March 2016
At 20 months old, the octuplets were hyperactive during the day, taking only one afternoon nap, and most slept through the night except the odd couple of times when one would need the toilet. None of the boys had begun potty training because they weren't ready, and Ellie was the only girl that hadn't started - though it had been expected that she would take longer as she was the youngest and smallest. Leah, Megan, Summer and Bella were all trying their best, but as expected there was sometimes accidents.
The octuplets were in the living room that had been designated the play room - there were four living rooms, and one was purely for the children - and Sam stood up and realised that the baby gate had been left open ever so slightly. She glanced around the room and counted to check they were all there.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7- Tom we're missing one." Sam blurted out worriedly. Tom looked up and glanced around and also only managed to count seven. "It's Ellie. Where's Ellie?" Sam demanded.
"Calm down, she can't have gone far." Tom stated as they both ran out of the room and he closed the baby gate behind him. Sam paused to listen, and she could heard the faint cries of her child that broke her heart to hear. She followed the sounds until she found Ellie sitting on the carpet of the bedroom - the only bedroom on the ground floor that was rooms away from the living room - clutching her toy doll and crying her eyes out.
"Ellie!" Sam let out a sigh of relief as she found her baby girl whom she ran to and then cradled her in her arms to settle her. "Don't ever do that again." Sam scolded softly as Tom watched the two females - he had never seen Sam so panicked in their two years of marriage.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry." The girl sobbed and Sam slowly stood up with the girl against her chest.
"Did you leave the gate open?" Sam asked her husband.
"No, you were the one who came in the room after me so it can't have been." Tom replied.
"I... Me." The girl admitted.
"You opened it?" Sam questioned.
"I sorry... I see you open it and... I didn't know it wong." The girl said through her sobs.
"Okay, okay. Calm down, you're not in trouble." Sam said soothingly and it took a few minutes until the girl's sobs subsided. "Right, listen to me Ellie. You're the only one out of your brothers and sisters who can open that gate, but you're not supposed to because me and daddy put those gates there to keep you safe. So between you and me, I'm trusting you not to open those gates unless I say you can, okay?" Sam explained.
"Okay." The girl nodded.
"Good girl." Sam kissed Ellie on the forehead and then picked her toy doll off of the floor. "And seeing as I can trust you, how about I ask daddy to take the gate off of you and Bella's bedroom so that if you need the toilet in the night, you can come and get me or daddy, rather than having to call for us?" Sam suggested, as she hoped that giving the girl a little bit of responsibility would ensure that she wouldn't open the gate again.
"Thank you." Ellie said before she wrapped her arms around Sam's neck and buried her head under her mother's chin.
"You're welcome." Sam smiled at her husband before she carried her lost daughter back to the play room.
"Y'know we got them those finger paints and stamps the other day?" Tom asked as he fluttered his eyelashes at his wife.
"Ooh, I wonder where this is going." Sam said sarcastically. "They can finger paint, but you know Bella doesn't like paint so I'll do some colouring with her. And make sure that you put newspaper underneath." Sam warned.
"Don't you want to join in with the finger painting?" He smirked.
"No, I'll be fine with Bella. And you'll have to change them into old clothes first." Sam added.
"Why do I have to do all of this?" Tom moaned.
"Because you're the one who wants them to finger paint." Sam retorted.
In the kitchen on the tiled floor, newspapers had been laid out all across the floor, and the seven octuplets were sitting there in pairs of old clothes with a sheet of A3 paper each, whilst they waited for their dad to arrive with the pots of paint and water. Sam however was sitting on a stool at the breakfast bar, with Bella facing her on her high chair, and she had a colouring book with thick crayons to keep her occupied as she hated the feel of paint and didn't want to take part in the activity - not that Tom would complain because it was one less child to clean up.
"I've put the hot water on by the way, so you can give them a bath after this." Sam stated smugly.
"And will you be helping me bathe our children?" He queried as he turned the tap on to fill a few pots up with water.
"I suppose so." Sam sighed. "But only if you at least try not to get too messy." Sam added.
