More to handle - 5.14 pt1

Authors note: I want to apologize in advance for the severe passing of time here. Well actually within the last few and next few posts. I have wanted to catch you all up to me. With this post though, you might understand the lack of pictures - due to concentration on the game! Kind of forgot to take them... Sorry.

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Rosetta lay in the delivery room for six hours total. David didn't want Rylan to see any of what was happening, but didn't have a babysitter, so, as much as he wanted to be in the room, he had to take care of their boy. The two of them were in the waiting room most of the time, but when Rylan got fussy, he was taken outside to get some fresh air. It seemed to help calm him.

Inside the hospital, Rosetta was busy giving David the girl he'd wished for. More so than that, she was giving him three girls, not just one.

Between sleeping spells as the nurses were getting the triplets ready to go home, Rosetta wondered why she had had three babies. Triplets didn't run in her family. It was a complete - total - shock. When the doctor had told her - after the first one had been born - not to relax just yet, there was one more to go she had been surprised. She came close to fainting when they told her there was a third on the way. Rosetta wasn't sure if she could stay awake anymore to deliver that last baby, but she did it. That, though, is the reason she was now dozing in and out of sleep while the nurses prepared the infants. She was thoroughly exhausted from the pushing, and the emotional shock.  

Since one woman couldn't carry three babies in her arms safely, the nurses provided a basket to bring the girls home in. After Rosetta had a small nap and the girls were all bathed and checked out, the hospital staff snuggled the babies in the basket together, wrapped in blankets, and sent them home with their mother.

Rosetta walked out, carrying the basket of joy, ready to surprise her husband. She spotted him and their son off in the shadow just talking together. She heard that Rylan was asking questions about babies, like what they do or what they eat. Smiling, Rosetta announced her arrival.

"Well. I have happy news, good news, and surprising news. What do you want first?"

David locked his eyes on the basket. "The good news."

"You can go shopping, we'll need some things." She told him. When she saw he was waiting for her to continue, she did, "The happy news is, it's a girl."

David's smile widened and he started toward his wife for a kiss. She held up a hand.

"The surprising news is, there are three girls."

His jaw dropped. "Wow. Three girls!" He smiled again, unable to contain his excitement. "That's amazing! And I thought you couldn't do a better trick than delivering just one baby!" He planted that kiss he'd been waiting for right on her lips, "Thank you Rose. Thanks for giving us a family."

She shrugged her shoulder a little, "You had a hand in it too, you know. Though I wonder still why I had triplets, there are no triplets, much less twins, in my family history."

David thought for a moment. "Oh. You know, my grandfather was a triplet. I wonder if it came from my side?"

They took the limo home, the family of 6, and David was sure to tell the driver to make it a safe and slow ride. On the way home they discussed names. They had only picked out one name before the girls were born, not three. They gave the first born the name of Brenna, it might be a day or two before the other two girls had their names. Rylan had been silent most of the trip home, which was kind of unusual, but he didn't seem unhappy.

Since the girls were sleeping and Rylan was okay, they made a quick stop at the store to pick up a few things they would need right away before going all the way home. David picked up another swing or two, making sure one was pink.

When they got back to the house, the driver helped unload their new purchases since he knew the family well and figured they'd have other things to tend to. One at a time the babies were taken from the basket, cuddled and given a bottle before setting them either in a swing or a crib. As she was feeding one of the girls, Rosetta remembered what she had thought about two babies not being much harder than one. Now they had four. It was going to be a bit harder than she anticipated.

After a few days all three girls had their names. Brenna, Caylin and Dayna. So far, being so young, the infants mostly slept and that made life a little easier. Rosetta napped when she could, and took care of Rylan. When the babies were up, Rylan watched them with mild curiosity. It looked to Rosetta like he thought they might be aliens from another planet. He hadn't spoken much since the girls had been brought home, mostly just observed. He played by himself while his mommy or daddy took care of the new babies, and when it was his turn with them he giggled and played happily. He asked for things when he needed or wanted them and nearly always got what he requested. Eventually he found that his parents had enough time and love for all four of their babies, and he wasn't going to be left out. After that he started talking again, babbling about anything and everything, like he usually did. He even talked to his sisters about what he was doing and what he thought they needed to do - they seemed to like listening to him.

David didn't slack in his baby care, he helped out in as many ways as he could. He would feed the girls and Rylan in the mornings if Rosetta wanted to sleep in, then bathe them and play with them all. He let his wife have enough time to get up, get showered dressed and eat before he would go to the park for his practice. As much as he wanted to be home with his family, he had to make some money to keep them going.

The months went by as quick as they possibly could. One day when David came home from working, he entered a completely silent house. The sound of it was unnerving. He didn't think he'd heard silence in the last four years of his life, basically since Rylan had come into the world. Instantly he thought something might be wrong so he raced up the stairs. When he reached the top he heard the soft tinkling of a lullaby playing. He slowed down to quiet his steps. Looking into the room at the top of the stair he saw all of his girls sleeping. The triplets were all in their own swings, and Rosetta was passed out on the small couch they had gotten. He smiled at the sight. When David walked into his bedroom he found that Rylan was asleep in there too.

David and Rosetta had tried to put Rylan in his own room after the second floor was added, as they had planned, but when they did he would just cry and cry. So they moved him back into their room again. Instead, they went ahead and bought a twin bed to get him ready for when he grows out of that crib. By then he'll have no choice but to go to his own room.

David cleaned up their bedroom a bit, picked up a few toys that were scattered around and made the bed. Rylan woke and smiled at his father. "Daddy home, Daddy home! Hi daddy!"

