Positively Yours (29 page)

‘It doesn't matter that you didn't tell me sooner. You and the baby are well, that is the main thing,' added her mum, who had her arms protectively around her. Mary Walsh had been the perfect stay-at-home mum to Erin and her two sisters, and it was because of her that Erin had had such a craving to become a mother, too. She might have let that craving become an obsession, and destroy her life, but now, as she listened to her mum's kind words and advice, she was reminded of what being a mother was all about: love and support.

Erin thought now might be a good time to tell them the next bit of news.

‘I should also let you know that John and I are expecting more than one baby. You grandparents will have your work cut out for you, because we're having twins!'

The table erupted. The whole restaurant turned to look at them, but Erin didn't care. She had realized that being pregnant wasn't just about herself and John, it was about adding to both their families, and all the happiness that brought. She rang her sisters, and as they screamed with joy down the phone Erin felt herself get giddy with excitement.

For the rest of the night John kept to water, and even though Erin wasn't drinking either she felt drunk with emotion. Her head was spinning trying to answer all the questions, and as
her mum tried to force her to eat more vegetables she looked around the table and thought how next year there would be an extra two people sitting at it. Two little people that she couldn't wait to meet.

‘
SO, HOW ARE
you feeling? Are the twins kicking like mad?'

Erin Delany sat down to relieve her tired legs as she chatted to her best friend, Amy, on the phone. Being thousands of miles away in Australia meant Amy couldn't be there in person for her friend, but she had rung every few days looking for updates on the pregnancy.

It had been three months since Erin and John had told their families and friends about the pregnancy and twins, and Amy had been so supportive to Erin since then. She had even sent her some pretty maternity clothes from Australia. Erin knew she was lucky to have such a good friend.

‘Honestly, I've three months to go but I look like a dinosaur, I'm huge!'

‘I'm sure you look great,' said Amy encouragingly.

‘No, I don't. I can no longer see my feet, and I think the babies must enjoy swinging from my ribs, because they feel like they are right up there.'

‘Two little monkeys!'

‘Yes, I suppose they are,' replied Erin, as she pushed off her shoes and lay down. She was knackered after a day at work, and had been dreaming of the couch since 9 a.m. this morning.

‘And how is John?' asked Amy.

‘Oh, he's been so good. Making me breakfast in bed, rubbing my poor swollen rotten feet after a long day of work, making sure we have plenty of magazines in the house.'

‘What about all your healthy eating? Are you still going to yoga?'

Erin laughed.

‘Yoga, are you mad? I've enough exercise walking up and down the stairs these days. No, I have to admit I had a lot of unrealistic ideas about what I'd be doing while pregnant. I might have been a bit too high and mighty in my remarks about other pregnant mums, too. The other night I even had one beer. Honestly, a few months ago I would've been disgusted if someone had told me that I'd have a drink when pregnant, but now I've realized it's not about yoga, being healthy and playing classical music to your unborn. No, it's about being in your tracksuit, relaxing, and eating as much as you can before the madness begins!'

‘I knew you'd come to your senses,' said Amy. She had known how much Erin had wanted a baby, and was so happy that now she'd got her wish, even if she'd got two wishes at once!

‘But, honestly, John has been fab, although he seems to have convinced himself that the twins are boys. He keeps going on about getting football posts for the back garden, and wondering if he should apply for season tickets for Anfield for the boys now, as apparently they've such a long waiting list!'

‘Oh God, isn't it bad enough he thinks they're boys, without making them Liverpool supporters too?' added Amy.

‘Yes! I think it'll be girls, but then I also thought it was only one baby for the first eleven weeks, so I guess I could be wrong!'

‘And how is work?' asked Amy.

‘Work is good. I'm busy, which is great. Although I can see a worried expression come over new clients when they see me
at their door for the first time. You can tell they're concerned I won't last long enough to see the work through. I look like I'm about to pop, even though I've got ages to go! Twins make me resemble a walking volcano about to explode! We've had to hire someone part-time to help us out, though, because I know soon I won't be in work, and Paula can't survive on her own.'

