Author's Note: Thanks so much for being patient and waiting for an update. This has just been a crazy week! The next few weeks or so I'll probably only be able to get in one update per week. Please continue to review and let me know if you are enjoying it!
This chapter skips ahead about 1 ½ months to August when Mandy is getting ready to start college! (Rachel is about 2 ½ months pregnant)
Ross, Rachel, Mandy, Ben, Emma, Caleb, and Bella all piled into their Expedition to head home from the beach house. They had five days of beach fun, but now it was time to head back home. They only had a few days before school started for Mandy, Ben, and Emma. Mandy's parents and the moving trucks were coming on Friday to move into their new house. Mandy then moved into the dorms on Saturday. About an hour into the four hour drive chaos broke loose. Bella was screaming because she wanted out of her car seat, Caleb was complaining because he was hungry, Emma was yelling because she couldn't hear her movie over Bella's crying, Ben was trying to get them all to be quiet, and Mandy was getting a migraine from all the noise. "Ross!" yelled Rachel over the madness. "Pull over now!"
"Rach, Caleb can wait an hour for lunch. He just ate an hour ago!" said Ross.
"No, pull over because I'm going to be sick!" exclaimed Rachel. A week or so after she had gotten over her virus, the morning sickness had hit full force. She had thought it was over, but apparently it wasn't!
Ross pulled the car off on the side of the interstate, and Rachel jumped out of the car and got sick on the side of the road. "Is mommy okay?" asked Emma.
"Yes, sweetie, mommy is fine," said Ross. "The baby in her tummy is just making her feel a little sick."
"Did I make mommy sick when I was in her tummy?" asked Emma.
"You sure did, sweetie," answered Ross. "That's just what babies do when they're in their mommy's tummy."
Rachel got back in the car, and they continued on. After three more stops in three more hours they were finally home. By the time they got the car unloaded it was already 8 o'clock. Rachel was extremely glad that she had taken the entire week off work because she was so exhausted that she knew there was no way she could go anywhere in the morning, but tomorrow afternoon she had to take the kids back to school shopping. "Honey," said Ross. "Why don't you go on upstairs to bed and I'll get the kids ready for bed?"
"Thanks, sweetie," replied Rachel. She gave Ross a kiss then headed up the stairs to their bedroom. Ross had been so helpful and supportive ever since he found out she was pregnant. Even though they hadn't talked about it, she knew he was just as worried as she was. Neither one of them could handle what had happened with Bella again. The doctor had thought that part of the reason Rachel went into labor early was stress. At the time she had a one year old, a four year old, a thirteen year old stepson, and a stressful job. This time around Ross was trying to make things much less stressful on her. He was taking care of the kids, cooking dinner, doing the dishes, cleaning, and taking care of everything else around the house. Rachel was wondering what was going to happen when Ross started back to work next week. The kids would be in school or daycare all day, but she wondered if Ross would still feel like doing all of that household stuff after a day at work. She knew she should stop worrying because Ross would do everything he possibly could to take care of her. She had also already cut back some at work, but she knew that in a couple of months she was going to have to cut back even more. They were determined that this pregnancy was going to be a healthy one. Rachel crawled into bed and had already drifted off to sleep when Ross came into the bedroom. He kissed the top of her head and climbed into bed beside her. He then put his hand on her stomach which was just starting to slightly bulge. It was still unnoticeable to everyone else, but he could feel it. "I love you," he said softly as he too drifted off to sleep.
The next morning everyone, even Bella, slept in. About nine, Ross and Rachel heard Bella yelling over the baby monitor, "Mommy! Mommy! Out!"
"I'll get her Rach," said Ross.
"No, I'll go," replied Rachel as she got out of bed and put on her robe. "She was asking for her mommy. I'll be right back." She leaned down, gave Ross a kiss, and left the room. "Hey baby!" she said as she lifted Bella out of her crib. Bella closed her big blue eyes as she laid her head on her mommy's shoulder. Rachel took her back into her and Ross's bedroom and laid her down between them. "I think it may be time we get someone a big girl bed," said Rachel.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," said Ross. "I've been thinking about what we're going to do for rooms when the baby comes. I actually thought that maybe we should put Bella in with Emma and use Bella's room for the nursery."