"Since when would our children get messy?" Tom said innocently and Sam rolled her eyes before she picked up a crayon to help Bella colour in her picture of a simple fruit bowl. Sam smiled as she had coloured in the apples blue, the bananas pink and the pear purple - and of course the colouring was nowhere near neat, it was more scribbles.
"What colour do you want the bowl to be?" Sam asked as the girl was hard at work, concentrating on her masterpiece. The girl looked up and then pointed at an orange crayon. "Okay, and what's the name of this colour?" Sam asked as she showed it to Bella as the paper wrapper had the word orange written on it, not that she could read it very well.
"Or... Ora... Orange?" Bella replied questioningly.
"Yep, well done." Sam smiled.
Tom placed the bowls of water down first as he knew that they wouldn't play with it, they just wanted the paint, before he returned with three sets of paint for them to share - red, yellow, blue and white pots.
"Pink." Ellie whined.
"I'll show you how to make pink." Tom smiled as he knelt down next to Ellie after distributing the paint evenly, whilst the rest of the children began digging in and wiping paint all over the paper. "Look, you put your fingers in the white." Tom said as he took Ellie's hand in his, and got some paint on them. "What do you want to make pink?" He asked.
"Flower." She replied confidently and Tom let out a sigh of relief that it wasn't something complex like a magical pink dragon or a princess that she usually went for.
"Okay, well if I draw this first." Tom said as he drew a simple five petal flower in the middle of the page with a stem and leaf using a pencil. "Now just do a bit of white." He said as he pressed Ellie's little hand on the paper and created a white splodge. "And then get a little bit of red." He said as he used one of Ellie's clean fingers and dipped it in the pot. "Then if you mix the two together, you get pink." Tom smiled and Ellie giggled.
"Pink!" She shrieked.
"Yep, but keep it down, and remember what I've said about trying not to mix colours." He warned before he stood up.
"Daddy gween." Charlie ordered.
"Daddy puple." Summer ordered.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Tom smirked.
Tom had just carrying everyone upstairs for their bath to clean up, and thankfully they were all doing as they were told and keeping their paint covered hands to themselves in the ensuite bathroom where they could easily bath four at a time to speed things up.
"Mummy me no bath." Bella said firmly.
"No you don't need one so, can you just sit in the corner there for me, and you can play with this." Sam smiled as she lifted the girl up and sat her down on the bathroom bat against the wall before she handed her a duck that they played with in the bath sometimes.
"Right, you're the messiest so you go first." Tom said as he carefully took Jonny's clothes and nappy off, and then placed him in the warm, soapy bath water. He created a pile of clothes as he took off the clothes of Megan, Summer and Leah, and placed them in the bath too.
Sam was occupying Charlie, Jonny, Ellie and Bella whilst three of them waited for their bath time, when Bella got up and tugged at Sam's sleeve.
"Mummy wee wee." She whispered to her.
"Okay." Sam smiled as she opened the cupboard and took out Bella's potty - the four that were potty training (Bella, Summer, Megan and Leah) all had their own potty to encourage them to be independent. Sam placed it on the floor besides the normal toilet, but Bella began twiddling her thumbs. "What's wrong?" Sam asked and the girl glanced up at the two boys and Ellie besides her. "It's alright, their not looking, they can't see anything. I'm in the way." Sam said kindly as she repositioned herself. Reluctantly, Bella pulled her jeans and underwear down and sat on the potty. "Good girl." Sam smiled as she got her a bit of toilet roll to use once she had finished.
"Mummy what this?" She heard Charlie ask and Sam and Tom both turned around to see him holding a pack of pads in his paint covered hands. And Ellie had a single tampon in her hand that had ironically been covered in dark red paint where Sam had obviously left the bathroom cabinet open. Tom chuckled as he couldn't wait to see how Sam dealt with it.
