Harper & Lee Plus Three

Hospital-ity

April second was my first morning waking up alone in the hospital. It was awful. I missed my kids. I missed Lee having his arms around me, then slowly getting out of bed and kissing me before he left for work. I missed Ella, Zozo, and Lukas jumping on my bed.

After breakfast, I sat in my hospital bed, finally having some time to watch A Castle of Shadows again. I legit hadn't watched any of the series since the triplets were born. I was starting to only think I'd get through this TV show if I was in the hospital. I blew through nearly half of the second season by the afternoon.

"You really think you can just come into my castle and walk around like you're hot shit?" said Ace.

"It will be my castle when I'm through with you!" said Beau.

A nurse came in with lunch. I thanked her and took the lid off the tray. Spaghetti with meatballs. It looked like the kind I used to love eating in the microwavable trays. I took a few bites while I kept watching my show.

When I was done with lunch, the door opened. They were wheeling someone in. I groaned. The last thing I wanted was a roommate. The girl they brought in looked around my age. She had a galaxy-patterned fleece blanket on her bed.

They positioned her bed into place next to mine as one of the nurses said, "Hope you're okay with us bringing you a roommate, Harper."

The answer was obviously "no" but I didn't have a choice. I looked over at the groggy girl next to me. She had no baby bump, which was to be expected since they had me sitting in the Postnatal Ward. They didn't have room for me in the prenatal area.

"You alone, too?" I asked.

"Kinda sorta. My boyfriend is visiting my boys in the NICU," she said.

"Oh you've got multiples too? Nice."

"Just twins," she said. "High risk MoMo twins, so I'm just glad they made it."

"Damn. That sucks. I'm glad they made it too. I've got a high-risker myself," I said, patting my enormous bump. The heart monitor was all the way by my right hip, right where Baby F was sitting. "Some kind of heart problem."

"Wow. Is it something that can be fixed?"

"Yeah. They'll most likely need heart surgery if they make it. I try to say 'when they get here' because I don't need that negativity in my life."

She giggled. "My boys had a fifty-fifty chance, so I completely get it. I kept getting told not to get too attached and things like that. It drove my anxiety up the wall, but it's much better once they're here. Are you having twins?"

"Keep going," I said.

"Wow. Triplets? That's crazy."

"Keep going. I already have a set of triplets."

"No way. I can't imagine having quads. It's making me anxious just thinking about it."

"I don't know how you're gonna feel when I tell you there's six of them," I said, pointing to my bump.

The girl's face went pale. "You're joking."

"That's what I said when they told me there were six initially," I said. "It's unreal. We've had so many people contact us. We're even gonna be on MTV because we just can't afford it otherwise."

"That's just...wow. When you said there were six I was about to ask if you were getting your own show, like the Sweet Home Sextuplets family!" she said, continuing to giggle.

"Wait, there's another sextuplets family who has their own show?" I asked.

"You didn't know that?"

"No! I thought it was only Jon and Kate Plus 8. I ordered the DVD box set from Amazon so I could watch it and see if it teaches me anything about raising six babies at once! You're telling me there's another, more recent show?" I quickly Googled it and saw that the entire series was available for free on the TLC website. "Holy. Shit. I've got work to do."

We both had a good laugh, right as a young guy in a wheelchair came in. The girl next to me perked up and smiled. The guy in the wheelchair was grinning ear to ear.

"They're looking awesome!" he said, going over to her. He looked over at me, then back at the girl. "Did you make a friend?"

"We were talking about kids. I was telling her about the boys. This is..." she said, trailing off.

"I'm Harper."

"Yeah, this is Harper," said the girl. "I'm Ayla. This is my boyfriend Connor."

"Boyfriend and new dad!" he said.

"Harper is having six babies," said Ayla.

"S-six?" said Connor. "God bless. I can't imagine."

"Trust me, neither can I."

I had a good rest of the afternoon talking with Ayla and Connor. We even started watching the first season of Sweet Home Sextuplets together. She got discharged right before dinner, and my heart sank when after she left, I realized I'd forgotten to ask for her number.