A/N As I said, you will find out my beta reader's name at the end of the first section, don't worry, I check before using it. As for the musical theatre reference, the last names of the prospective nannies, are last names from My Fair Lady. Enjoy.
Chapter 75
Monday 1 June, 10:45 PM
Penny had been struggling all morning to get her work done. She was supposed to be working on her forecast, but while she tried, most of her brain was thinking about who she should choose for their nanny, Louise or Thalia? Thalia was younger and seem to have more energy, but Louise had more experience and most importantly, had experience with twins. But, the worry about Louise's looks kept creeping in. She kept turning their resumes and their answers over in her mind.
She had also gotten interrupted by calls from her salespeople with questions about the reduction in prices based on how much each office bought. This was something new she had initiated and there were questions. Between the nanny decision, the forecast, and the questions from her salespeople, she wasn't getting anything done.
She had finally gotten the sales questions straightened out and then worked on getting the forecast done. She was having a problem with one of her major buyers. They had sent in two sets of numbers and now she couldn't get an answer from that company.
She called Dan and explained they had given her one set, which predicted much better sales. However, the other set looked lower and in her experience looked much more realistic. Dan told her to go with the lower numbers because her experience was worth more in making the decision.
Penny thanked Dan, then started working in earnest, on the forecast. She finished it at 11:45, saved and upload the files, and then answered a call, finally, from the major buyer. Penny held her breath until she was told the lower estimate, which she had thought more realistic, was the correct file. She smiled and thanked them.
Finally, Penny called the nanny agency. She waited for a few seconds to connect to the agent she had been working with. After exchanging pleasantries, they asked, "Have you made a decision?"
"Yes, we have," said Penny. "Can you set up a meeting for Wednesday afternoon, with Louise Pickering?"
Monday 1 June, 1:05 PM
Penny and Leonard were in the waiting room. Penny had had her tests and blood draws expecting to hear bad news from Dr. Samuels, as they had taken her blood pressure four times again. She was somewhat worried as having high blood pressure wasn't a good thing, but she was more worried about Dr. Samuels being upset with her.
Doctor Samuels came out and called them in, Penny thought she looked serious. After they sat down, Dr. Samuels didn't even shuffle her papers as she usually did. But, looked at Leonard.
"Have you been keeping her resting?" asked doctor Samuels.
"Yes, yes I have," said Leonard, somewhat surprised. "I took your comments seriously."
"Okay, good," said Dr. Samuels. Turning back to Penny she said, "Penny, we are increasing the Labetalol. You're currently taking two 50 mg tablets twice a day. I want you to increase the dosage to three tablets, twice a day, understand?"
"Yes, I do," said Penny.
"I want you to know that 150 mg, twice a day is the maximum," said Dr. Samuels.
"What was my blood pressure today?"
"It went up and was 145 over 95. We can't let it get any higher," said Dr. Samuels. "If it doesn't come down, or even worse, goes up next week, I'll be putting you on modified bed rest. We have to get that under control."
Both Penny and Leonard looked unhappy, but they didn't know what to say.
"I have to say that I don't understand why it isn't coming down," said Dr. Samuels. "But, we are near the end of your pregnancy, so we have the option of modified bed-rest. I really don't want to do that but, we can't let your blood pressure get any higher. Now, before we get to the ultrasound, is there anything you're having problems with?"
Penny sighed, "I'm still sweating and I'm still short of breath."
Dr. Samuels shrugged, "There isn't really anything we can do about the first. You could get some relief from the second in the next couple of weeks if both babies move into the head-down position. That will give your lungs a bit of space and you'll be able to breathe easier. Anything else?"
"Not that I can think of," said Penny.
"Okay, well, let's get to the ultrasound," said Dr. Samuels.
All three of them walked over to the table and Penny got up on it, needing Leonard's help for the first time. She pulled down the top of her pants and pulled up on her blouse. Dr. Samuels put the lubricant on the wand, but before turning on the machine said, "Your ankles and feet looked swelled."
Penny looked down, "Yeah, I forgot about that. They've been swelling a bit for the last couple of weeks."
"Are you having any shooting pains down your legs?"
Penny shook her head, "No, nothing like that."
Dr. Samuels said, "It's possible, due to the swelling. So try to stay off of your feet. Standing or walking could make it worse."
Dr. Samuels turned on the machine and started moving the wand over Penny's belly. She stopped a couple of times to make changes to the dials, before starting up again. Finally, she stopped and turned off the machine, and passed some paper towels, and wipes to Penny, to clean off. Dr. Samuels left, as usual, while Penny wiped off her stomach, then she and Leonard went back to their seats.
