2.12 The benefits of familiar hospitals

Dear readers, I don’t know what to do. Please help me. For a few weeks now, Ivy has been acting strangely. She spends a lot of time sitting around, watching our daughter, which technically is not an unusual thing. I do it myself. But she often cries when she’s around Willow. That scares me, and I’m afraid to ask her what is wrong. Especially since she easily gets mad at me (and anybody else) at the moment. That started a few weeks ago, too.

Maybe she’s sick. She has been eating regularly, just like me, but often she runs to the bathroom afterwards and throws up. Oh God, what if she is really sick? I need to help her. If only I knew how to do that. I can’t lose her already. We just started our little family, and I secretly wished for another child. A boy maybe. 

What is also odd is that she has been cleaning the house a lot. I know, right?! That’s the scariest part of her behavior. Cleaning is not fun at all, it’s dull and boring. She knows that (and I know that, of course. That’s why I try to avoid it as much as possible), so why would she do it? 

In my despair, I actually started talking to myself, asking what is going on here. Willow must have been eavesdropping and, being the smart girl that she is, she once walked over to me and gave my knees a big hug. Why my knees, you ask? Well, I’m much taller than she is. Obviously. Then she started mumbling something. It sounded like “haby”, or maybe “faby”. I have no idea what that means. She must be too smart for me already.

One afternoon, I couldn’t stand the silence between us any longer. When we were watching TV, both exhausted from a long day, I started an innocent conversation by asking her how work had been. She turned up the volume on TV. I got even more worried, and asked her directly what was going on. Was something wrong? Did I do something? Did I forget to do something I should have done? Was she sick? Was she going to leave me? Was she going to quit her job? Too many questions that I wanted to utter at the same time, which resulted in me adding a well-pronounced “wasdidwhatwhy?”. 

She sighed, and then smiled at me. That was a good sign, hopefully. I put my arm around her and scooped closer, which she let happen without saying anything. Another good sign! Then she looked into my eyes, swallowed and then said the words that changed everything.

Ivy was pregnant again. We were expecting our second child, and both of us were hoping for a boy. She didn’t want to influence the gender of the child, though. 

Her second pregnancy went by so quickly. Suddenly, it was already my birthday! I was turning into a real adult. How did that happen?! It had only been a few years since I had moved to Twinbrook, involuntarily, and started that job at the hospital. And here I was now, half of my life officially over.

Even though I didn’t look that different, I was a little worried. Wrinkles would soon start to show, and my body would ache every morning when I got up. There had to be something that I could do about this. Hopeful, I spent hours outside the house –even though it was freezing by now –, doing experiments and analyzing different things. I admit that I had no idea what I was doing, but at least it looked smart. Right? And maybe I was able to produce something that would stop me from aging. Science could do everything.

When I wasn’t on my science machine thingey outside, I took care of Willow even more than before. Ivy was often tired now, and taking a lot of naps, which left me with our daughter. Not that I minded! It was just getting hard to manage job, household and daughter within only 24 hours, now that Ivy didn’t do much anymore. Besides, my hair kept falling in my face, often keeping me from seeing anything. It was time for a change.

But before I had time to see a hairstylist, it was Willow’s birthday. I refused to believe that she would be a schoolchild in a few minutes, since time had tricked me once again. She was still my little baby, and very soon she would be able to walk out of this house and go anywhere she wanted. Sigh.

Her hair had grown a lot during the last months, just like mine, and she decided to wear it down. Just like me. The green strands of hair stuck out rebelliously. My little girl was getting older!

You know who else was getting older? Our unborn baby! Before we knew it, Ivy went into labor, screaming and swearing the entire time. Of course, I took her to the hospital again. Not only because I knew where they kept the alcohol for calming my mind, but also because I knew we had midwives who did an amazing job.

Little Xander was born in the middle of the night, after some nerve-wracking hours. For Ivy, at least. After my third glass of vodka, I was no longer worried. I only choked when I looked at her and the baby for the first time, because I saw two wives and two baby boys there. Phew. That would have been a lot to handle.

At home, Willow decided to show her little brother who rules this house. Even though it says something different on the bell plate. 

Author's notes: I know I said Alfie and Ivy weren't wishing for another baby... apparently they were, I just hadn't played with them for a long time! As soon as I started my game yesterday, Ivy's baby bump appeared, and I was like "...oh". 

And of course the first boy had to be named Xander *waves at Jo* ;) 

 One outtake, because it is too hilarious to be deleted:

This is a test scientists (the skilled ones, not the ones who work in the science career) can do. They throw (!) a duck (!!!) at their opponent and see how long it takes them to catch it (!!!!!). I couldn't stop laughing! Thank you, EA.