february 11th — thursday morning
6:15 AM
Tori sat at the counter of her island with Ella on the surface in front of her. The sad baby cried and screamed as the tired mother did her best just to stay awake. "Where is daddy?" Tori mumbled. Ella didn't want to be held, but she surely didn't want to be alone. And she didn't want mommy, but daddy wasn't an option either and Noah had to go school, so the baby was going to have to settle.
"Is it a cold? Or near death?" André asked, coming down the steps with the boys and Ella's blanket. Tori shook her head as her husband let the boys down.
"E, crying," Joey pointed as Jaxon moved to the pantry door.
"Mhh Poptart," he called with no concern for his sister. André glanced to the baby then to his son.
"Babe, maybe she's hungry," André guessed grabbing the packaged snack.
"I tried nursing her, she refuses to latch," Tori replied. André broke off a piece of the sweet treat and handed it to the almost 9 month old. "Babe, she can't have—" In shock, Tori watched the child go ham on the small piece she was given.
"I told you. Hungry," André smirked. Tori was confused, and definitely a little upset.
"She weaned over night and didn't even tell me," Tori sulked, picking up her baby and placing her on her shoulder. "It was too soon," she mumbled, doing her best not to cry. She wasn't ready to wean. She was only 9 weeks pregnant. And while she looked 13 or 14 weeks, she was still early. Thankfully, she could still pump and not worry about her milk supply dropping for the newcomer. But, she wasn't necessarily ready for her time with Ella to be cut so short.
"It's okay. You'll have two new babies to booby feed here soon," André joked. Tori shook her head immediately, as she got up to make sure the boys were okay in their seats.
"Babe, don't say that. Twins was hard enough with no kids. I can't have two more on top of these three," she whined. André could see how annoyed Tori had gotten and put on his best puppy dog face.
"I'm sorry. Okay, I won't say that anymore. I'm just excited to see the baby today. We didn't get to experience this with Ella, so I'm just ready you know," he smiled. Tori understood, his excitement, but she needed it to be dialed back. They were already biting off more than they could chew and did not want to start metaphorically choking.
"I know, just be patient," the momma of three said. André agreed and moved to more pressing matters.
"So, are you not cooking breakfast or..." he trailed off, knowing a Poptart wasn't going to do anything for him. Tori giggled and handed off the baby, before moving into wifey mode.
9:45 AM
Dr. Arizona Robbins, the doctor that delivered the twins, updated Tori's chart as they sat in the quiet office. "Where are the kiddos this morning?" She asked, jotting down Tori's blood pressure.
"My mom took them to the museum. The boys love the animals and Ella loves the colors," Tori answered. Arizona's heart swooned as she continued the appointment. Having one of her youngest clients be so successful against the odds gave her pure joy.
—
After 45 minutes of boring, Arizona pulled out the sonogram machine and started to set it up. "Now, normally, I would go through your vagina, to see the baby at this stage, but because this is pregnancy number three, and you're already showing, I'm going to save the time and energy." Arizona pulled out the probe and placed the gel on Tori's abdomen. "So are we hoping for twins again?"
"No,"
"Yes,"
Tori gave André a glare as he started to cackle. "You think you're so funny. If this pregnancy turns out to be twins, Murillo, I swear," Tori emptily threatened. André threw her smirk and redirected his attention to Arizona's screen. A silent moment passed, before a single heart beat showed up.
Tori took a deep breathe before her worst nightmare hit play. "Is that?" André smirked. Arizona nodded. Tears coated Tori's cheeks as a second heart beat rang clear.
"Awe, Tori, it's going to be okay," Arizona tried to comfort, getting the measurements as quickly as possible, and shutting off her machine.
"I can not handle this," Tori cried. Her anxiety of having five kids was starting to build and soon Tori couldn't catch her breath.
"Okay, dad, lets sit mom up," Arizona said, springing into action. The doctor and husband help the singer sit up, tears still rolling down her face. "Tori, honey, do you feel like you're going to throw up?" Arizona asked, prepared to have André grab the trash can. Tori shook her head, trying to take deep breaths.
"Is this normal?" André asked in a short panic. Arizona put on her best smile and nodded, even though she'd never seen this reaction before.
11 AM
Tori sat in her family home at the kitchen table in front of her mother holding, sleeping, Ella on her shoulder. "Tori... five kids?" Laura whispered in shock. She couldn't believe the first set of twins, let alone a second. Twins didn't even run in the family.
"I know, mom. What are we going to do?" Tori sulked. She was all out of tears, but she definitely had sadness to spare.
"Babe, let me lay her down. I can see you're tired," André suggested, going for the nine month old. Tori quickly shied away, swatting her husband's hand from the child.
"If you wake her up, I swear," Tori threatened. Laura could see the comfort Ella was giving her daughter and it was heartbreaking. "It's bad enough she's not nursing anymore, just let me have this."
"She's not nursing anymore?" Laura reiterated. Tori rolled her eyes, just thinking about that morning. It seemed like everything was happening all in the same day.
"Nope. She refuses to latch and this morning she devoured her first Poptart. I don't know if I should be proud or disappointed," Tori replied. Laura did her best not to chuckle, but the thought at tiny Ella eating a Poptart was hysterical.
"Well, look on the bright side, you don't have to do mid morning feeds anymore!" Laura exclaimed. Tori forced a smile, that lasted four seconds. "Okay," the mother sighed, getting up from her table. "I'm going to get ready to go to Costco's. Tori, I think you should join me, so we can get what you need for this dinner," she suggested. Tori glanced to her sleeping daughter, then back to her mother.
