Disclaimer: Same as before....
A/N: I'll get as much done as I can before my cousin comes to town this week to help take care of our grandma, and hopefully I can get a little done between her visit and my surgery. It'll be so good to see her, she went through almost exactly the same infertility struggles as I did - miscarriage, endometriosis, ectopic pregnancy, the works.It's a bond we wish we didn't share, but since we do, we cherish it.
I had alot of fun writing this chapter, I hope you like it!!
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Chapter 17:
"This is gonna be so much fun!" said Mac as they walked hand-in-hand towards Babies-R-Us.
"I think this is gonna be a lot of hard work" said Harm. They were going to spend the afternoon registering for baby gifts, and he had a feeling that it wasn't going to be quite as much fun as Mac was envisioning, but he was still quite excited.
"How will it be hard work?" she asked him.
"Mac, we've been in here before to buy gifts for Bud and Harriet's babies, and the place is huge!" answered Harm. "They've got 15 different models of everything, more than that of some things, and it's pretty overwhelming."
"It can be, yes" replied Mac, "but not if you've done your own research and you know what to look for."
"Let me guess" said Harm as he smiled at Mac, "you've done your own research?"
"You bet I have" she said, " and with a few exceptions, I pretty much know what I want."
"Well, that makes me feel better" said Harm as they neared the service desk, "as long as you know what you want, at least we'll have some direction and not wander aimlessly through this place."
They sat down at the service desk, and an employee came over to help them
"Hi, welcome to Babies-R-Us" she said, "are you starting a gift registry today?"
"Yes, we are" said Mac. "What do we need to do?"
"I'll need to get some information from you to put into the computer", said the employee, "and then I'll explain to you how the registry works and you can get started."
"Ok, great" said Mac.
"Alright, what is your first name?" she asked Mac.
"Sarah"
"Last name?"
"Mackenzie"
"Is that 'Mc' or 'Mac'?"
"Mac"
"Your due date?"
"September 12, 2005"
"Would you like the father's name on here also, that way folks can search under either name?"
"Definitely"
"OK, his first name?"
"Harmon"
"Last name?"
"Rabb"
"Do you have a theme picked out for the nursery, or any info that folks may find helpful in choosing a gift for your baby, colors you really like, etc…?"
"Hmmm……. well, we don't know what we're having, so neutral colors would be best."
"OK, would you like your registry to be available on our website or only in-store?"
Harm stepped in and helped with this one. "It has to be online, I've got family out in California who'll kill me if they have to go into the store every time they want to see the registry." He thought back to the night he told his mom and Frank that they were going to be grandparents. His mom was over-the-moon excited, and she made it clear to him that she wanted to know everything he and MAc chose for the baby so she could get as much of it as she wanted to.
"Oh yes, definitely online and in-store" said Mac, "I think it's better that way anyway, gives people a chance to look at it whenever they want to."
The girl behind the desk entered the last bit of Harm and Mac's information into the computer, and handed them a scanner gun. "Have you used one of these before?" she asked them.
"No, never" said Harm as he looked at it with great curiosity.
"Well, it's very simple" said the girl, "all you do is choose an item you want to place on your registry, and scan the barcode on the shelf with this. The item number will appear in the screen, and you'll be asked to enter the quantity desired. Once you do that, press enter, and move onto the next item, it's really easy."
"I'm sure between the two of us, we can figure it out" said Mac, laughing a bit at the way Harm was mesmerized by the scanner.
"You're all set then" said the girl, "just let any one of us know if we can help you with anything."
"We will, thank you" said Harm.
"Ok babe, where do we start?" he asked Mac as they left the service desk.
"Let's start with the smaller things and work our way up" she replied.
"So over there with the bibs and such I guess?' asked Harm.
"That's fine, yeah" said Mac, and they walked in that direction.
"You know what you want, so you need to go ahead of me and point it out so I can scan it" said Harm.
"Oh, and just who says you get to do the scanning?" asked Mac with a teasing intonation to her voice.
"Isn't that how it works - the mother picks everything out and the father scans it?" said Harm, teasing her back.
