Assembling nursery furniture as an engineer is a frustrating process. I don't mean to say I am the best engineer in the world or even my country. I am probably not the best in my city, but I do know the fundamentals and whoever designed this shit, is getting a strongly worded email with attachments outlining my recommendations for improvements.
After all the angst and the special orders. Agreeing on colors. Trying to find strawberry and star-themed baby designs. Researching the safest crib and mattress and finding the best baby monitor. The nursery is done, and I can't wait to tell Kitten that Star's room is ready. I take one last look at her nursery and imagine Strawberry lying in her bed cooing at her star mobile. Or Kitten nursing her in the rocking chair. I look at the empty utility cart and I see it filled with diapers, burp cloths, and wipes, and I can see the two of us changing diapers like pros.
Our lives are about to drastically change in one month and I could not be happier.
As usual, NuNew is in his nest. Lately, he has been playing classical music for Strawberry because he read somewhere that it makes your baby smarter. I crack the door open and Mozart's Symphony No. 41 ('Jupiter') in C major, is playing.
"Kitten?"
"Meow.", Nhu says.
Ooh. NuNew is in a playful mood, perfect.
"Can I come in?"
"Meow."
OMG, he is so cute. I need a second before I go in to get rid of this goofy grin. When I walk into the room NuNew is sprawled out in his nest wearing nothing but my shirt and a pair of my underwear. He is air-conducting to the music and continues a few bars before he props himself up on his elbows trying to peer at me over his pregnant belly. His face is now the shape of a full moon, and I have taken to calling him Moon, or MooMoo.
MooMoo has replaced, or I should say he has coated his nest with a layer of my clothes. He regularly raids my dirty laundry. It is cute except I see a pair of my underwear and pray I did not do anything unsightly in them. Kitten waves me over and I lay next to him on my side. I know he wants me to scent him. It helps regulate his emotions and it is good for Strawberry too.
Nhu leans over on his side and begins to snuffle and rub his face into my gland and like a good alpha my body does not disappoint and soon he is a limp noodle and wants spoons. Making my omega happy excites me at an instinctual level and I find I can't deny my adorable pregnant beauty anything. I never imagined I could be this lucky, this contented.
We lay there in Moon's nest as I happily hold Nhu from behind and rub his belly, whispering to him and Star about how much I love them when we hear retching from outside the door.
It can only be July, probably coughing up a furball. Some slimy cold loveliness that I will step on at three in the morning. But it does not stop. Both of us sit up and stare at the door. Surely this can't go on any longer. It's just a hairball?
Nhu looks at me, his brows are drawn, and he has this little frown. I can see he is worried and to be honest, I am too. I stand up to see what is going on, and Nhu waves for me to help him up too. I open the door and there is July. He has what looks like a string stuck in his throat. I kneel to get a closer look.
"What is that? Is there something lodged in his throat?", Nhu asks.
I pry open his jaws, but I can't see what it is. I try and gently extract it by pulling on the string, but he yowls and tries to run away.
"Oh Hia, he needs to go to the vet.", Nhu says.
Any cat owner knows never to pick up a distressed or injured cat. If you do, you are going to get clawed half to death. So, I wrap up a very angry July in a towel while Nhu gets dressed and we are out the door with our little burrito cat.
Nhu insists on holding July in the car which I am not pleased about, because July could hurt him right now. But you try and tell a triggered omega in his last month of pregnancy to do anything and succeed, and I will give you one hundred dollars.
It is tense in the car, and I am trying to focus on driving, but July is making these sad little choking yowls now and that sets off Nhu. Which sets me off.
"Hia, he is in pain. What can I do?", asks NuNew.
"Talk to him. Hearing your voice may help calm him down.", I say.
So NuNew starts talking, and I hear the cutest confession. That would have made me aww if I wasn't so worried about July.
"I know we don't always get along. Okay, we never get along. But that does not mean I don't care. I know I should have respected that you were here first. And I promise when you make it through, we can start all over.", Nhu says.
"You need to meet Strawberry. I know you have been marking my belly when I am asleep. I know you want to meet her. So, think about that okay.", Nhu says.
Tears leak down NuNew's cheeks. He is kissing July's head, and July is helpless to stop it and he yowls for emphasis. Then NuNew answers him.
"I'm s-s-sorry. I didn't mean it. I do love you. Even if you are a stupid menace, you are my menace and I forbid you to die.", Nhu says, he is full-on crying now.
"Drive faster Hia, please.", Nhu says.
Nhu is petting July through the towel and coats him in calming pheromones which seem to work because July is no longer yowling.
"We are almost there baby. Everything is going to be okay.", I say.
And damn it, I mean it. The Panich family is no longer accepting any more heartbreak in our lives. We have paid our dues. We have met our quota.
ΩΩΩ
Five hours and three thousand dollars later we take July home, who is fine... for now.
Somehow, in the ten minutes that I left the nursery, July got into the crib. Attacked the mobile yanked it from the ceiling and started to tear it apart. During the carnage, he must have swallowed one of the puffy stars and it got lodged.
At this moment, July is nowhere to be seen. I am assuming he will come out later for food. Meanwhile, NuNew is sitting at the kitchen counter holding a plastic baggy. In the plastic baggy is one slimy soggy star and I am in the nursery cleaning up the remnants of the Starry Starry Night Mobile.
We will be having a funeral this afternoon for the mobile...or the cat.
I'm just saying, a silent NuNew is scary.
ΩΩΩ
Week 36 of your pregnancy is Jun 11, 2024 - Jun 17, 2024
Hopefully, your baby is in a head-down position. If not, your practitioner may suggest an external cephalic version to manipulate your baby into a head-down position. The vernix caseosa has now disappeared.