I finish all my online studies and classes for my teaching certificate, passing the exam with no problem. The classmate who followed me, aka the stalker, apologized when I saw him with my new bodyguard at the next class. He never really figured out who I am. Sometimes when I'm out and about by myself, I wear my mother's plain gold wedding band as to not draw attention to his symbol ring I was married with as my wedding ring. My classmate thought I was single and when he realized I was married, he was so embarrassed. He also thought he scared me when I went to the police station. All was forgiven and we are good. The exam was a timed computer generated test, we know instantly that we passed and our certificate for teaching will be recorded immediately if we want to start working right away.
The gal my husband hired to be my bodyguard is a lovely woman, about my age. She is a retired detective from the Minneapolis police force. After thinking about it, I decided to tell my classmate, Jerry, who I am on our final trip out to the parking lot. When we get to the lot I turned toward him, "Jerry, there's something I want to tell you." Jerry looked at me kind of puzzled, "Karen, I hope you're not still mad at me for following you two weeks ago?" "No, Jerry, I'm perfectly fine. I can't believe you don't recognize me?" He looks at me a little mythed.
"Jerry, Karen Neal is my maiden name, my married name is, Gigi Neal Nelson. Ring any bells?" This next part is so priceless to see a 50 something man acting like a teenage girl made my day; squealing and jumping up and down. "Oh my god, Oh my god, oh my god! I can't believe I spent the last few weeks in class with Prince's wife and didn't even know it. You were not joking when you said you were going to teach at Paisley Park. Is Prince really going to open Paisley Park as a music school?"
My bodyguard, doing her job, stepped between us and he got real quiet all of a sudden, "I'm surprised you didn't have me arrested and thrown in jail for following you. That's what happens, right?" I laughed, "No Jerry, there would have been a restraining order first. Yes, we are opening Paisley as a music school next year. Please, mums the word for now."
We all laughed and he agreed to keep it a secret. I motioned for the bodyguard to move out of the way. Jerry picked up on it. "Karen, this lovely lady is not your friend giving you a lift to class is she?" I had to chuckle, "No Jerry, she is my personal bodyguard, Barbara; retired police detective. My husband insisted I have her with me in case you decided to escalate the incident from two weeks ago. He wanted to make sure I was safe."
All flustered, "Karen..." "Please, call me Gigi. The only one that ever called me Karen was my mother, God rest her soul." He went on, "Gigi, I apologize for causing all this grief from me acting like a frat boy on hormones. Please allow me to take you to dinner or something to make up for this huge misunderstanding."
"Aww Jerry, that's not necessary. No harm was done. However, I would like to invite you as my guest to Paisley Park this weekend for a Paisley After Dark Party. It is this coming Saturday night, usually late like around 10:00 pm. I'll give them your name at the box office and you will be escorted to my table." Poor guy, I think he's about to either pass out or pee his pants.
"Are you serious? I wouldn't miss it for the world, I can hardly wait." He finishes seeing us to the car and as I watch him go to his car, he is jumping up and down, throwing his fists up in the air like he scored, it's like he's having a vertical seizure. God love him, he is really a sweet guy.
He comes to the party and has a wonderful time with me at my private table. This was an 'unannounced' party with a performance for the album contest winner where one purchase in the US of the album gave you a chance to win a flyaway to Paisley Park for a performance, specified in the contest conditions to be in the week of 12-19 October. One 'Dorothy' won the contest.
When my husband took a break, he came to my table and I introduced him to Jerry. At first, he was a little perturbed until I told him, "Sweetheart, Jerry didn't know I was married. He apologized to me at the next class. All is good now." He shook Jerry's hand and Jerry checked out, starstruck. He only sat with us for a few minutes before he returned to the stage. It was a small intimate crowd of about 50 and lasted for an hour. Before the evening ended, Jerry told me he landed a job teaching at a technical school after the first of the year. It is only a couple days a week and he is happy with it to keep him busy. He will be teaching the field of information technology that his business was based on. It is like an extension of what he retired from and he is looking forward to it.
