully pulled them from under her. She let out a loud giggle as she fell back onto the bed.
He couldn't let her go to daycare wearing that outfit, but he just didn't want to break her little heart.
"Stay right here, Em. I'm gonna go get momma, so she can see how pretty you look."
Cooper opened the door to their bathroom and poked his head inside.
"Come out here for a sec," he told his wife as she stood at the sink curling her hair. "You have to see this."
Charlotte set down her curling iron and walked out of the bathroom. When she saw her daughter sitting on the bed, she bit her bottom lip, trying to hold back the laughter.
"Look at you, baby girl."
"I picked it out all by myself, Mama!" She said proudly.
"You did? I never would've guessed." Charlotte joked, then turned to face Cooper. "Please tell me you got a picture of this."
"Of course I did." He replied.
"There's no way we're letting her leave the house like that." Charlotte told him quietly.
"I know, I just didn't have the heart to tell her."
"Oh, so that's why you came and got me?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "You want me to be the bad guy and tell her she has to change?"
"Yea, I just couldn't do it," he said, looking over at the miniature Charlotte. "But honestly, I don't think either one of us is going to be able to get her out of that. She's so proud of herself."
"Ten bucks says I can convince her to change," Charlotte boasted.
"Oh, I highly doubt that. This is Charlotte Jr. we're talking about. She's more stubborn than you are. There's no way you're gonna change her mind." Cooper chuckled.
"Watch me."
Charlotte walked over to the bed and sat down next to her daughter.
"I really love your outfit Em, but maybe you should wear something else. Let's save this outfit for another day."
"No, I wanna wear this! Daddy said I look pretty." She smiled, grabbing her tutu and bunching it up in her hands.
"And Daddy was absolutely right. You do look very pretty," she smiled back at Emmy. "But how about we take this off, and you can put it back on when we get home."
"But I don't wanna take it off," she pouted.
Charlotte sighed. This was going to be harder than she thought.
"You want to hear a story?" She asked Emmy.
Emmy nodded, and Charlotte pulled her onto her lap.
"When I was a few years older than you, I had dress, and it was my favorite dress in the whole wide world. It was white, and it had pretty pink flowers all over it. I wore it on my very first day of first grade."
Cooper leaned against the wall as he listened to wife, and wondered where she was going with this.
"There was a girl in my class named Stacey," she continued, "and she was jealous of my dress."
"What does that mean?" Emmy asked, looking up at Charlotte.
"Jealous is when you get upset because someone else has something that you really want."
"She wanted your dress?"
"Yup," Charlotte nodded. "So, at lunch that day, Stacey spilled her fruit punch all over my dress, and it wasn't an accident. She did it on purpose."
"She did?" Emmy asked with big eyes. "Did you cry, Mama?"
"I sure did." Charlotte answered. "When I got home, my momma washed it, but the stain didn't come out. Stacey ruined my favorite dress, and I never got to wear it again. So maybe you should wear a different outfit, because someone might get jealous, and we don't want anyone to ruin your favorite outfit, right?"
"Right," Emmy replied.
Charlotte kissed her cheek and set her down on the floor. "Go take all that off and you can put it back on when we get home."
Emmy headed for the door, then stopped and turned back around.
"Should I hide it in a super secret place so no one can spill juice on it?" She asked her mother.
"Yeah," Charlotte laughed. "That's a great idea, Em."
"Okay!" She exclaimed and ran to her room.
Charlotte got up and walked back into the bathroom to finish curling her hair.
"You honestly think the other daycare kids would have been jealous?" Cooper laughed, following behind her.
"No, but that's not the point" she chuckled. "The point is that I convinced her to change, and I believe you owe me ten bucks, mister."
"You know, pretty soon it won't be tutu's and polka dot tights. We'll be trying to get them to change out of mini skirts and low-cut tops."
"That's a pretty scary thought. Gosh," Charlotte sighed. "I don't want them to grow up."
"Yeah, me neither, Char."
Later that night, after giving the triplets their bath and getting them into their pajama's, the girls all gathered in their parent's bed so Charlotte and Cooper could tell them the news.
Charlotte had taken off work early so that she and Cooper could spend the rest of the day with the girls. They took them to Toy's R Us and let them each pick out their own toy, then they went out for ice cream. Cooper argued against the idea of spoiling them, but Charlotte wanted to make sure the girls were in a good mood when they told them about the baby. It had obviously worked because they were as happy ever and had been smiling all day.
"Are we sleeping wif you tonight, Mama?" Ella asked as she crawled up next to Charlotte.
"No, you're gonna sleep in your own beds, but first Daddy and I have to tell you something."
Charlotte grabbed the end of her loose t-shirt and lifted it until her entire baby bump was showing.
"You see this bump on Mama's tummy?" She asked them, and they nodded.
Eden imitated her mother and pulled her shirt up too. "It's like when we eat too much and our belly's get real full," she said, patting her stomach.
Cooper laughed and pulled Eden's shirt back down. "Not quite, sweetie. This is a little different."
"My belly is big, because there's a baby in there."
"There's a baby in there?" Ella asked, putting her hand on Charlotte's stomach.
"Like my baby doll?" Emmy added.
"It's kind of like your baby doll." Charlotte told her. "Only this baby is real."
"Does Daddy have a baby in his belly too?" Eden asked, feeling Cooper's stomach.
"No, only Mommy's can have babies," he answered.
Ella still had her hand placed on Charlotte's stomach and looked at it with curiosity. "Why is there a baby in there?" She asked.
She really wasn't sure how to answer that question, but she gave it her best shot.
"Well," she started slowly. "The baby has to stay in there so it can grow. When it gets big enough, we'll go to the hospital and Aunt Addie will take the it out, and we'll bring it home. Then you guys will be big sisters."
"Big sisters?" Eden asked, not exactly sure what that meant.
"Yeah. Big sister's are like special helpers." Cooper told them. "You get to help Momma and I out with the baby."
"How?" Emmy asked curiously.
"You can help us pick out new toys for the baby, and help us decorate the baby's room." He explained. "Does that sound like fun?"
"Yeah!" The girls replied in unison.
"And after the baby is born, you can help us feed it when it's hungry, or sing to it when it cries." Charlotte added.
"We can sing the song that you and Daddy sing to us when we're sad. I like that song," Ella smiled.
"Yeah, I'm sure the baby would love that." Charlotte said, smiling back at her. "Do you remember how it goes?"
Ella nodded and started to sing. "I was standin' all alone against the world outside."
She stopped and couldn't remember what came next, so Charlotte helped her out.
"You were searchin' for a place to hide." She sang, covering her face, like they always did at that part of the song. "Lost and lonely, now you've given me the will to survive." She continued as Cooper, Eden, and Emmy started to chime in, and they all sang the last part together.
"When we're hungry, love will keep us alive."
Hope you liked this!
I'm thinking of either skipping of few years and continuing, or making the next chapter the last one. I haven't decided yet. Let me know what you think I should do.
Please review if you want more! Thanks :)