Harper & Lee Plus Three

Baby Shower Surprise

I didn't really want a baby shower because I was kinda embarrassed about being a teen mom, but Sophia insisted. The best part was that it wasn't just for family. I could invite all my friends. Well, friends being Etsy and Lee.

Sophia, of course, went way over the top, but her theme was on point. It was owls, of course. The color scheme was gray, yellow, and white. I was really hoping she'd do a black and white theme like I wanted, but she said it was too hard to find baby shower decorations in those colors.

"It's more of a wedding color scheme anyway," she told me.

I sucked it up and dealt with the color scheme. At least it had owls. I felt a little bad, because instead of chilling with Hazel, Lee, and Etsy, I was catching up with Levi and Zoey. I missed them so much. They were going to be four in only a couple of months and I hadn't seen them in so long.

"Babe, look at all those presents!" Lee said to me, pointing at a pile of gifts on the kitchen counter.

"Not while I'm reading!" I said, pointing to the Blue's Clues story I was reading Zoey.

Lee kissed me on the head. "You're gonna be such a great mom."

He walked away, and I finished reading the story to Zoey. Then, it was time for presents. The first one was a really nice anti-colic bottle set, since I was going to formula feed only. The next one was two matching sets of bath towels and washcloths that looked like elephants. The next one was a big gift cube. It had sleepers, onesies, bibs, hats and mittens, which either had dalmations or fire trucks on them. Lee and I didn't care about gender stereotypes. We had another gift cube after that, which had a lot of the same stuff but with cute little foxes on it.

I squealed when I opened the next box. It was two sets of the owl fitted crib sheets I wanted. They'd work perfectly in our owl nursery. The next box was two of the bedding sets that went along with the sheets (the changing pad cover, diaper caddy, and skirt for the bottom of the crib).

I moved on to a yellow striped bag next. It had four of the sleepsacks I wanted, the ones with the yellow, brown, and grey owls on them. The bag that was next to it had sets of nightgowns that matched the sleepsac. I got two sets of three, so there were six in total. As I went through the bags, I got the mittens, onesies, and burp cloths in the same set, just like I asked for on my registry. I specifically wanted everything to be gender-neutral, so I could switch between each baby and it wouldn't matter what they wore.

There were just two more big boxes left, both from Sophia. Lee brought the first one over to me. I knew exactly what it was. I opened it, then gasped. I told her I'd settled on a cheap baby swing. This was not that sixty dollar swing. It was the Mommaroo bluetooth swing: over two hundred dollars.

"Sophia? Are you serious?" I said.

"You're going to have your hands full! I wanted you to have one with all the bells and whistles!" she said, pushing the next box towards me.

I tore the paper open. It was a second Mommaroo swing. I nearly passed out.

"Wow! Thanks everybody!" I said.

"Yeah. These are all great and they'll be such a huge help," Lee said. "We really, really appreciate it."

"Alright everyone, before we have cake, Harper and Lee have a surprise they'd like to tell everyone!" Sophia said.

"Lee, the bag!" I said, pointing to the Victoria's Secret tote I brought in. He placed it on my lap. "We're going to reveal the gender of the babies!"

Everyone cheered with excitement. At this point it was the very beginning of September, right before school. I was currently twenty weeks and three days pregnant with my babies. At this point I was already a whale.

I watched as Etsy covered her mouth, trying to contain herself. Since she lived with us, she knew what the real surprise was going to be.

"So we have different-colored hats that Harper is going to pull out of the bag, which will let everyone know what the babies are," Lee said.

"Is everyone ready?" I asked.

"Yes!" said the room full of people all at once.

I pulled out the first hat "Okay. So Baby A is a..."

"Ah! It's a girl!" Hazel said, practically screaming at the sight of the pink hat with a bow.

I handed the hat to Lee and pulled out the second one. "And Baby B is..."

Everyone let out a big "ooh" and "ah" at the sight of the blue hat. John and Blake high-fived each other. I looked at little Levi, who was grinning ear to ear, probably thinking about a new buddy to play trucks and trains with.

I took a deep breath. "And now...Baby C is—"

Everyone's jaws hit the floor. They were all looking at each other, totally confused.

"Harper...triplets?" Sophia asked, totally shocked.

"Triplets!" I said. "The story is, when I got my first ultrasound they saw two babies. But on my anatomy scan, they saw three. They said that during my first scan, one was hiding behind the other in the same sac. Which means, we'll have a set of identical twins and one baby who looks different!"

I quickly pulled out a gray hat. Everyone looked even more confused than before.

"One boy, one girl, and one surprise," Lee said.

"We asked them not to tell us which is which, the single one and the identical twins, so we'll be surprised! We won't find out until they're born if we have a girl and two boys, or two girls and a boy!" I said.

"Oh Harper, I'm so happy for you!" Sophia said, wrapping me in her arms. "I'll make sure I get you one more baby swing."

"Okay, but don't spend money on a third Mommaroo! I want the kids to have a different option in case they don't like that swing," I said.

"If you insist," Sophia said.

"I can't believe I'm getting three nieces and nephews!" Hazel said, jumping up and hugging me too.

Everyone let go, and then it was time for cake. I had someone come and bring it to me. At this point, I was already having trouble moving. I was really scared that two babies were now three, but I was hella hyped that now I was having a C-section. No crying and screaming in labor pains for me.

But it was coming up. Doctor Andrews told me how triplets always need to be born early, so my three beans were coming in December, not January. It was going to be a rough road ahead for us, but we'd deal with it.

***

Wow, it's officially triplets! What a (not really) surprise! What do you think the surprise last baby will be? 

Will it be two girls and a boy, or two boys and a girl?