Sunny was adapting well and she moved gracefully in her new body. Melanie had chosen a good body for Sunny. It was nice to see Sunny adjusting so well. Jaime, Rowan, and Sunny were often together and the laughter was back throughout the caves. Melanie greeted Jaime's earlier challenge and taught Sunny how to play soccer. It was fun to watch the games in our free time. Kyle and Jodi were inseparable and no one was surprised about that. I was enjoying my times in the kitchen with Trudy with Sharon rocking silently in her chair by the fire.
Trudy continued my education on human life before the Souls. I remembered a lot through Mel's memories but she was so young that she didn't experience life as she should have. Trudy's stories made me sad sometimes and she was always quick to reassure me that everything was ok. Lucina and Paige had decided that since I was going to have a baby I needed to learn how to take care of one. Every evening Ian and I would make it to the classroom, where they showed us how to change diapers, how to hold the baby, how to burp the baby. I would get overwhelmed sometimes especially when Lucina was teaching me how to pin the diaper together without sticking the baby. "Remember" she said "Babies wiggle so this will be a lot harder. Don't worry Wanda, we'll help you" Lucina had even moved her little family into one of the new larger rooms.
Jaime had requested that him, Rowan, and Sunny share one of the new rooms. Melanie agreed with the exception that they all had separate beds. Jaime rolled his eyes and said "What kind of guy do you think I am" Heath, Paige, Andy, Brandt, Doc and Sharon all had moved into the new section of tunnels and we had plenty of space for everyone.
As my belly grew, I frequently was exhausted and I was thankful that people reverted to their old ways. Sharon would silently take the dishes or laundry out of my hands. Ian was so wonderful too; even after a long day of plowing and planting he would still rub my feet. It was nice though, our room became a place to congregate and it was almost always filled with laughter. Everyone kept on trying to teach me poker, but I was just not good at it. Kyle and Jodi obtained a chess set on a recent raid and they tried to teach me. I enjoyed getting to know Jodi, I found out quickly why Kyle fell in love with her. They had the same hot temper and both were funny. I offered to teach Jodi how to make the bread and the baked goods. She just crinkled her nose and said she's not that into the girlie stuff.
The raids they went on were always short never longer than a week and I was thankful for that. They had even talked Sunny into going once or twice and it gave her a bit of confidence that she needed. Thankfully Ian never went and he opted to stay back to work. They brought me back baby items and I was started to feel better. The basinet they brought was beautiful; I had obtained quite a bit of baby clothes. Every time they brought me back something I got more excited.
The baby kicked all the time. Doc said that this was perfectly normal and he estimated that I was probably six months along. He would often complain about not having the equipment he needed to know for sure how far along I actually was. What Doc and everyone really wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl. I knew it was a girl and I wasn't afraid to say it. I knew that Ian was hoping for a boy and we would often tease each other. It really didn't matter as long as the baby was healthy. Doc was hoping that the baby would come before the monsoons did.
Everyone talked to the baby; I think that it was a unanimous decision that the baby was to be named Hope, even if it was a boy. Ian had told the others the reasoning for me choosing the name, and the name stuck. I told everyone "If it's a girl I want her name to be Melanie Hope and if it was a boy Ian Hope, a boy should be named after his father right?" Everyone smiled and approved, but they baby will go by 'Hope'. When I told Melanie tears welled into her eyes and she said that she would be honored to share her name.
Often Jaime would pat my belly and said "I can't wait to teach you soccer kid. You'll love it". It made me happy whenever he did that. Freedom would lay his ear on my belly and whenever Hope kicked he would get all excited and run around "Hope kicked me in the face!" and it would make us laugh.
When I reached what we thought was my seventh month, Lucina and Paige had surprised me in the classroom. "Today you learn how to go into labor!" Paige said. Suddenly I got frightened and I squeezed Ian's hand. "Baby, it'll be ok. They'll help us" Ian tried to reassure me.
Lucina started "Wanda, don't be scared. You just need to know what's going to happen" she smiled warmly at me. "Doc has plenty of No Pain and Heal so you can't worry about the pain".
Lucina then started to inform me on how labor is going to feel like trying not to frighten me too much. "A contraction feels like a giant rubber band is going across your body snapping. Like this" She put a rubber band around my wrist and snapped it. "Ouch!" I yelped. It stung sharply for a moment and then the pain went away. "When you feel something like that, you need to let someone know immediately." She looked at me very seriously.
Next they taught me how to breathe. This seemed silly but she was very serious about this. She had me lay on my back and Paige grabbed one leg and Lucina had the other. "Ian you need to up there holding her hand, she's going to need you there, and she's going to need to hear your voice. Wanda, I know this seems odd right now but trust me, you'll be thankful for this later."
As Ian and I headed back to our room I told him "I don't think I can do this, I'm scared Ian." Ian stopped and pulled me in as close as he could "Sweetheart, you'll be fine. I promise! Lucina and Paige are just as excited as we are and they just got overzealous. No one is trying to frighten you." He hugged me tightly. "Ian I know no one is trying to scare me, it's just…well, what if I'm not a good mother?" I started to cry "What if I don't know what to do?"
"Baby, shhh, don't cry." He led me back to our room "It's going to be just fine, if you haven't noticed you have a huge and I mean huge family. Everyone loves you Wanda and everyone loves Hope. I promise you that everyone here is going to help you if you feel lost". By the time we reached our room I felt so much better. We had fallen asleep quickly and it felt like minutes later when I woke up with a start. Ian shot up next to me "What's wrong? Everything ok?"
"Um, Ian, I'm hungry" The look of relief swept over his face as he smiled. "I'll go find you something"