"The Christmas Song" by Meg & Dia
"Mom, Da, wake up! It's Christmas," Declan and Kelly yelled, jumping on our bed. Murphy groaned, throwing himself at me in protest.
"What time is it?" I asked groggily, burrowing my face into Murphy's.
"It's five, Gram's already up!"
I'm gonna kill Mom. The kids continued to jump until Murphy huffed. He looked very not amused when I opened my eyes. I couldn't help but laugh.
"Alright, alright, we're coming," Murphy declared. "The two of ye are gonna break yer other arms."
They stopped jumping, giggled, and ran off to wake up someone else. The startled yelp told me it was Connor. Murphy sat up, rubbing his face. We had only gotten a few hours of sleep since we were up late setting up the living room for the kids and wrapping some last minute presents for everyone.
"It does not get easier," I answered his unasked question. He groaned. I sat up and stretched. "Come on before they terrorize everyone."
"At this point, I think I'm okay with that."
As if on cue, we heard Klaus swearing in German in the living room. Murphy shrugged while I rolled my eyes. He helped me out of bed and down the stairs. A very disgruntled Klaus walked by us and into the kitchen to start some coffee.
"Uncle Klaussss," Declan and Kelly yelled after him. "There's no time for coffee!"
"There is quite literally always time for coffee," Klaus grumbled.
"Let's go into the living room and sort out the piles, okay?" I asked the kids, putting one hand on one of each of their shoulders and spun them away from the grumpy German. The three of us sorted out the piles for everyone, setting them around the living room where people should sit. Mom shepherded everyone into the living room and allowed the kids to tell everyone where to sit. I threw myself onto the couch, already exhausted and ready to go take a nap. Klaus sat beside me, looking so unamused that it made me giggle.
"They're definitely your children," he grumbled.
"I have no idea what you mean."
"Of course not," he said sarcastically. Murphy sat on the floor in between my legs to act as a mediary between the kids and I. He's been so infinitely helpful lately. I kissed the top of his head, causing him to look up at me in confusion. Instead of replying, I leaned back and rubbed my stomach.
We spent a few hours opening everyone's gifts and eating the delicious breakfast Mom prepared for us all. It was a nice change from the small Christmases the kids and I have been having up until now. Maybe one day I'll be used to it. I hope not. The excitement of it should never fade. And maybe it'll be easier to be this excited about it with three more kids joining the family.
"You should be resting in bed," Mom scolded me as I washed some of the dishes.
"I can't just sit still and do nothing," I rolled my eyes. "It's bad enough that I can't go down to the camp today."
"Sit," she ordered, taking the soapy plate and sponge from me.
"Bossy."
"Where do you think you get it from, hm?"
I rolled my eyes at her but sat down, propping my feet up on one of the other chairs. They were very swollen. A sharp pain caused me to breathe out sharply. Mom noticed, of course.
"Is that a contraction?"
"Probably just a false contraction," I waved my hand dismissively. "So did you like what the kids made you?"
"Yes! It was an adorable idea."
"Yeah? Murphy helped them. I didn't know about it until it was almost done."
"I didn't know he could draw."
"Neither did I. But apparently he can." Another contraction. I tried to casually glance at the clock to see what time it was. Mom didn't notice, so I was successful. Before I was able to time them properly, my water broke. "Oh shit."
Mom turned in confusion. "Wha-oh vaffanculo." She dropped the glass she had been washing into the sink and ran out of the room. Connor and Tyler were in the kitchen a few seconds later, helping me up and out to the car. As soon as I had managed my assisted waddle to the car, Murphy came sprinting out of the house with the bag we had prepared for the hospital. He got into the back seat with me while Connor took the driver's seat and Tyler took the passenger's seat.
"Are ye okay?" Murphy asked, rummaging through the bag. "Do ye need anything?"
I grit my teeth through a contraction. "No, love, I'm okay," I smiled, grabbing his hand. By some stroke of luck, there wasn't any snow on the ground so Connor was able to get to the hospital rather quickly.
This time it didn't take very long until a few nurses came over for me. Murphy and Connor helped me up onto the bed and Murphy went back with me when they wheeled me into one of the birthing rooms. Murphy had barely helped me change into my gown when a doctor came in and took a peek at my cervix.
"Oh ye're ready, lass," she announced before throwing off her glove and going to retrieve her team.
"Isn't this supposed to take hours?" Murphy asked, looking entirely clueless about everything that was happening.
"Are ye staying in for the birth?" the doctor asked as she returned with two nurses. He nodded. "Alright, you'll want a gown and mask of yer own." She pointed over towards the corner. "Just throw them on." Then, to me, "ye're early?"
"About seven and a half months."
"Sounds right with triplets." She continued to talk to me, asking me questions to distract me from the pain. "Alright, I'll need ye to start pushing now Ms. McCarthy."
"And that's the last one!" the doctor grinned, delighted that it had been an easy delivery. It had only taken a few hours of labor. They practically threw themselves out of the womb. "We'll give ye a few minutes while we take the babies to make sure everything's okay. Everything does look okay though," she said quickly when Murphy looked panicked. "It's just to make sure."
"It'll be fine, they did this with Kelly and Declan," I chuckled. Murphy didn't look any less worried but he relaxed enough that it didn't look like he was about to pounce on the doctor and the nurse.
