IMPERFECTION (AN INTERCULTURAL LOVE STORY )

Bonus chapter (1)

"Look who's  finally awake, my sleeping beauty" I cooed  to my  daughter Arianna who is  making  a small fuss in a crib. She fell asleep with her brother  a little after twelve  after feeding  them.  She woke up earlier than  her brother.  They've  just been asleep over twenty minutes.  I glanced at the other crib  to see her brother  still sleeping soundly.  I expect him to be up in the next twenty minutes  or so.

"Mommy  is here my sweet  pod" I said quietly picking  her from her crib trying not to wake Aryan.  I sat on the  rocking chair, placed Arianna on my arms properly before bringing  out my breast  and feeding her.   She wasted no time in sucking.

I delivered  my sweet bundles of joy   three  months  ago and  trust when I say there's  no greater experience  than motherhood.  I still find it hard  to believe  that I'm a mother  of four wonderful children.  It feels so unreal.   I could  still remember  me couple of years ago, hopeless, begging for at least one child but  now the Almighty has multiplied  the blessings times four.

Ever  since I found out I was pregnant  with twins again.  I had been preparing.  I knew what to expect and how  to go about it.  My experience  with the older twins helped me a whole lot.   It wasn't  as hard as it felt the first time.  Still, raising  twins toddlers is no joke including two older ones under five.   I don't have to be told  that I'm a real MVP..

Labour this time was so different  from the first time.  First because I had the love of my life with me and second because  it was a natural birth unlike  the first that was c section.   I saw hell this time around it was not even a joke.

The twins came at exactly thirty five weeks of pregnancy.  Labour started the night before.  I started feeling contractions  after dinner but I kept ignoring it  feeling it was something i could bare. It kept intensifying  by the second.  I didn't even tell Khalifa i was having contractions.   He just knew something  was up from my action.   He suggested we go to the hospital  but I told him not to worry, that I was still  fine.  We finally  sleep through that night even though  not peacefully.  

The next day, I was in the  bathroom getting ready for my morning  hygiene.   I remember vividly I was brushing  my teeth when I felt a flood of water rush out of me.  Instantly I knew my water broke.  I tried as much as possible not to panic.  Forget it, no matter how much you're prepared for labour,  you're  never fully ready.   I called out to Ahmad  and he  made everything  worse.  Nigga was freaking  out, I remember  yelling at him to calm the fuck down as he was not helping my situation.  I managed to take a shower after  much disagreement  from my husband  who insist we head to the hospital  immediate  but I refuse to deliver my baby without  being  as fresh as hell.

We finally got to the hospital and it really didn't take time for me to push.  two and a half hour  later, I was ready to push.  Khalifa was with me all through  whispering  sweet words and praying silently, kissing  on my head and holding my hand and trying to comfort me.  It's funny I mean I don't even know who was comforting who.  That would  be his first time in the delivery room and that  was my own first time experiencing  natural delivery.

Kei

I saw heaven  on earth.   Aryan was the first to the born while Arianna was born fifteen minutes  laters.  As soon as I delivered  the placenta,  I started bleeding non  stop that I lost total consciousness.   The last thing I remembered  was the Doctor's frantic  movements  in trying to revive me, my babies cries, Ahmad's yells that seemed so far away.  I could've  sworn I saw my greater generations.  I finally woke up the next day only to be informed I suffered  from Post partum Haemorrhage.  I stayed in the hospital  a little while longer because of that.