"No, flyboy, it's not 'how it works'" said Mac, "but since it's so important to you, you can have the dubious honor of scanning each and every single little thing I choose."
"Thanks, my love" said Harm, thoroughly enjoying himself.
Mac started eyeballing the wall with the bibs on it. "One of those…….those…….that one……a couple of those…. oh, this one is too cute" she said, referring to a white bib with a yellow teddy bear on it.
"Are we really gonna need that many bibs?" asked Harm, "we're only having one baby, and we've got enough bibs chosen here to go around a football team!"
"Spoken like a man who's never been around a baby!" laughed Mac. "You have no idea how many bibs we'll go through in a day, babe."
"I'll take your word for it" said Harm as he shook his head. They were about to move away from the bibs when he spotted one he really liked.
"Oh, we've gotta have this one, Mac" he said, pointing to a white terry-cloth bib with blue gingham trim and a red anchor on it.
Mac chuckled, "sure, we can add that one if you like it, that's fine." Harm scanned the barcode beneath the anchor bib, entered "1" for quantity, and caught up with Mac, who was already on the next aisle over.
"Wow, Mac, I had no idea there were this many baby bottles to choose from!" said Harm as he got a look at the endless rows of bottles. All different shapes, sizes, colors, styles - it was almost unreal. "Do you know what you want?"
"Yep, these" she said, picking up a Playtex Nurser set. "I did a ton of research on which ones are best to use while breastfeeding, and these were always on the list."
"Really? Wonder why?" asked Harm.
"They're supposed to very closely resemble breastfeeding, so the baby doesn't have a hard time switching back and forth" said Mac. "Plus I'll be able to pump and freeze milk into the liners that go in these, which will make it easy for whoever ends up making the bottles - just thaw it out and pop it in."
"OK, cool" said Harm, "which ones do you want and how many?"
"Lemme see, one of the boxed sets, two of the 4 ounce ones, two of the 8 ounce ones…" said Mac.
" What about extra pieces and parts" asked Harm.
"Umm… 2 packages of newborn size nipples, 2 packages of the next size up, and….. two boxes of 4 ounce liners" said Mac. "That should get us started."
"I think it will" said Harm. "What about these?" he asked, pointing to the breast pumps.
"I'm still deciding on that" said Mac. "We'll probably just end up buying that ourselves once I choose one."
"Ok, that's fine" said Harm, "you're the one who has to be happy with it, I have no say in that one at all!"
"Well, if you had any thoughts on it, I'd of course listen", said Mac, "but somehow I can't see you comparing breast pumps and shopping around for one with all the important features."
Harm laughed a bit, "well, no, but if you do want any help with it, just say the word."
"I know, babe, you're so good to me." replied Mac as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.
They proceeded from there to the strollers, something Harm actually did have an opinion on.
"OK, Mac" he said, "here's the thing: I don't care what color the stroller is or what it looks like, all I ask is that the handle is high enough that I don't have to hunch over to use it."
"Oh, I agree completely" said Mac, "we have to get one with an adjustable handle."
"Have you found any with that?" he asked.
"Oh yeah, there are a couple, lemme find them…" she said as she walked along the row of display models.
"Here, come try this one" she said, pointing to a nice-looking hunter green and navy blue plaid stroller. Harm walked over, took it down from the shelf, and tried it on for size.
"Yeah, that's pretty good" he said, " on anything except the highest level it's too short for me, but the highest level is just about right."
"Ok, cool" said Mac, "try this one, too." Harm put the plaid stroller back on the shelf and took down a khaki-colored one with rocking horses on it. He played with the handle height, trying each level as he had with the plaid one.
"I think I like the other one a little better" he said, "even on this highest level I have to hunch over some, and I don't like that."
"Ok, we'll go with the first one" said Mac. Harm scanned the plaid stroller before they moved on to the car seats.
"Are we just getting the infant seat for now, or should we look at bigger seats, too?" Harm asked.
"For now, we'll just get the infant seat" said Mac, "but when the baby is about 6 months old, we'll need to look for a bigger seat, just to make sure we have it when the baby outgrows the infant seat, either by getting to big or too long for it."
