28 Weeks
"Shouldn't we just pay someone to do this for us?" I asked, bouncing lightly on a blue exercise ball as I looked down at Jane, sitting in a mess of crib parts and instructions. She was frowning at the piece of paper in her hand, holding up a long piece of mahogany in her other hand as she tried to decipher what exactly she was looking at. There was nothing about this that suggested it was going to end well. We didn't exactly have the best track record when it came to putting together beds of any sort.
"Okay why? Why do they make this so hard?" Jane complained, throwing her head back as both her hands dropped to rest in her lap in frustration. I pursed my lips, trying to hold in the giggle that was building in my chest at the sight of her. I debated telling her it can't be as complicated as she was making it seem, though the last time I said that I was proved wrong; so I opted to keep my opinion to myself.
My stomach had really popped in the past two weeks and I was starting to feel it. I had that infamous pregnant waddle going on when I walked, and I needed to sit down every fifteen minutes when we went anywhere. Don't even start me on toilet breaks. I had peed more in the past two weeks than I had peed during my whole pregnancy; I was sure of it. One of these babies sure was having fun playing with my bladder. Figuratively of course.
"Why don't I go call your brothers? Tommy has done all this before." I reminded her, nodding to the mess she was making on the floor of my yoga room. We still hadn't gotten around to painting the nursery, so we were putting anything that could fit through the door together today and painting tomorrow. At least that had been the plan for the past two weeks.
"No, I can do this." She said, her stubborn attitude coming off too strong for me to deal with. I pursed my lips again, resting my hands on my stomach as I quietly waited for her to cave in and ask for my help. I frowned as I noticed just how much the blue exercise ball I was sitting on was straining under my extra weight.
"I love you, but this does need to be done before the babies get here…" I said quietly, standing up and pushing the ball into the corner of the room. I slowly lowered my body to the floor, sitting cross legged next to Jane, pulling the instructions out of her hands. She sighed dramatically, leaning her head on my shoulder in defeat.
Looking down at the instruction leaflet in my hands, I suddenly wished I had let Jane try and figure this all out on her own. Insert tab A into slot C at a perpendicular angle before slotting side B into the opposite end of tab D. When did tab D come into play?
"Okay this is too hard." I admitted, causing Jane to laugh from beside me, groaning loudly as she her whole body down on the floor. I knew if I followed suit and laid down, I wouldn't be able to get back up.
"How are my babies doing?" Jane asked, looking up at me with a small smile as she reached to touch the one side of my stomach she could reach from her position. As if on cue, one of the babies kicked hard against my stomach, my fitted maternity shirt bulging where his/her foot pushed through my stomach.
"Awake." I laughed, swallowing the lump in my throat at the movement going on inside of me. I could have had years to get used to this feeling, and I still don't think I would be used to it. No matter where I was when one of the babies kicked, I had to stop and take the time to appreciate what was happening. I refused to take a second of it for granted.
"Have you thought about what we want to do with their last name?" Jane asked as I moved to sit back on the exercise ball, the hard floor too much for my pregnant back to handle. I pursed my lips, bouncing slowly with both hands resting on my stomach as I did so.
"I just assumed they would be Rizzoli's." I told her truthfully. When Jane and I had gotten married I had opted to hyphenate my name rather than drop Isles all together, though I never used Isles any more.
"I was thinking maybe we could use Isles as a middle name." She suggested, sitting up and resting her back against the wall, stretching her legs out in front of her. It was rare for even me to see Jane wearing shorts, and the tight black booty shorts she was wearing today made me wonder why I didn't insist on her wearing shorts more often.
"It depends what their first names are going to be, I don't want them to have a name that doesn't flow." I told her, earning a nod as we both sat in silence. My mind traced over every name of every person I had ever met, trying to find two names that matched each other appropriately.
"Do you think they should have Irish or Italian names?" Jane asked, tilting her head to the left. I knew why she was asking; my mother had suggested over a family dinner last weekend that we were supposed to follow some sort of tradition with the names of our children. I could not have a more Irish name if I tried, and apparently, we were supposed to respect and follow that.
"Ben?" Jane suggested, and my nose instinctively scrunched up at the mere sound of the name, causing a loud surprised laugh to escape Janes chest.
