Stephanie's Choice

Stephanie's First Time Away

A couple of days had passed since Stephanie and Beth had spent the afternoon at the park with Jimmy. While Beth took a nap in her arms, Stephanie thought that it was a good time to make a new video for her YouTube channel. After watching a couple videos on other channels, Stephanie thought that it was a good idea to start a series of videos, wherein she would update the viewers on Beth's health and overall developmental progress every month. She called it the Better With Beth series.

Stephanie had spent approximately an hour and fifteen minutes filming and editing the video footage of Beth's one month update. In the middle of doing so, Beth woke up looking for food. Once the bottle was made and Stephanie prepared to feed Beth, her phone vibrated on the edge of the bed due to a call from Jimmy.

"Hey, you" Stephanie said dreamily with a flirtatious chuckle upon answering the call and putting the phone on speaker.

"Hey yourself. So I was wondering, do you want to hang out next week? Just the two of us? Word on the street is, it's someone's birthday next week..." Jimmy offered as his voice trailed off in a suggestive and equally flirtatious manner.

"Really? Okay! " Stephanie responded gleefully as she looked down at Beth who seemed to be going to town on her bottle.

As they continued to talk, Stephanie began to wonder where Jimmy would take her and how on earth he remembered her birthday. But then again, in the short time that they had known each other, he always seemed to be full of surprises.

Stephanie and Jimmy continued to talk for approximately 15 more minutes until both Tommy and Beth began to stir; one from his nap across the hall and the other was finished with her bottle and needed to be burped.

"I gotta go but I'll talk to you soon, okay?" Stephanie asked as she set Beth's empty bottle down onto the bedside table.

"Okay, Steph. Take care and say hi to Beth for me" Jimmy responded just before they simultaneously hung up and Stephanie went on to fixing Tommy some lunch, changing Beth's diaper and editing/uploading the video while Beth napped.

Throughout the remainder of the week, Stephanie kept herself busy by taking care of the house, Beth and helping out with Tommy; which all served as a distraction from spending too much time thinking about the week ahead of her. However, the next time she blinked it would seem as though she was in for more than she had dreamed.
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The morning of her 35th birthday, Stephanie was awoken by Beth at approximately 6:45. She had woken up with infant 3 times during the night; which she was grateful had been reduced from the every hour stretch. Every time Beth woke up to be changed or fed, Stephanie knew that there was no longer any need to set an alarm clock and that there was no better reason to get up when you were not a morning person.

"Good morning, little bear. I love you so much. Can you say 'happy birthday, mama'?" Stephanie asked in a whispered sing song voice as she leaned into the crib to retrieve the fussing infant and placed a kiss on her forehead.

Before heading downstairs to make Beth's morning bottle, Stephanie quickly grabbed the Cover Goods multi-use nursing cover; a hand-me down from Tommy's infant days, which just Stephanie used as a baby carrier until Beth was big enough for the Tula. Upon getting Beth strapped in nice and securely, Stephanie began to tiptoe down the stairs, so as not to wake anyone else in the house.

The minute Stephanie and Beth entered the kitchen and turned on the light, they were greeted by the entire household, who had already prepared breakfast; which consisted of all of Stephanie's favourites- waffles, tomato/cheese/mushrooms omelette and fresh fruit. Stephanie's eyes widened in shock upon realizing that the family had woken up extra early to do all of this for her.