"Right stay still." Sam ordered the two sternly whilst she made sure that Bella finished with her potty, wiped properly and washed her hands before she took the items off of her children. "Mummy uses these to clean up messes sometimes." Sam improvised as she took the red tampon off of Ellie and put it in the bathroom bin. She then took the pack of pads off of Charlie, took the pads out of the packet and put them back in the cupboard before she put the packet in the bin too. "And this is mummy's cupboard so don't go in here again." Sam said sternly as she wiped the paint off of the cupboard handle with a bit of toilet roll and then closed it.
"Right, Aaron is squeaky clean when you're ready to take him." Tom stated.
"Okay, can you three sit down and wait for your turn in the bath." Sam ordered and Charlie, Jonny and Ellie immediately plonked themselves down on the bathroom mat.
"I come?" Bella asked as she remained standing.
"If you want to, yeah." Sam nodded and the girl stood by her mother's legs, ready to make the journey as she loved proving that she could walk as far as she wanted.
"There we go little man." Tom said as he wrapped the hooded blue towel around Aaron and handed him to Sam.
"Right, let's go and get you changed." Sam smiled as she balanced the boy on her hip and carried her to the boys' bedroom with Bella walking alongside her with a grasp on some of Sam's jeans in her fist to keep her steady. She dried him thoroughly and then went to get a nappy but he began playing with himself inappropriately - usually, Sam and Tom let the boys fiddle about because they were just curious, but only in their bedroom or the bathroom. Not with his sister there. "Come on, I've got to put your nappy on." Sam said sternly and she had to pull his hand away before she fitted his nappy and then clothed him.
"Mummy why she diffent?" Bella asked curiously.
"You mean why is he different?" Sam corrected. "And I think you mean the difference between boys and girls don't you?" She asked and Bella nodded instinctively as her mother generally tended to understand what she meant which is why Bella trusted her Mum so much because not many people understood her. "Well it's just how things are. Boys have penises and girls have vaginas." Sam stated as she saw no point in making them call them silly things like 'girl parts' and 'boy parts'.
"Is it why dad stand and you sit?" She asked.
"When we go to the toilet? Yeah, because wee comes out from different places so boys have to aim, but girls have to sit." Sam replied as she sat Charlie down. "Do you want to put these on for me?" Sam asked softly as she handed Charlie a pair of socks which he slowly pulled on.
"Mummy when I toilet?" Charlie asked.
"It's up to you Charlie. If you want to start potty training, you can ask daddy but I'm not sure if you're ready yet." Sam admitted, as he often didn't know he was having a wet nappy until the very last minute so he didn't appear to have any control.
"Oh..." He babbled as he placed his hands on the carpet and then stood up by himself.
"Well done." Sam smiled. "Right, if I sit you down with this, can you two stay here please? Sam asked as she sat Bella down with her brother, and then handed them a building block each from the toy box. "That's it, play nicely." Sam warned before she left the room to get the next child dressed.
8pm
The children had been put to bed after a long Saturday filled with plenty of activities together, and so Sam and Tom were just getting changed in their own room, ready to have an early night but both had things on their mind other than sleeping.
"Y'know Charlie got your pads out earlier?" Tom began.
"Yes." Sam replied cautiously.
"You're not using them at the moment are you? I mean, you're not on right?" He questioned.
"No. Why?" Sam asked sheepishly.
"Well I'm just glad that the kids didn't take these out of my draw." Tom replied as he took out a condom from his bedside table.
"Are you now?" Sam smirked as she knew exactly what he was trying to do.
"Is that a no?"
"Of course it's not." Sam laughed before she planted her lips on his, and he gently pushed her back onto the bed.
A little while later, their clothes were thrown on the floor - as was the duvet - and Tom was on top of Sam as he slowly thrusted in and out of her which caused soft moans to escape her lips.
"Mummy?" The pleasure was interrupted as both parents looked over to the door to see Bella and Ellie standing in the doorway in their pyjamas with bed hair, and with a look of pure horror on their faces.
"Bel- no, stop." Sam ordered but the two girls had ran away already so Sam had to jump off of the bed, pull her thin grey dressing gown on to cover her body and then run after them. Thankfully, she caught them just as they reached the top of the stairs where the baby gate was shut. She was out of breath but the children looked frightened and they had tears running down their faces. "Hey calm down, what's wrong?" Sam asked as she didn't know what they had thought their parents were up to.
