Thank you all for reading this story, and for your reviews and comments.
We're about two thirds of the way through Kate, Pete and Dylan's story, and I hope that you will continue reading and enjoying their lives after Hammersley.
Friday 22 September 2017
Kate went for her first ultrasound appointment by herself. Pete had left ten days ago for a month working on HMAS Parramatta while their Chief Petty Officer was on medical leave following a car accident. Shortly afterwards, Dylan had been sent on a training course to HMAS Cerberus outside Melbourne for three weeks and had flown out last weekend. It wasn't really convenient for Kate to reschedule the appointment in order to have someone with her, so she chose to go on her own.
If Kate had asked, Nikki would probably have accompanied her, but Kate didn't want to interrupt Nikki's work day, or push her pregnancy in Nikki's face while Nikki was still coming to terms with the fact of the pregnancy. Nikki had reached out to Kate a few days after Kate had told her the news. Since then, they were largely back to their previous footing and things were pretty good between the two women, but Kate felt that there was still a slight barrier.
Kate suspected that Conrad might have played a role in Nikki's acceptance of the baby news. He really was a wonderful man, and so much in love with Nikki. The three of them were looking forward to Conrad and Nikki's wedding at the end of the year. That train of thought led Kate to wonder if Nikki was getting clucky about a baby of her own, now that she was getting married soon. She decided to concentrate on her own pregnancy for the moment, and shelve that thought for another time.
Kate was planning to ask Nikki to be godmother to the baby. She hadn't got around to that yet as she knew that she needed to discuss her plan with Dylan and Pete first. Kate was pretty sure that they wouldn't have a problem with her proposal – after all, it was due to Nikki's party that they'd reconnected.
Since telling Nikki, Kate had also told Sally, and Andy and Lani about her pregnancy. All had been a little surprised at the news. They had each accepted the news of Kate, Pete and Dylan's relationship well enough and been supportive of their relationship, but news of the baby was a surprise to all of them, notwithstanding Kate's age. Still, Kate hoped that it was only a matter of time before all their friends recovered from the surprise. She knew that Dylan and Pete had met up with Andy by themselves and talked with him about the pregnancy. The two men had come home by taxi that night, having had more than a couple of Andy's infamous Guava Mojos. Kate assumed that everything was OK in that respect at least.
At the medical clinic, after she had had her blood taken and had handed over a urine sample, Kate discussed her pregnancy to date with the midwife. Next Kate was directed to lay on the examination table. The sonographer came in and squeezed gel onto her stomach, apologising that the gel was cold, before running the scanner over Kate's belly. The woman glanced back and forth between the screen and Kate's belly. Kate thought that she seemed to be taking a long time to do whatever she had to do, and she was pushing the scanner into her belly, making Kate feel uncomfortable. Eventually, the woman muttered that she'd be back in a minute, and for Kate to stay on the table. After a few minutes the woman returned with a man, who she introduced as Doctor Hockey, an obstetrician. The sonographer showed the screen to the doctor, who then directed the woman to run the scanner over Kate's belly again.
After a few minutes the doctor turned to Kate, "Well Ms McGregor," he began, "It appears that you are having twins, which would explain the levels of nausea and vomiting that you've told us you've been having. It's common for women having twins to have a higher occurrence of morning sickness. The good news is that in most women, the morning sickness goes after the first trimester, so you don't have much longer to get past that point. You're about twelve weeks along now, so the nausea should only last another couple of weeks or so. Obviously, you'll have a greater weight gain with twins, and we will have to monitor that, amongst other things. You'll need to come in more often than you would if you were just having a singleton." He paused.
"Twins?" gasped Kate, having been stunned by the news. "Twins." repeated Kate, slowly growing used to the idea.
"Yes. Here, you can look for yourself." The doctor turned the ultrasound machine a bit so that Kate could see the screen properly, and started pointing at different places on the screen. "See, here's baby 1 and there's baby 2. Now, there's a bit more news." The doctor paused at this point.
"Um? Yes?" Kate glanced at the doctor, wishing that he'd hurry up. What more news could there be? She was debating whether to give him one of her patented XO glares that were known to make even the most recalcitrant junior sailor quake in their boots. He spoke again just before she started her glare.
"The ultrasound shows that you're having what are technically called dizygotic or fraternal twins. What that means is that each baby has its own amniotic sac and placenta. This happens when two different eggs are fertilised at the same time by two different sperm. Effectively you're having two separate babies, just in the one pregnancy."
"Hang on. You said two eggs and two different sperm?"
"Yes. In older women such as yourself it's not unknown for them to sometimes release more than one egg each month, and that's what happened to you. By sheer luck both eggs were fertilised. That could have happened at the same time, or up to five days later. That's how long sperm can be active for. In your case, it looks like both babies are about the same size in their growth, so I think that the two fertilisations happened at pretty much the same time or very close together."