‘Can you afford that?'

‘Well, not really,' admitted Erin. ‘But we need another pair of hands in the office. Of course the company can't afford to give me six months' full maternity pay along with the other two salaries, so John and myself will just have to survive on his salary and our savings. But we'll muddle through. We'll have to!'

The girls chatted for another half an hour. Erin wished Amy lived closer, but knew her heart and new husband were both settled in Oz for ever.

‘Now, don't forget, Amy is a great name!'

Erin laughed, she had all her friends and family pushing names at her left, right and centre.

‘OK, I'd better go. I can't believe the next time I'm home you will have two children in tow!'

‘I know, it's all a bit mad, but we've been so blessed. A few months ago I'd started to think we'd never have children, and now we're having two. We bought our double buggy the other day and I keep staring at it. I just can't believe that soon it will be full. And I had to pinch myself last week when we ordered the two matching cots, it's unbelievable.'

‘It's not unbelievable, it's amazing,' said Amy, who was full of admiration for her friend. ‘You'll be the best mum ever,' she added, and with that they wrapped up their conversation, and Erin went back to her much-deserved nap on the couch.

An hour later she woke to see John flicking through her pregnancy and baby book. To her it was the Holy Grail, to John it was the book that kept his wife awake all night, and he usually had to rip it out of her hands, so she was surprised to see him reading it.

‘What are you doing?' she asked.

John looked up, surprised she was awake.

‘Well, you see, I was looking through the Mothercare catalogue and I noticed you can buy these baby carriers. They're amazing. You don't need to bring the flipping big double buggy, you just pop the baby into the carrier, strap it on to your chest and away you go!'

‘And what about the other twin?' asked Erin.

‘Oh, well, I'm only going to bring one twin at a time down to the yacht club for a little Saturday afternoon outing.'

‘The yacht club?' repeated Erin, trying not to smile.

‘Yeah, the twins can take it in turns to come with me, and these baby carriers will be perfect. None of this lugging buggies and big bags around. No, all I'll need is the baby and the carrier!'

‘And what about the nappies, wipes, bottles, formula, and spare clothes?'

It was obvious John hadn't thought the idea through.

‘Well, I can just leave that stuff in the car. Anyway, it's just occurred to me – what if we have a girl and I'm in the yacht club? Where will I change her? Do I bring her into the Men's with me, or am I allowed into the female bathrooms now I'm with child? I thought there might be some info on toilet etiquette in your baby books, but they don't seem to cover that.'

‘Well, first of all, you are not “with child”, John, and no amount of baby equipment will gain you access to the Ladies. And anyway, those bathrooms are pretty rotten. You'll just have to change the baby somewhere else in the club house.'

‘What? No, I'll talk to the club president about this, see what he can do.'

Erin tried not to laugh. They hadn't painted the nurseries, or bought any baby clothes or car seats, and yet all John was worried about was how the baby would get on in the yacht club.

‘Anyway, I got you something,' said John, reaching into an Eason paper bag. He pulled out a
Marie Claire
magazine, a
Hello!
and a copy of the
Irish Times
.

Erin grabbed the
Marie Claire
and opened it wide. She pulled the pages full of high fashion, beauty products and hair styles close to her face.

‘Oh, that's good,' she said, sniffing in the new print smell. ‘That's really good.'

‘You're such a weirdo,' said John, handing her the latest issue of
Hello!

Erin opened the middle-page-spread interview with Tom Cruise and inhaled the smell there, too. For months she had been craving the smell of fresh print. From new magazines to unopened newspapers, she had to get that aroma. Other women might crave chocolate or tuna, but for her one whiff of
Heat
magazine was all she needed to feel good.

After thoroughly sniffing her way through interviews with Brad Pitt, Kate Winslet and the royal family of Monaco, Erin tossed
Hello!
on to a pile of magazines as big as the European food mountain.

‘Did you already have that
Hello!
?' asked John, thinking he could spot the cover under a TV guide catalogue.

‘Yeah, I've bought it twice already this week, but once opened the smell goes, so it's useless.'