"Why daddy hurt you?" Bella broke the silence as tears rolled down her cheeks and Sam realised that her uncontrollable moaning must've been perceived to be moans of pain.
"No no no no no, you've got it wrong sweetheart. Daddy didn't hurt me, he'd never hurt me." Sam said softly, and Tom was standing in his tight boxers just inside of their bedroom so he heard every word - he couldn't go out to calm his girls because he had not yet calmed down, so to speak, from their session and he didn't want to scare them even further. "We were making love, it's just something that mummy and daddy do sometimes." Sam explained.
"But you made noises." Ellie finally spoke up.
"That was because daddy was making me feel good, and I was happy." Sam replied awkwardly as she hoped that her children wouldn't remember this conversation ever again. "Look trust me, I'm okay." Sam said reassuringly. "Why were you two out of bed anyway?" Sam asked as it was the first night that she had removed the baby gate from the two girls' bedroom.
"Potty, but..." Bella trailed off, and Sam had to pat the back of Bella's pyjama bottoms to realise that she had wet herself - presumably because of the fright that she thought that her mother was in pain.
"Okay, and you?" Sam asked softly as she looked at Ellie.
"Wee wee nappy." Ellie proclaimed as she patted her nappy.
"Okay, keep it down otherwise you'll wake your siblings. Come on, let's get you both changed and then tucked back into bed." Sam said as she held a hand of each of the girls, and walked them back to their room which was only opposite their master bedroom.
Sam flicked a lamp on so they wouldn't be too alert that they wouldn't get back to sleep again.
"Don't look like that, accidents happen. And I'm not mad." Sam said softly as Bella looked disappointed. Sam knelt down and got out another pair of pyjama bottoms. "Just give yourself a quick wipe, and then dry yourself with some tissue." Sam said as she handed Bella a wipe after pulling her trousers down, and then she moved on to Ellie. Ellie placed her hands on her mother's shoulder as Sam pulled the wet nappy off of her, and then wiped her clean with a wipe. "Shall we put a little bit of cream on? That looks a little bit sore again." Sam suggested as she picked up a tube of nappy rash cream.
"Cold!" Ellie squealed as Sam rubbed the cream in on her upper thighs where the nappy had been caused a rash due to friction.
"Sshh." Sam whispered becuase she didn't want her other children woken up.
"Sorry." Ellie giggled and Sam couldn't help but smile. She then pulled up the clean nappy and pulled her pyjama bottoms up again.
"Right, you go and climb into bed." Sam ordered and Ellie toddled off so Sam went back to Bella. "You okay?" Sam asked quietly as the girl stood with a small wad of used tissue in her hand.
"Where this?" She asked.
"In here." Sam replied as she pointed to the bin and Bella dropped it in there, before she pulled her clean pyjama bottoms up. She said goodnight and tucked her girls in before she went back to her master bedroom where Tom had gotten his pyjamas on.
"I can't believe they thought that I was hurting you." Tom admitted sadly.
"Well you was on top and I was moaning." Sam joked halfheartedly, but she realised that Tom really was hurt that his daughters thought that he would do such a thing. "Tom, you know they didn't mean it. If it was two of the boys, they would've thought that we were wrestling or something." Sam remarked as she began to pull on her pyjama shorts and vest. "They just panicked, Bella even wet herself because she was shocked and they didn't understand." Sam added quietly.
"Is she alright?" Tom asked.
"Yeah, they both are." Sam replied as she slid into bed and flicked the light off. "Y'know, they came at the worst possible moment I was just beginning to enjoy myself." She smirked.
"Really? Because by the sounds of it, you had been enjoying yourself for a while." Tom remarked.
"Just shut up and go to sleep." Sam ordered as a smile tugged at her lips.
"Yes Mrs Kent." Tom sighed before the couple fell asleep.
Thanks for reading, please review :)