After a few minutes, Dr. Samuels came back, holding a bunch of papers. She sat down, looked at some of them, and said, "I got a couple of cute pictures today. Both are sucking their thumbs and both have their eyes open." Dr. Samuels passed over the images and both Penny and Leonard ooohed over them.
Dr. Samuels smiled and said, "Based on my calculations, baby A is 17 and a half inches long and weighs 60 ounces or three pounds, 12 ounces. Baby B is 16 and a half inches long and weighs 54 ounces or three pounds, six ounces. Some nice weight gains, but nothing in the length, which is normal at this point. Do you have any questions?"
Penny and Leonard shook their heads no.
"Then I have a couple of things before we finish today," said Dr. Samuels. "You should make sure you have your bag ready, from here on out. I'm not saying they'll come this week, but you need to be prepared because we don't know when they will decide it's time."
"Also, this is your last week for sex," said Dr. Samuels. "I mean vaginal penetration type sex."
"So, we would be fine with oral?" asked Penny.
Penny smiled inwardly, thinking Dr. Samuels looked slightly embarrassed, but she said, "That would be fine, as would manual stimulation, as long as there is no penetration. We don't want too vigorous stimulation which could lead to penetration, as that could cause problems. Now, if there isn't anything…wait, you did sign up for the breastfeeding class tomorrow, didn't you?"
"Yes, we did, at 7:30 in the same room as our birthing class," said Leonard.
"Good, I'll see you there tomorrow night," said Dr. Samuels.
"Wait, you're teaching the class?" asked Penny.
Dr. Samuels chuckled, "I wasn't planning on it, but our lactation specialist gave birth this weekend, six weeks early."
"Is her baby okay?" asked Penny with concern.
"Oh yes, the baby is fine, and she is fine," said Dr. Samuels. "It only spent one night in the neo-ICU, and that was just for a precaution. But, she gets three months off so I'm filling in. Other doctors will take her classes until she returns."
"Well, then, I guess we'll see you tomorrow night," said Penny.
"We'll see you then…oh, wait, here are the images with the babies' eyes open, see you tomorrow night."
Leonard and Penny stood and left the office. They both went to the window to make Penny's next appointment, with Leonard leaving to go back to work and Penny going home.
Tuesday 2 June, 7:30 PM
Penny looked around the room, there were three other couples there, with Dr. Samuels sitting at the front of the room. She got up and asked everyone to introduce themselves. The other couples were interested when Penny mentioned she was having twins.
After the introductions, Dr. Samuels began, "Well, now that we know one another, I'd like to go over what we will be doing over the next four weeks. Tonight, I'll go over what we'll be doing in each class, and then we'll talk about places to get support for your breastfeeding. We'll go over some common misconceptions and correct those misconceptions. We'll also go over some common problems and the corrective actions for those problems."
Dr. Samuels continued, "The second class will be mostly about actually feeding your babies. How to correctly hold and position them. How to make sure they have a good latch onto the breast."
"In the third class, we will cover your babies feeding needs and signs that indicate they are either still hungry, or done and we'll cover what to do if they don't want to eat."
"The final class will deal with how to get and keep an adequate supply of milk, and how to pump and save your milk if you won't be able to feed them. We also answer any questions you may have. As you all know, we have a mother of twins here in this class," she pointed at Penny, "so there may be some time taken to cover dealing with twins."
Dr. Samuels looked at each of the couples, "Are there any questions? No? Okay, good, please come up and take a booklet and each of the four sheets of paper and we'll get started."
Wednesday 3 June, 2:00 PM
Leonard had spent the morning working with the data team and several of the operations team, trying to figure out why they were getting more entanglements than was predicted. They were all missing their grad students, as today was the first day of graduate finals testing. They were also missing one undergraduate senior, who was also testing today.
At least the post-docs were there and one of them suggested the new material Leonard had suggested be used to split the photons for the original experiment, caused a resonance which created more entangled photons. While they would check that, it was the closest thing to an explanation anyone had come up with.
Leonard was inclined to go with that while looking at other possible reasons. He would go back to his paper in arXiv and make some changes. He also thought about changing the splitting material, once they were done with setting up the switch, to see if the number of entangling photons dropped. Meanwhile, two of the grad students were assigned to do the calculations of the new and old material, to see if the number matched what they saw and if a resonance was possible.
For now, he was now watching the ops team remove the switch while inserting the circuit boards to get 18 entangled photons. While the previous run had produced 18, they had only been trying for 14. A check of the percentages showed the next run would try for 18, it might get 24.