‘You could at least read them,' said John, settling into an armchair beside her and wondering why she couldn't have got addicted to something cheap like crushed ice, rather than
expensive magazines that were rendered useless after a few sniffs.

‘Don't worry, I'll drop them into Alison, she loves magazines,' said Erin, reaching into her handbag. ‘Anyway, I got you something today, too,' she added, handing John three small black-and-white printouts of her latest baby ultrasounds.

‘I'm sorry I couldn't make it, but there are just so many doctor's appointments. I can't ask for time off work for them all.'

‘I know, don't worry,' reassured Erin. ‘The babies are getting big, aren't they?'

‘Wow, you can see two legs and a foot in that one. But this one is amazing, it's got a total side profile of one of them.'

‘I know,' said Erin, getting up and perching on the arm of John's chair. ‘The doctor asked me if I wanted to know the sex of the babies today; apparently he could tell by the way they were positioned. I was so tempted!'

John looked at her with his mouth wide open. ‘And?'

‘And I didn't, I want it to be a surprise.'

‘Well, I think I know from looking at this picture,' he said.

‘Oh really?' said Erin, unconvinced.

‘Yes,' he said excitedly. ‘This side profile of the baby looks so like me as a child. I'm telling you, this one is a boy!'

‘That looks like you as a kid?' asked Erin, pointing at the small blurry mesh of black, white and grey blobs.

‘Yeah, the chin, nose and forehead are exactly the way I looked.'

Erin burst out laughing. ‘Well, unless your parents took X-ray photos, I can't see how you can think that's like you.'

‘Mark my words. That is a boy,' said John, gazing at the picture proudly.

‘We can discuss this more in the car, we're late for Stephen and Ruth's.'

‘
OK, but bring the printout. I want to show them. Stephen knew me as a kid, I bet he'll think the baby looks like me, too!'

Erin shook her head in disbelief but stuffed the printouts into her handbag nonetheless.

Ten weeks ago their friends Ruth and Stephen had had their second child, Daniel. Their daughter Jessica was now twenty months old.

‘Are you sure you want to babysit?' Ruth had asked Erin on the phone earlier that day.

‘Yes, we need the practice, and I'm sure you could do with some time alone.'

‘Well, we could, but we're not going far, just to that new burger place for some food. We never have time to cook any more, so anything other than tea and toast will be a real treat!'

Erin and John arrived just as Stephen was putting Jessica to bed upstairs.

‘Don't worry, once she's down she usually stays asleep all night,' Ruth said. ‘It's Daniel who will keep you busy! I'll feed him now, and we'll be back before his next feed, but if you're stuck I'll leave a bottle of expressed milk in the fridge.'

Erin saw John blush.

‘But don't worry, we'll be back within two hours!'

Erin was listening to Ruth, but noticed John surveying the house, which looked like an atomic bomb had gone off in it. Jessica had her toys spread out everywhere, and in-between a Dora the Explorer kitchen and a farm set was Daniel's bouncer, his soft toy and a funny looking cradle.

‘It's a newborn soother,' said Ruth, seeing them eye up the cream cradle that sat in the middle of the floor. ‘It's like a motorized Moses basket. It has three different soothing motions. Daniel falls asleep the minute we turn it on. I wish
we'd had one when Jessica was that age. When I think of all the miles we walked every night in an attempt to get her to sleep! That's how I shed the baby weight, it was all that exercise!'

‘How is Daniel doing?' asked Erin, as Ruth began breastfeeding, and John awkwardly turned to look the other way.

‘It's amazing how different girls and boys are,' said Ruth. ‘Jessica was so alert, and even at a young age wanted to see what was going on, while Daniel is a real boy, and, just like any man, all he wants is food, sleep, and to be near a woman's breast! And like all the men I know he hates changing clothes or being asked to do anything he doesn't feel like! I swear he already protests at having to smile at strangers or say hello to visitors! Anyway, you're so good to take him tonight. We'll be back by ten, and since he's just been fed he will probably nod off, and you'll be able to sit down, relax and watch some TV.'