"That's a good idea," said Rachel. "I've been thinking too and thought that maybe we should finish out the attic and let Ben have his room up there so he would have more privacy. Then we could use Ben's room for a guest room or if Mandy ever wanted to spend the night, even though she probably won't be doing that very often now that her parents are moving up here."
"That sounds like a good plan," said Ross. "I'll call around for a contractor next week." Just then the bedroom door cracked open and Caleb walked in. He climbed in the bed on the other side of his mommy and snuggled in. The kids loved to come and get in bed with Ross and Rachel on Saturday mornings and even though this was a Thursday, it felt like Saturday. Just as Rachel suspected, Emma came into the room next. She took her normal position on the other side of Ross and snuggled into her daddy. They stayed like this for about half an hour until the kids started to get restless. By then Ben and Mandy were awake also, so they had a big family breakfast.
Around lunch time Rachel loaded up with Ben, Emma, and Mandy to go back to school shopping. The two youngest kids stayed home with their daddy. Their first stop was Bloomingdales where Rachel bought Emma and Ben all the clothes they would need to start back to school with. Emma loved to dress up, so Rachel bought her some really cute skirts and tops for school. She also made Emma get a couple of new pairs of jeans, new tennis shoes, and some cute slide on shoes to wear with her skirts. Ben just got jeans, t-shirts, polo shirts, and tennis shoes. It didn't take much for the fifteen year old to get all he thought he would need. Mandy bought a couple of new pairs of jeans and a few new tops, but when going to college you really didn't need back to school clothes anymore. Their next stop was a Target on their way home. All three got pens, pencils, and notebooks. Emma also got new crayons, markers, glue, and everything else that a first grader needed. Rachel had known better than to bring her two youngest children because they would have to have everything Emma got, but she felt bad not getting something for them so she went to the toy section and picked out a baseball glove for Caleb because he always wanted to play baseball with Ben. Ben had turned out to be quite an athlete. He played baseball and soccer. Rachel thought he must have gotten that from Carol! She then picked out a little doll for Bella. She knew she was probably spoiling her children, but she felt bad buying all this stuff for the older kids and not getting anything for the younger ones.
"Mommy," started Emma.
"No, you can not get a toy," interrupted Rachel. "You got all new school stuff today, and we still have to go pick you out a new backpack."
"Mommy, I wanted to know if we could pick out a toy for the baby?" asked Emma.
"Sorry sweetie," said Rachel as she kissed Emma on her head. "Why don't we go pick something out for the baby?"
They picked out an extra soft, brown, teddy bear that Emma said would work if the baby was a boy or a girl. When they got home Caleb and Bella were excited over their gifts. Bella walked around the house holding the baby while Caleb convinced Ben to go out in the back yard with him a throw a baseball.
"Daddy!" exclaimed Emma. "Look what we got for the new baby!" She showed her daddy the teddy bear she and her mommy had picked out.
"Wow, sweetie, that's great!" said Ross. "Do you want to keep it in your room until the baby gets here for you to give it to them?"
"Yes daddy," said Emma as she ran upstairs with the bear.
"So did you guys have a good day?" Ross asked Mandy and Rachel.
"Yeah," said Mandy. "I think I got everything I should need for classes. All I'll have to do is go to the bookstore on campus to get my books next week."
"That's great," said Ross. "So did you get anything?" he asked Rachel.
"Nope, not a thing!" she said with a smile.
"Oh my gosh! Did hell freeze over?" Ross asked with a laugh.
"No, silly," replied Rachel. "I just didn't need anything. In a couple of weeks I'm not going to be able to fit into my clothes so there was no point in buying new clothes right now, I get all my purses for free, and I didn't have time to look at shoes."
"Glad to see that there is a logical explanation, I was worried," said Ross now laughing even harder.
"Just for that you get to cook dinner while I go relax!" said Rachel as she turned and walked up the stairs still laughing.
"Do you want any help?" Mandy asked Ross.
"No, you go on upstairs and pack. I know you have a lot to do," said Ross.
Ross then started to get out the ingredients to make spaghetti. He cooked with a smile while watching his sons play baseball out the window. He couldn't believe just how blessed he was!
A/N: Sorry this chapter was kind of sappy. In the next chapter we'll get to see Mandy start to college! Please review!