The day after the exams, we fly out to LA for the 20-week ultrasound. If we want to opt for amniocentesis, this is when it is done. We have not discussed it since the preliminary blood tests came back clear. The meet up with Chari at the Dr's office is like last month. This is an exciting ultrasound as it will be in 3D to see the babies. After Chari is prepared for the ultrasound, we go in with the Dr and get all situated for the big reveal of the babies. The Dr starts the ultrasound, moving the wand over Chari's belly. Suddenly, the twins are visible on the screen. It is so clear to see all their features, moving around and doing cute things, it takes my breath away.
Tears are streaming down both our cheeks when he leans over to whisper in my ear, "They look like you, breathtakingly beautiful." Chari turns her head toward me, "Gigi, there is no denying those are your girls. They look just like you." The tears are free-flowing at this point. "Even the Dr. weighs in, "Mom, those girls are the spitting image of you." I start to feel weak in the knees and back up to the chair a couple steps behind me and collapse into it. "Baby, are you feeling alright?"
I nod, tears still streaming down. "Sweetheart, nothing and I mean nothing could have prepared me for this. To see our babies for the first time in 3D is amazing. It is like a window, looking inside." He kneels down in front of me, holding my hands in his, "Baby, only about 4 months to go until we get to hold'em. Simply beautiful." Wrapping his arms around me, pulling me into his chest for a hug.
Dr. Abrams clears her throat, "Mr. & Mrs. Nelson, are we doing the amniocentesis?" Quickly he stands, "No, Dr. Abrams, it's not necessary. We have all the information we need. The blood test was clear and so was our genetic testing, no need to place the babies at risk doing the testing."
Dr. Abrams replies, "The babies appear to be growing well and healthy. They are on the larger size for 20 weeks. We may be seeing them sooner than we thought. I am thoroughly examining the twins on the monitor and checking the heartbeats on the doppler, these scans measure the blood flow through the umbilical cord and around different parts of your babies bodies. Everything looks great."
After she is finished the Dr turns to us, "Mr. and Mrs. Nelson, follow me to my office while Chari gets dressed." I have a mini panic attack, "Dr. is there something wrong?" "No, Mrs. Nelson. I have a few things I need to go over with you. It will only take a few minutes."
We follow her to her office and take a seat. She sits across the desk from us. "Mr. and Mrs. Nelson, the babies are growing and doing well, but they are 25% larger than normal for 20 weeks. I want to let you know that delivery might come earlier than anticipated. We usually expect twins from 32 weeks on, but if they keep progressing at this rapid rate of growth, we might have a delivery around 30 weeks. I am going to monitor their development closely and have Chari come in every two weeks from now until 30 weeks and then I want to see her every week. If the babies are born prior to 36 weeks, they will be considered preterm. I will do everything in my power to keep those twins from being born preterm. Nature may have it's own mind on it though, I hope not. The good news is your twins are di-di twins. Di-di twins have individual placentas and a separate inner and outer membrane. Because they're separated, the risk of pregnancy-related complications is lower. The babies can't develop, Twin Reversed Arterial Perfusion or be at risk of umbilical cord entanglement and compression. Di-di twins have the greatest chance of being born at term, compared to mo-di and mo-mo twins. I am grateful that we fall into the one-third of identical twins that are di-di twins."
His hand is squeezing mine so tightly, my knuckles are turning white from lack of circulation. I decided to ask the looming question, "If they are born prior to 36 weeks, will they be in the NICU?"
Dr. Abrams shakes her head, "Probably, but it depends on a lot of factors. If they are 35 weeks with good weight and no complications, then no. If they are 32 weeks, probably so because lung development won't be complete and they will need help feeding. My goal is to get them to 35-36 weeks. Chari's last set of twins went 38.5 weeks and we induced labor. I will be elated if we make it that far."