"What about Amy?" I said, smiling at her across the room. Jane rolled her eyes, shaking her head in response.
"Hayley?" I shook my head, not even taking the time to think through the name she had just suggested.
"What do you think of Noah?" I asked, looking down at my stomach as I spoke, placing both my hands over where I assumed baby B was still resting. The second the word left my mouth, I had this strange feeling wash over me.
"Well it's not Irish, that's for sure." Jane laughed standing and moving to sit closer to me, staring at my stomach with pursed lips and tight eyes. "I kind of love it." She said suddenly, looking up at me with a smile.
"Did we just name one of our babies?" I asked; the smile on my face so huge it made my cheek muscles start to burn. Jane chuckled quietly, standing and holding her hands towards me, easily lifting me into a standing position.
"Noah Isles Rizzoli." She said quietly, placing her hands on either side of my face with the smile I had only ever seen twice in my life. I had figured out that it was her tell when she was at her absolute happiest. "I love you."
"I love you more." I whispered in return before she leant forward, pressing her lips softly to mine. Her hands moved from my face to rest on either side of my swollen abdomen. "We still have to think of a girl's name." I noted as we stood in the comfortable embrace, our foreheads resting against one another as we both glanced down at the bump keeping our chests from touching.
"Harper Isles Rizzoli?" Jane suggested, and my heart skipped a beat. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath as I pictured calling the name Harper through the house when dinner was ready. Or going to a day care and saying I was there to pick up Harper Rizzoli. It worked, it worked on so many levels I couldn't fathom it.
"Our babies have names." I said, opening my eyes and looking up at Jane who was beaming across at me. "I love you but my back hurts." I complained, making a quiet chuckle leave Janes mouth before she backed away, giving me space to sit on the window seat in the corner of the room.
"I'm more determined than ever to get this done." Jane said excitedly, looking down at the mess of pieces of wood at her feet. "But first I'm going to call Tommy."
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"You're doing it wrong!" Jane exclaimed when Tommy picked up the power drill, placing it against a nail he had secured against one side of the first crib. Jane had been hovering over everything he did from the moment he arrived, and his exasperation was clear when he turned the drill off, dropping it to the floor and covering his face with both of his hands.
"Why did you ask for my help if you won't let me do it?!" Tommy exclaimed back at her, throwing his hands down by his side. Jane frowned at him, picking up the drill and turning to look at the crib with raised eyebrows. Nothing about this was going to end well.
"Jane… Maybe you should let Tommy do it." I suggested quietly, bringing the warm cup of green tea in my hands up to my lips, looking down into the cup when she shot a silent glare in my direction.
"I've done this before." Tommy reminded her, prying the drill from her hands as he got back to work on finishing the first crib. Once the said nail was firmly in place, Tommy grabbed one end of the crib and shook it hard, smiling proudly when it not only stayed together, but didn't move.
"Show off." Jane muttered under her breath as they both stood proudly looking at the crib they had taken two hours to put together. I had to admit, they had done a good job. The crib looked incredible. "Beer?" Jane offered, pushing his shoulder playfully as she started to leave the room.
"Um, what about the other one?" I asked, stopping Jane midstride. She turned to look at me with a confused expression all over her sweet face until she noticed the rest of the pieces still left of the floor.
"Oh right, there's two." I pursed my lips, trying to decide if I was amused or annoyed that she completely forgotten about the fact that we were in need of two cribs instead of one. And everyone kept telling me I had pregnancy brain.
"Did you guys get one of those basinet things?" Tommy asked, taking a break and sitting beside me as he sipped on a bottle of water. Jane and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows, each waiting for the other to ask the embarrassing question.
"Why… Do we need one?" Jane asked sceptically, busying herself with placing all the crib pieces in the appropriate order that they would need to be put together.
"Without them you'll never be able to sleep in the same room as the babies." He said simply, shrugging as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Our parents didn't spend all that money on these so they could sleep in our room." I pointed out, gesturing to the mess of wood on the floor. Tommy chuckled, shaking his head.
"If you both think you'll be okay sleeping apart from them when they come home from the hospital… You're in for a rude awakening."
I guess we were buying bassinets.