"Sounds good" said Harm. "Which ones of these do you like?"
"I want one that has the base that stays in the car so we don't have to strap the seat in every time" she said, "and we can get an extra base so we'll each have one."
"Ok, well, this one here has that" said Harm, "and this one, that one, and that one."
"I also want one with a 5-point harness instead of the straps that just go over the baby's shoulders" said Mac. "I just feel they're a little more secure."
"Ok, that narrows it to one of these three" said Harm, taking down the display models so they could try them out. They messed around with the handles, the harnesses, putting it into and taking it out of the base, checked to see whether the covers were washable, and got an overall feel for which one they liked the best.
"Let's get this one" said Mac, choosing a navy blue seat with a blue and yellow striped pattern on the cover.
"Ok" said Harm as he scanned it. "You want an extra base, too, right?"
"Yeah, it'll be easiest if we each have one in our car" she replied. He scanned the base, and they moved onto the next aisle.
They spent 4 hours walking through the store, carefully choosing everything from bibs and bottles to a crib and dresser. The most confusing item of all proved to be the crib bedding. Not knowing whether they were having a boy or a girl made it very hard to choose.
"I like this one" said Mac, pointing to a brightly colored comforter with jungle animals on it.
"It'd be fine for a boy, but not a girl" said Harm. "What about this one?" He pointed to a light denim comforter with primary colored balloons on it.
"I think that'd be good for a girl, but not a boy" said Mac with a little laugh. "We're not having much luck here!"
"We'll find something" said Harm, "there are only about a hundred of these things to choose from here." They continued looking, each of them disliking everything the other one chose, until Harm spotted one that was just perfect.
"Hey, what about this Pooh one?" he asked, pointing to a white comforter with a scene on it comprised of Pooh and all his friends having a picnic in the Hundred Acre Wood.
"Oh, I love it!" said Mac, "and it'll be great for either a boy or a girl!"
"Hallelujah, we've done it!" joked Harm as he scanned the Pooh bedding set. From there they chose some blankets, bath towels and the like, and then it was time to look at clothes, which again would be a challenge.
"How totally adorable!" squealed Mac as she picked up a tiny little pink sleeper with a kitten on it.
"We can't register for that, Mac" said Harm.
"Sure we can" said Mac. "We've got a 50/50 chance of having a girl."
"We've also got a 50/50 chance of having a boy" said Harm, "and it goes without saying that no son of ours is going to wear that!"
"Tell you what" said Mac, "how about we each pick 1 thing for a boy and 1 for a girl, and the rest will be gender neutral?"
"Ok, I guess that'll work" said Harm. "We'll just keep the tags on everything we get until after the baby is born, and we'll return what we can't use."
"We wouldn't have to return it" said Mac. "We could just pack it away and…." her voice trailing off into silence.
"… and what, Mac?" asked Harm.
"…and use it for the next baby."
Harm stood there speechless. They'd been through so much to get pregnant with this baby, they'd never talked about having another one.
"You….you actually want to go through all that again, all the fertility stuff?" he asked her.
"If that's what it takes for us to have more children, absolutely." answered Mac.
"Wow, Mac" said Harm, "I had no idea you wanted more children."
"Do you…. not want any more?" asked Mac, a look of uncertainty on her face.
"Are you kidding, Mac?!" Harm exclaimed. "I want as many as we're able to have, be it just this one or 10 more. For as long as I've known and loved you, you're the only woman I've ever imagined being the mother of my children, and if you're willing to go through everything it may take for us to have more, you know I'll be right beside you again, just like this time."
Mac smiled and brushed away a tear. "I love you so much, Harm" she said.
"I love you too, Mac" he replied, "and you" he added, putting his hand on her tummy. "Let's finish up here and go to the grocery store, I'll make us something special for dinner."
"That sounds great, I'm getting hungry" said Mac.
"Does our child have any special menu requests tonight?" joked Harm, referring to the many times Mac has craved a certain food and blamed it on the baby.
"No, not tonight" she said, "it's daddy's choice."
Harm smiled, he just loved that word, "daddy".