He's looking down and his hand is shaking in mine, "Sweetheart, everything will be alright. The Dr. is just letting us know what to expect if it happens." He finally looks up at me with his eyes glassy, "Babe, we need to pray for the best outcome." is all he says.
Dr. Abrams stands and tells us to think positive thoughts about it. Everything is going well and be thankful for that. We go out to meet up with Chari. The nurse went over with her what Dr. Abrams was discussing with us. Chari is all smiles, "Guys, everything will be alright. My babies grow fast in the beginning then slow down. I feel wonderful and don't think I'll go early. Please don't worry, the same thing happened before. Trust me, all is well." We all go to lunch and talk about the great expectation of joy and happiness we will feel when they arrive. The next day we go back to MPLS until the next ultrasound in two weeks.
In the meantime, we fly to New York City for the 40th anniversary of Saturday Nite Live. He performed on the show and also at the after party. We had a wonderful time in New York. I missed seeing George Henderson, my buddy at UPI. We keep missing each other as he was on a long-term assignment out of the country. We will try again next time. I did get to catch up with him on the phone and teased him a bit that I will have some news for him in a few months. I really do owe them all a huge debt of gratitude for the diligence the 'good ole boys' have done to keep us out of print. They have done a great job and I will be forever grateful to them for preserving our privacy.
We go out to LA every other week. The week of Thanksgiving, Chari invites us to stay and celebrate the holiday with them. Of course, we stay to have extra time to bond with our babies in utero. The twins are extremely active and have slowed down gaining at the rapid rate the Dr was concerned about. This week they are right on target weight and size for 26 weeks.
He finally figured out he was partly the cause me sick and quit placing undue stress on me. Bless his heart, he's trying really hard to not do anything to upset me. My medical test came back and only showed I may have gallbladder disease causing my nausea, but I don't have any associated pain so that is inconclusive. I continue to take the Nexium and it seems to be working.
While we are in LA, the next round of in vitro takes place with the second surrogate, Bobbie Tullo, lovely girl very much like Chari and has successfully carried twins as a surrogate. She had no complications and delivered the twins at term, 37 weeks. This time they use frozen embryos that we have on hold from the first round. All embryos have been genetically tested and cleared. Same as the last time, two embryos are implanted, one boy and one girl. Our next trip out for Chari's bi-weekly ultrasound, we will find out if Bobbie is pregnant. He is hoping for twins again.
We fly from Los Angeles directly to our house in the Caribbean. I am anxious to get there to rest and relax on the beach. Oh yeah, there will be an ample amount of romance too, the 3 R's. Every day is filled with work on the charity requests for funding while he works in the studio. Same as last year, I give him the request to look over and he decides which ones to fund. The charities are his alone to fund, I only qualify them, never giving my opinion on them even when he asks me. My life would be so much easier if he would set up a board to run the charities, and more efficient too, but he is set on doing it like this as he has always done it. I'm only busy like this at the year-end with his charities because of the flood of year-end requests for funding.
We are enjoying the warm weather in the Caribbean as opposed to the frigid cold of Minneapolis. The sun and warmth gives me energy unlike being in MPLS where it is cold, all I want to do is hole up and hibernate. I love spending time with him on our private beach in the cabana. Yes, there is plenty of the 3 R's and I look forward to it after a day of work. Sometimes we take a swim after dinner in the pool and doing laps in the pool relaxes me for the cabana later. It has been a year since his hip replacement surgery, we still enjoy the exercises we did in the pool as part of his rehab. It really is more like pool dancing than exercising and it always ends with some amazing pool sex.
A/N-Please vote, leave me comments and thoughts. Thanks to all you readers. I'm trying to get these chapters out to you as quick as I can. The story is pouring out of me at a rapid rate. Please take the time to leave me a comment or thought. I enjoy getting them as much as you enjoy getting my updates. They mean a lot to me. Remember-Purple Love!