He brushed some of my hair away from my very sweaty forehead. "I can't believe ye did this by yerself before."
"Technically I had Tyler with me," I smiled slightly. I was never really alone. But I wasn't sure it would be helpful to say that, even if I felt a bit foggy from pain medication.
"Still, I should have been there with ye. It wasn't fair."
I raised my eyebrows. Is now really the time to have this conversation? Instead, I said: "You should have been. But I didn't try very hard to find you or let you know either. I didn't think it was safe to. It also doesn't matter, that's the past. We have to figure out names now before we take them home with numbers as names."
"They let people do that?"
"I'm sure they do somewhere." I pointed at the bag Murphy had brought along with us. "I put the list in the front pocket." We both looked at it in silence, not sure which ones to veto or vote in favor of. "Maybe it'll be easier when we see them?"
Murphy kind of grunted in response but kept looking at all of the names anyway. After a few more minutes of silence, the doctor and nurse returned with the babies. The doctor handed the two boys to me while the nurse handed Murphy the girl.
"Would you like us to get your family in the waiting room?" the nurse asked.
"Please," I smiled at the tiny humans in my arms.
"I'll send them back."
"Dina," Murphy said once the nurse left. I nodded with a smile.
"Dina Noah?"
"Da'll get a kick out of that," he laughed. He then looked at the boys. "Any ideas?"
"Matteo," I nodded to the lighter-haired one. He nodded.
"Conan?" we asked together about the darker-haired boy. I laughed.
"For middle names, why not Murphy and Connor?"
Murphy scrunched up his face. "We can't do that."
"Why not?"
"Feels weird to name them after us." I rolled my eyes at him. "Why do you think I picked out a bunch of names starting with 'C' and 'M'?"
"I thought ye just liked the names."
"I do, but I like family names."
"Are we interrupting? That sounds like you're about to start arguing a point very passionately," Tyler grinned as he and Connor walked into the room.
"Oh, look at the babes!" Connor grinned, coming around to look at the boys in my arms. "Ye're gonna have yer own sports team soon. They're adorable. Good thing they look like Cec."
Murphy looked like he wanted to assault Connor but was unable to because of holding Dina.
"Oh this is fun. Ye can't fight back with the babe in yer arms." He pulled up a chair and sat next to me, looking at the boys.
"Actually, we need referees," I interrupted before Murphy could squabble. I pointed to the girl, "Dina Noah." Then I pointed to the lighter haired boy, "Matteo Murphy." The darker haired boy: "Conan Connor."
"Switch them," Tyler said immediately. "Matteo Connor, Conan Murphy."
"Ye want to name 'em after us, lass?" Connor asked, his eyes becoming watery. I leaned forward and kissed his head.
"Of course, we wanted to ask you to be one of the godparents." Murphy nodded when Connor glanced at him. "You and Tyler, of course. We'll have to add you to Declan and Kelly's documents." I paused. "We're going to have to change their last names, too. Tyler, remind me to do that when I'm not..."
I gestured vaguely to everything around us with my hand, causing Tyler to laugh and then nod. "I'll remind you, Cec, don't worry."
"Sorry to interrupt," another nurse smiled sweetly as she came into the room. "It's time to do the birth certificates. Which would ye like to start with?"
"Let's do the girl," I nodded at Murphy.
"Name?"
"Dina Noah McManus." I noticed with relief that they had already gotten the identifying foot- and hand-prints on the papers.
"Next?"
I wiggled the dark haired twin a bit. She grabbed the appropriate certificate. "Conan Murphy McManus." She nodded, switching certificates. "Matteo Connor McManus."
"Alright, that was easy enough. I'll need you both to sign them. I can hold the babies if you need help."
She took Dina from Murphy, who was clearly terrified he might drop her if he was forced to do things while holding her. I gave Matteo to Connor, who caught on pretty quickly how to hold him properly.
We signed the certificates and she took them to make copies for the system before bringing back the originals.
"Is anyone uncomfortable with me doing a milk check?"
"We've all seen you naked at this point," Tyler shrugged while Connor nodded in agreement.
"Alright then," the nurse laughed before coming over to me.
She gently picked up Conan and handed him to Tyler, who held him with no problem. Other than myself, Tyler had held the twins the most as infants. He had been terrified of them at first. But he stopped being so afraid of breaking them once he got more comfortable with them. And I'm glad he did, the twins still flock to him.
After a few seconds of poking and prodding my breasts she frowned a bit. "It doesn't seem like your milk has come in yet."
"It probably won't for a few days. I was late with it last time."
"Were you looking for a donor or is formula okay?"
"Formula is fine," I grinned. "As long as it keeps them fed and healthy, I don't mind where it comes from."
She smiled, squeezed my hand, and then explained which buttons to press for the things that I needed. "I'll be able to bring in a cot for the father but I can't have anyone else here overnight."
"Yeah, yeah, pretty standard," Tyler laughed. They had tried to kick him out of the hospital in Germany when I had the twins. But he had refused and they eventually stopped trying to argue with the loud American causing a scene. Out of protest, though, they had made him sleep on a chair instead of bringing him a cot. Tyler didn't seem to care though. He was still there the next day when the nurse came to check on me.
As lucky as I was to have the support system that I had then, I'm glad that Murphy's going to be the one here with me tonight. Having him around makes everything feel more complete.