A/N: I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've added a chapter to this story. I'm going to work my hardest to have all my stories completed by Valentine's Day 2012. That's my goal. There are only 2 more chapters in this story after the one you're reading right now. =) Happy reading.
Van and Cheyenne were watching T.V. in the living room one afternoon.
"Cheyenne, when is your mom getting home?" Van asked. Cheyenne looked up at the clock.
"I don't know. It's about seven thirty. Mom has spent almost every waking moment up at the hospital with Andrew. I know that's her baby and everything, but she's wearing herself out. He's been in the hospital for six weeks and I don't know how much she's been up there with him." Cheyenne replied. Kara walked into the room.
"Hi Cheyenne, hi Van." She said with a smile.
"Hi Kara. Why don't you come here? You and I haven't really had much sisterly bonding time. Mainly because you guys lived so far away. Why don't you tell me some about yourself." Cheyenne said. Just then the door opened. Kara, Van and Cheyenne looked at the door. A tired Reba walked in. They all rushed over to her.
"Mom, I'm so glad you're home." Kara grabbed her mom and hugged her. Reba groaned. "Oh, I'm sorry mom." Kara stepped back. Cheyenne walked over and put her hand on Reba's shoulder.
"Mom, you can't do this anymore. Let us go up and sit with Andrew." Cheyenne said.
"Yeah Mrs. H; you're running yourself ragged and you can't do that." Van chimed in and Kara nodded.
"Don't worry guys; I won't be doing making very many more trips to the hospital." Reba said.
"Why not?" Cheyenne asked with a worried look. Reba looked at her daughter and smiled.
"They are sending him home tomorrow. He's been in the hospital six weeks and he's finally big enough that he can be here with us. I'm so glad. I don't for one minute want any of you thinking I was complaining about going up to the hospital all this time because I'd do it again in a heartbeat; but I am thrilled that he'll be able to come home. I want him to be able to sleep in a crib, to be out of that hospital." Reba said with tears in her eyes. "I just wish Jack was here to see our little boy growing up. He's already missed so much of his life." Cheyenne hugged her mom.
"It'll be okay mom. We're here for you." Cheyenne said. Reba sniffled.
"I know you are Cheyenne. And I'm so thankful that I have you to help." Reba looked at Kara and put her hand on Kara's chin. "All of you." She smiled. "Well, what have you guys got for dinner? Did you eat yet?"
"Well, I got a pizza a few hours ago and we all ate on it." Van stated. Reba looked at him.
"You, Cheyenne, Jake, Kyra, Kara, Lindsay, Elizabeth, Samantha, Jordan and Jersey shared a pizza?" Reba questioned.
"I never said evenly." Van replied looking at the floor.
"Come on! Let's go into the kitchen and I'll start whipping something up for us to eat." Reba said and they all followed her into the kitchen.
"What's going on?" Cheyenne asked. "I think mom has finally lost it."
"Who cares? As long as she can still make a good meatloaf." Van replied.
"Van!" Cheyenne slapped him.
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The next morning, everybody got up bright and early to go to the hospital with Reba to pick up the new addition to the family. Since there were eleven people going to the hospital, plus Reba had to bring the baby home they had to take Reba's old car that was still at the house, Cheyenne's car and Van's new truck. They all piled out of the house and into the vehicles to load up. When they got to the hospital the nurse's jaw dropped.
"You people can't all be in here. What's going on?" She asked. Reba sighed. She turned and looked at the kids.
"Guys, why don't you go into the waiting room? I can handle this myself." Reba said. With a sigh, they walked away from the counter. Reba turned back to face them. "Hello, I'm Reba Morgan. My son Andrew is supposed to be discharged this morning. He's been in here about six weeks." The nurse looked at the chart and then back at Reba. She smiled.
"Oh yeah, I see that in here. Aww, that's your son? He's really livened this place up. I'm going to miss him around here. But I'm glad that he's going to be able to go home." The nurse stated. "Let's go get him." Reba followed the nurse into the room where Andrew was laying. The nurse took Andrew out of the bed and handed him to Reba. Reba smiled uncontrollably. The nurse looked at them and smiled.
"He was awfully tiny when he was born. Is this the first time you've gotten to hold him?" The nurse asked. Reba looked up at her.
"No, I got to hold him when he was first born, but this is the first time I've gotten to hold him since then." Reba explained.
"Oh. Well, all I need you to do is come over to the desk and sign some papers and then we can let you go." They walked out of the room and over to the nurses' station. Just then, Van walked over to them.
"Van! I thought I told you all to stay in the other room." Reba said between his teeth. Van was holding onto a car seat.
"I thought that you might want this for him. I know that when we had Elizabeth and Samantha we couldn't leave the hospital without it." Van replied. Reba nodded.
"Thank you Van. I'm sorry; I completely forgot that you had that." Reba leaned down and placed Andrew in the car seat and buckled it in. Then she took the papers from the nurse and signed them. She handed them back to her and they walked out of the room carrying the car seat with Andrew already drifting off to sleep.
[
"WAAHH!" Andrew screamed out at two thirty in the morning just a few days later. Lindsay, Cheyenne, Van, Kyra, Jake and Kara were in the kitchen at the table.
"Why does he keep crying?" Kara asked as she tried to plug her ears.
"Babies just cry sometimes Kara. There's nothing we can do to help them." Cheyenne replied.
"But shouldn't mom be able to take care of him? After all, he is her son." Lindsay stated. They all looked at her.
"Babies have a habit of crying a lot Lindsay. Elizabeth used to cry all the time. I never got a good night's sleep while she was a baby." Jake stated.
"Really?" Lindsay asked with wide eyes. Jake nodded at his younger sister. "What have we gotten ourselves in for?" There was silence. A moment of perfect silence. Nobody took a breath. Then they all sighed.
"Finally, he went to sleep." Kara said.
"Let's try going back up to go to bed." Cheyenne said. They all stood up except Van.
"No." Van said. They all looked at him.
"What do you mean? Come on, he's asleep." Cheyenne said.
"He's a baby Cheyenne. If we all go storming up the stairs to go to bed; that will probably wake him up." Cheyenne sat back down.
"He's right." Cheyenne said.
"Okay, well a few of us can go right?" Kara asked.
"Yeah Kara." Cheyenne smiled. "You and Lindsay can go up first. We'll go two at a time. Then Jake and Kyra are next. Van and I will be last." Before the two girls could head up the stairs, Reba walked into the kitchen.
"He's finally asleep. I'm sorry he woke all of you up. He's got a set of lungs like I've never heard before." Reba said.
"You're telling us." Kyra replied.
"Well, I just came to tell you that we've all got stuff to do tomorrow and that it probably wouldn't be wise for you all to stay up all that much longer." Reba stated.
"We know mom. We were actually just about to head to bed." Cheyenne said. Then two by two just like the original plan, they all headed up the stairs to bed. Reba stood on the bottom step of the stairs before she headed up the stairs.
"I don't know what I've gotten myself into. I'm raising five children under the same roof with my three grown children and two grandkids. The only thing that could possibly make this worse would be if Barbara Jean and Brock were to move in here. We already don't have enough room as it is." Reba thought as she walked up the stairs. "It might be difficult, but I don't think I've ever had as much fun."
A/N: Stay tuned! Hopefully the next chapter will come soon!