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She wrinkles her brow the way she does when she’s confused "In case of what?"

"I don’t know In case a baby starts colares at me like I’m nuts "Don’t look at me like that It’s been known to happen And there’s two in there The second one could shove the first one out"

She has a worried look on her face–almost one of panic–so she rolls her n and calls out, "Will someone ride with us? Just in case"

I lean over and add, "One of the girls"

Even if souys see what only belongs to me "I won’t have to kill Lairah or Gia if they see you naked"

Lairah volunteers and climbs into the backseat "You know it’s only like a fifteen ht?" She’s nonchalant as if nothing could happen in that amount of time

I put the vehicle into drive and pull away fro reflection when I look up into the rearview mirror "Whoa You didn’t say that part when you asked for volunteers"

I pull onto the road before she has ti out of the car "That was for a reason"

"Asshole" She scoots to the middle of the backseat and leans forward She peers over and sees Avery holding her abdo in this car on the way to the hospital if I’m in here"

I take Lairah’s advice for the first time in my existence and drive h of relief when I pull up at the ad with a wheelchair "You ht called ahead and instructed us to be waiting for you at the entrance"

Avery’s put to bed and fetal monitors are applied to record the heartbeats of our babies A labor and delivery nurse begins a health questionnaire and Dr Knight enters just as she is finishing up The good docjoke–to put Avery at ease about what’s going to happen next–but then she gets down to the real reason we’re here when she puts on an exalove She lowers the head of Avery’s bed and then her hand disappears under the covers between her legs I ht be a little weirded out about it if I hadn’t already seen her do it in the office "You’ve definitely changed from the last time I checked you How much were you dilated last time I checked you?"

"Two to three centimeters and seventy-five percent effaced"

She smiles as she nods "I’d call you five and ninety so you’re definitely in labor Nu with a vaginal delivery if you’re still on board with that"

We had already inal birth since it is safer than a o to surgery at some point, she would be no worse off unless she delivered nuet the second "That’s still the plan"

"Perfect," Dr Knight says "We’ll have the operating room ready in the event we need it I’m satisfied to let nature continue its course since you’re changing your cervix I know you had thought of doing this without an epidural but I really prefer you have one placed If the first baby delivers and I need to give the second one so out quicker, you won’t appreciate the pain associated with the things I’ll need to do"

"I will happily take so for this pain" That was a different tune than the one she had been singing about wanting to give birth naturally without pain s and then I’ll let anesthesia knoe’re ready to get started"

She waits until the nurse is gone and then looks inan epidural?"

I couldn’t possibly be let down by her decision "I never wanted you to have these babies without so for pain You ca The pain is so ht needing to reach inside to help the second baby I think that’ll be really painful without the epidural"