Kate's brain was working furiously. She was beginning to have her suspicions about these babies, but wasn't going to voice them to the doctor until she'd had a chance to talk to both Dylan and Pete, and maybe not even then.
"Thank you doctor. I must say that I'm amazed that it's twins. I wasn't sure that I'd even be able to have a baby, given my miscarriage a few years ago and my age. It's a bit overwhelming to think that I'll, that we will, be having two babies."
"I'm sure that you'll be able to adjust to thinking about having two babies." responded the doctor. He turned away and opened a drawer, rifling through it before turning back to Kate with some papers in his hand. "Here's some brochures from the Australian Multiple Birth Association. I think you'll find that the association can be very helpful for what to expect during the rest of your pregnancy and beyond. And, as I said, you'll be seeing a bit more of us for regular check-ups during the rest of your pregnancy. Now, do you want to know what you're having?"
"No. I want it to be a surprise. I suppose now that it'll be a double surprise."
"OK. I'll make a note on the file of your decision. If you change your mind later, just let me know, otherwise the question won't arise again."
A little later Kate walked out of her appointment with her head reeling. She made it to her car and sat in it for quite a while thinking about this surprise before starting the engine and driving home. She had the long weekend ahead of her to get her head around this surprising turn of events before she went back to work on Tuesday.
Saturday 7 October 2017
Pete had arrived home from his temporary posting on Friday afternoon. He and Kate spent a quiet evening exchanging stories of what they'd been doing in the month that he'd been away. Kate refrained from talking about the specifics of the ultrasound, wanting to wait until all three of them were together again. After her appointment she had emailed both men to let them know that it had gone well and had left it at that, saying that she would tell them more when they got home. A later email from Kate gave the men the welcome news that her morning sickness was easing off.
Dylan's flight from Melbourne last night had been delayed and he hadn't arrived back in Perth until almost midnight. By the time he had retrieved his bags and got a taxi from the airport, it was well after 1am before he got home. Kate was asleep long before he arrived and hadn't seen Dylan until after he got up this morning.
The three of them had a late breakfast on the terrace. Pete had played chef, and prepared omelettes to order for each of them. As they were sitting with their tea and coffees afterwards, Kate went into the kitchen and came out with a couple of apple muffins for the men. She handed one each to Pete and Dylan. Kate had used tubes of icing to label the muffins '1' and '2'. The men looked at their muffins and then turned identical puzzled expressions towards Kate.
"Surprise!" said Kate. "We're having twins."
The muffins were dropped onto the tabletop as both men leapt to their feet to rush around the table and hug and kiss Kate. After their initial excitement, they settled back down around the table while Kate repeated the doctor's explanation regarding the fraternal twins to Dylan and Pete. All three cast their minds back to a particularly pleasurable weekend in June, when they had enjoyed themselves very much. They'd pretty much decided that that was when Kate had got pregnant – they just hadn't realised exactly how pregnant.
"So instead of having Thor, now we're having Thunder and Lightning," stated Pete. "That's a bit of a surprise."
Kate groaned, "Really Pete, you couldn't come up with better nicknames than those?"
"Well, they're suitable ones, aren't they? I mean, despite us all being here in Perth now, they're still Hammersley babies. That's where we came from after all. Can you come up with better ones?"
Kate sighed and rolled her eyes. She had a feeling that the babies were going to be stuck with those nicknames until birth, and maybe beyond, no matter what she said.
Next Kate brought out the copies of the ultrasounds that the doctor had given her to bring home. She showed the men the two babies, each in their own amniotic sac, and pointed out the babies' heads and legs.
"Of course, Kate," said Dylan "You realise that you and I will have to start thinking about cars."
"Huh?"
"Well, obviously I'll have to buy something other than my motor bike. I mean, I was always going to have to anyway even when it was just one baby. I'll just have to consider something a bit bigger now. Pete'll be fine with the ute, given it's a twin cab, but I really think that your Mini wouldn't be practical for twins."
Kate hadn't considered that aspect of her impending motherhood. She was rather attached to her red Mini Cooper, having bought it new when she had moved to Perth. It wasn't the sort of car she would ordinarily have bought, usually being more inclined to a serviceable and practical vehicle, but when she had seen the Mini in the car yard, Kate had thrown caution to the wind and bought the little car and never regretted her decision until now.
"I suppose you've got a point Dylan" she conceded. "I can see that getting two kids in and out of a small two door car isn't a very practical way to transport them around. I'll have to start thinking about what I'll need as a replacement. At least I should get a good trade-in on the Mini."
The rest of the weekend was spent discussing the need for a second cot and car seat, the different types of prams that would have to be considered, and other baby-related matters, including the question of godparents. Kate was determined not to make unilateral decisions regarding these babies, having been on the receiving end of those sorts of decisions in the past, and she wanted their choices to be joint decisions.