"Really?" Tori muttered. Laura nodded, quickly transferring Ella from mommy to daddy. The sound baby didn't even stir. "Great, she doesn't even need me to sleep anymore," the disheveled mother griped. "Let's go, so we can come back before the boys go to college." Laura and André shared a look before heading opposite directions.
12:22 PM
Tori sat between Jaxon and Joey on the floor playing with the sensory table Laura got the boys at random. "Look, Jax, blue," Tori pointed out. Out of no where, Joey pointed to one of the spinning pieces with a smile glued to his face.
"Red!" He screamed. Tori followed his finger to see that the piece was indeed red. Excitement started to drown her heart as Jaxon pointed to one of the boats.
"Lello," he smiled. Tori watched the yellow boat float around the water, making Tori even more ecstatic.
"Good job, boys," Tori grinned. She was excited to see the twins learning, especially because preschool was coming up and Tori wanted the boys to be ready. She did not want to be one of those young parents who stuck their kids in front of a screen. It was bad enough they watched movies all day with Noah over the break. She had to get some order in her house especially with twins on the way.
5:18 PM
The Murillo's and Kelly sat around the large glass patio table outside of Laura house, sharing a meal together for the first time in a while. Tori wanted everyone to be in one place when she dropped the news and rest of the news on the family. "Guys!" André yelled, getting everyone's attention. The toddler's continued to play at their table, but the adults were attentive. "So, you're probably wondering why we called everyone together," he started, before nudging Tori. The tired mama, sat her fork down and took a deep breath.
"I'm pregnant," she somberly announced to literally only three people since the others already knew. Andrés parents weren't sure if the should be happy or not, based off the mixed emotions at the table. "And it's twins," she finished. Micheal could see Tori was fighting off tears and clenched his fist under the table. His heart ached for the poor youngster.
"Hey, it's going to be okay. You haven't had to raise these three alone and you won't to have to do it with these two either," he encouraged. Tori did her best to be appreciative, but all she wanted to do was cry herself to sleep and wake up from the nightmare she was living.
"Did the doctor say if they are identical or fraternal?" Michelle asked. Tori nodded.
"She said they are identical just like the boys, so we are either getting boys or girls. I'm hoping for the latter, but as long as they are healthy I honestly couldn't care less," Tori replied, before getting up and handing Ella off to Micheal. "I'll be back," she mumbled, leaving the family confused. André went to get up but Michelle stopped him.
"I've got this," she informed. "It's a mommy thing." Michelle got up from the table and followed her sister in law. The table was silent as Michelle shut the sliding door behind herself.
"What can I do?" André sulked, running his hand over his fresh
cut. "It feels like lately everything I say or do is wrong. I can't feed the boys, because I "don't know what they eat", even though they eat whatever you set in front of them, sometimes before your hand leaves the plate. I can't change Ella because if we don't waste seven wipes after the first initial three when she pees, she's not clean. And even in our relationship, I can't please her ever. And I know she's uncomfortable and irritated and emotional, but damn. I'm here too. I'm about have twins again, too! She's not about to be a singe mom to five kids. We are literally married and in this together, but because we are young, no one cares about what I'm dealing with. It's only about her," André ranted. Eye contact was avoided, because he was right. No one took the time to genuinely check in on the poor guy and now he was feeling the weight.
"It just different for women," Micheal tried. "With dad's, kids aren't that interested. Especially at that age, the boys are all about mommy," he explained. André rose an eyebrow and looked over to the boys table.
"Joey, where's mommy?" He called. The toddler looked up from his plate, scoped out the table and shrugged.
"Umm, mommy gone," he answered, before going back to his chicken nuggets.
"Okay. Bye boys! I'm leaving! Bye Ella," André faked. Ella instantly started to grab for her father with a pouty lip poking through. And the boys took off from the table leaving their cousin confused.
"No!" Jaxon screamed. The twins did their best to claw their way into André's lap as he took the, now crying, baby girl from her grandfather.
"Yeah, totally about mommy," he muttered as Tori and Michelle came back out confused.
"Murillo, what did you do to my kids?" Tori said as Joey came around the chair with his arms up for his mother.
"Just proving a point," he replied with a slight attitude. "Boys, go eat eat," he said, directing them back to their table with Addi. The toddlers did as they were told, leaving Ella to place her head on André's shoulder.
"Okay, What did I miss with you?" Tori replied with the same attitude. It was clear that she didn't care about having company around. And if she didn't care, André wasn't about to take the high road.
"A lot. Like the fact that we are married and that I have feelings about this pregnancy too," he muttered. Tori's weight shifted as she folded her arms.
"I've heard more than enough of your feelings on this pregnancy. If you remember correctly, there would be no pregnancy if it were up to you!"
"Yeah! Because we aren't prepared! We weren't prepared for the boys! We weren't prepared for Ella! You really want to do that again?" André yelled.
"We got through it didn't we? And now your doing this, again! In front of our family, again! You said that I made the decision to marry you after everything, and you're right. I did. But you also made that decision. And, baby, everything ain't over until we're dead. So, you can either get on board and shut the hell up. Or pack your stuff for real this time and catch a ride with your parents. I'm not talking about this anymore." Tori took her seat between Micheal and André, at the head of the table.
"Well, that is not at all what we talked about, but that works too," Michelle said, before Noah awkwardly cut the tension and switch the conversation to his soccer training.
—
Through the night, Tori would glance to André. She felt bad for snapping at him in front of everyone, but she was tired of the back and forth. She couldn't raise her kids in that type of environment. And as young as they were, André needed to grow up a bit faster to slightly even catch up with Tori.
☔️☔️☔️
To Be Continued