While Leonard watched them work, he was thinking about Penny and…and…what was the woman's name coming over to talk to Penny about being a nanny? Leonard couldn't remember, he was just hoping Penny wasn't bothered by the woman's looks. He would know more tonight.
Wednesday 3 June, 9:30 PM
They had just returned from Howard and Bernadette's. After hearing about Penny's blood pressure, those two had volunteered to host the dinner at their house, since Amy was going to have to work late. This way, Leonard and Penny wouldn't have to worry about having dinner at their house, leaving only Leonard to do all the clean-up.
The dinner and conversation went as it did almost every time. The guys came back from the comic book store, having bought dinner on the way home. Everyone talked about how their lives and work were going, while they ate. After dinner and clean up, the men and women broke up into groups.
While Penny had quickly told him the interview went very well, it wasn't until they got home before Leonard had a chance to start asking questions. He had found out they had agreed, in general, on hours, duties, pay, along with an agreement about Louise being available at night, with enough notice.
Leonard asked if Louise's looks were still a problem and Penny simply said no, without looking at Leonard. She then asked Leonard to take off on Friday afternoon, because Louise would be coming back on Friday to talk about specifics about what exactly was enough notice, and what would constitute an emergency to get her to come back. It would also be a more in-depth meeting with her and Leonard.
Penny explained they had enjoyed talking to each other and as they discussed everything, neither had been the hard bargainer they had planned on being, before the meeting. They both laughed about this, after agreeing to most of the terms, when Penny told Louise she felt she was a failure at negotiations, with Louise explaining she felt the same way.
After Penny finished, all Leonard had to say was, "It sounds like it went very well."
"It did Leonard," said Penny. "I like her so much, we just have some minor things to work out, but I don't want anything to stop her from working here."
"Are you sure you won't get jealous?" said Leonard, with a sly smile. Penny looked away, "No, I won't. I was wrong, she is just great. I think you'll know not to make a move on her."
"I promised you, you and food with this mouth," said Leonard. "Although, I think I'll have to add our two girls, at least until they get too old for a kiss on their cheek, from their daddy."
Penny smile and said, "Okay."
Leonard smiled and pulled Penny in for a hug. They broke their hug and Leonard checked the doors, turned off the lights that were on downstairs, and they both climbed the stairs, to get ready for bed.
Thursday 4 June, 7:30 PM
Leonard and Penny were waiting for the class to begin, it was one couple short. Another couple told everyone that Helen had given birth on Wednesday and so she and John would not be there tonight, for their last class.
Dr. Samuels arrived and passed out tonight's pamphlets, which were much larger than their usual pamphlets. She explained that they were a lot of material tonight, and she would go over it rather quickly. So, she started talking about newborn care, going over what to expect from the baby for the first two weeks.
Then she talked about feeding and sleeping schedules then stressed the importance of getting enough sleep. Which drew a laugh, because she had just pointed out the fact that they wouldn't get much sleep. After talking for almost an hour, she had they get into position and practice their breathing exercises. This took the class to over an hour.
Afterward, she apologized for running so long and thanked them for taking the class, reminding them to practice their breathing every day, until the baby came. She wished them all well, and told them she would see most of them within the next month, then dismissed them.
Leonard and Penny were packing up, when Dr. Samuels walked up to them, "Hi Penny, Hi Leonard."
"Hi Dr. Samuels," they said together.
"What's up?" asked Penny.
"When I went over what to expect, I skip over some things for twins," said Dr. Samuels.
"Oh, I noticed," said Penny. "Things like the feeding schedules and sleeping schedules could be all messed up because I…we have two and probably more exhausting."
"You don't mind?" said Dr. Samuels.
"No, I figured we've gone over some stuff at our appointment," said Penny. "If I have any questions, I'll ask."
Dr. Samuels smiled, "Thanks, I had a lot to cover and was already running late. I just wanted to get as much as I could."
"It was fine," said Penny. "See you Monday."
"See you then," said Dr. Samuels, who turned and left.
Leonard and Penny grabbed their things and made their way to their car, before driving home.
Friday 5 June, 10:30 PM
Leonard was watching the ops team put the last of the circuit boards into the machine. They still had to put in the control panel, the one without the new switch. This test was going to be for the attempt at getting 18 entangle photons only.
They would be finished by noon, and he was giving them the rest of the afternoon off, they would come in Monday and start the checks on all the wires. Leonard thought they would finish the wire checks on Tuesday, run the power test and entanglement test on Wednesday, before doing a full run on Thursday.
As he watched, he was thinking about this afternoon and looking forward to meeting Louise.