"Heya buddy. Shhh. Mommy is still sleeping." David said to the tot.

"No, I'm up. Welcome home dear, I didn't hear you come in." Rosetta said, sleepily, from the doorway.

David walked over and wrapped his wife in a hug, then he kissed her. When he pulled away he laughed a little. "Oh Rose, you wouldn't have heard a tornado coming through. The only thing your ears are tuned to anymore are children's voices. Not that it's a problem. Oh, I stopped at the store on my way home today, because I got paid, and I bought the girls some cribs. They are downstairs to be brought up, unassembled."

"That's great. You take care of Rylan and I'll go down to start bringing them up." Rosetta left before he had a chance to disagree with her plan. It wasn't long before he heard her pulling the boxes up the stairs. He tickled Rylan and talked to him before taking him downstairs to feed him dinner. 

David brought Rylan back up to the second story when the little one finished eating. It was getting close to bedtime, so they wanted to stay upstairs. He brought the toddler to the little potty seat so he could use it.

"Peee peeeeee daddy. Me pee pee. Do you pee like me?" Rylan inquired.

Chuckling at his son, David replied, "Yes, but I use a bigger potty because I'm a bigger person. Now, you wanna go play in the other room?"

"Yes yes. I do, we play peek-a-boo?"

"Sure. Your mommy's still putting the girls' cribs together, so we have some time."

David went out of the door, Rylan following close behind. The two of them sat down on the rug and started a game. When his son tired of that game, David was quick to switch to a word game to keep his sons language skills sharp. Just at that time though, Rosetta came out of the girls' room.

"Whew, okay well I got them all up here, and put two of them together. Now my hands hurt though, so the last one is yours to do. I'll take him." She said to her husband.

He smiled at her before rising to his feet, "No problem. I'll get it there. I have magical skills you know, it'll be done in a jiffy."

Rosetta scooped Rylan up in her arms. She watched David go and then asked the toddler if he would snuggle with her for a few minutes. Rylan was quick to say his usual 'yes yes'. She went over to the rocking chair and sat down with him. Her son laid his head on her shoulder while they rocked back and forth. This was one of the only times where you would find the little one so quiet. He enjoyed the snuggle time with his mommy, and sometimes even dozed off into a nap.

David came out about twenty minutes later saying that the cribs were ready. Rosetta stood and handed Rylan over. She then picked up one triplet at a time, snuggled her, fed her, burped her and laid her in a crib. David had picked out three different colors, he based his selection on the colors the girls' seem drawn to most. Caylin likes blue best, Dayna tends to prefer grey things and Brenna leans more toward green toys. To his dismay, none of his little ladies seemed to like pink much.

Dayna was the last to go in her crib. Rosetta played with her and snuggled her before laying her down. She stood after all of the girls were settled in and watched them. She never dreamed she would have this many babies to tend to at once, and it was tough sometimes, but she was loving every minute of it. Time seemed to fly by everyday. Before they knew it the girls were about to celebrate their first birthdays.

The months went by and the girls got bigger every day. Rosetta and David both made sure to spend some special time with Rylan daily because they didn't want him to feel left out. As the girls had gotten older they needed attention more frequently so it often felt like most of their time was taken up by caring for the triplets. David was normally the one to get his son out of bed in the morning, since Rosetta usually was cooking breakfast for everyone when the little one woke. David would always give him a few snuggles and tickle his sides to get him laughing first thing. He'd then change his clothes and play with him in the upstairs den before bringing him down to eat.

Rylan would come back upstairs with both parents to get the girls up from their morning naps. He would wander off to David and Rosetta's room, where he still slept, and play with David's old toy. He had spotted it one day from his crib and was instantly attached. Every day he found time to seek it out and play with it, he would sing it songs and cuddle it. At first David hadn't wanted him to play with it, for fear of it coming apart while the toddler was holding it. He knew it was an old toy and was just worried for the boy, but eventually he gave in.

David felt proud of the fact that his little man knew the difference between things that were toys, and things that were not his. He always heard horror stories from other families with toddlers that got into things they shouldn't, or broke things around the house that they played with when they weren't supposed to. Rylan never did anything like that. He only ever got things that were given to him, or things he knew were toys.

One day, Sonia had come over early to help Rosetta with anything that needed to be done in prep of the babies' birthday party. Rosetta had told her there wasn't much left to do so they could just hang out for a while. They stayed upstairs where all the kids were and Sonia played a video game while Rosetta watched. Rylan even came out of his parents bedroom to see what his Auntie Sonia was doing. He sat and watched the game for a while also.

"Race race!" He'd said. "No Auntie, the purple car, purple not yellow. Yay!"

Sonia laughed at him and did whatever he asked in the game. After a time though, Rylan wandered off to play with other things. She put the game away so she could better talk to Rosetta.

"So anyway, we've been living together for a week or two now, Steve and I. He's real nice. Actually we're going to dinner later, so remind me not to eat much cake. He's working this afternoon, or he'd be coming to the party too."

"That's so great that you and him came together. I'm happy for you." Rosetta said. "When can I expect you to have a baby?"

Sonia laughed a little, "Oh I don't know, we haven't talked about it. We'll need a bigger place if that is to happen. I'd love a little one of course, and wish I had one the same age as yours."

"Oh, you'll get there I'm sure, I don't remember a day gone by that you haven't mentioned wanting a kid. I think if you hadn't met Steve when you did, you would have adopted a baby!"

"Yes, you're probably right about that."

The girls heard the doorbell ring and made their way downstairs to answer it. Sonia carried Rylan.

To be continued...