Chapter 2 : Picture Perfect

 Well, it was all certain that I was expecting a little bundle of joy. Whether it be a bouncing boy or a gurgling girl, I didn't care. So long as he or she came to me alive and well. I couldn't wait to tell Isaiah. He was a little weird lately, maybe he was discouraged? He was coming home late, leaving early, and he always looked so tired, strung out, and drunk.  I'd turn that frown upside down. I knew it for sure!

 One thing that made me absolutely love him and swoon over him was the way he was with Willow, the way he held her and talked to her. The way he played with her, he was just going to be the most amazing father, not only to my child to be, but Willow. He was already an amazing father to her. He would always come right home from work, wash his hands and pick her up. Then he'd make her guess how much he loved her. Then they'd argue who loved one another more. But then they would start to whisper, and I'd never hear the last part. They'd even do it when he woke up.

 "Willy, guess how much I love you!?"

"Uhm, Willow doesn't know. A lot?"

"Of course a lot, silly. How much, like simoleons."

"One moleon!"

"Way higher, think the biggest number, times the biggest number again."

"That's lots daddy, but Willow loves you more than that!"

"Impossible."

"Nuh uh. Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"How much does daddy love mommy?" she would whisper.

"More than life itself."

That's the part I could never hear.

 Before I started breakfast, I stopped Isaiah in the hall. "Feel my stomach."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"Whoa!"

"You felt it?"

"Yes, so does this mean...?"

"Mhm, we're gonna have a baby!"

He put his hands on my stomach again, and I saw the excitement in his eyes, like when he's with Willow. He was happy, and I missed that look in his eye, the hope and the love. It was always masked with pain, and stress. This gave me hope.

 A little while later, I saw him watching me. He looked content, but the bags under his eyes seemed to be getting darker, and bigger. What was going on with him? He'd disappear for about twenty minutes, and then look like this when he came back. Watching silently, as if he was lost in thought, but there was a dazed look about him. "Hunny?"

"Hmm?"

"You alright?"

"Yeah."

 I burned breakfast, it was the first time a few months after I announced the pregnancy, and hopefully the last because it was absolutely awful. It was like chewing ash. My dazed husband seemed to hate it just the same, but he ate it anyway. 

"Want some cereal instead?"

"Nah."

Must've been hungry. I threw mine away I had a bowl of cereal instead. It seemed a like a little while later, the taste of my burned waffles set Isaiah off.

 "So you can go ahead and eat soup and leave me with the nasty , burned waffles!?"

 "It was cereal...I offered, you declined." I said calmly, I'd never seen him like this.

"Cereal, soup, whatever! I don't care what it was, how do you expect me to function all day with that disgusting taste in my mouth? Hmm?"

"Brush your teeth, Isaiah. Chill out and go get ready for work."

"I'm getting sick of your fat ass, prancing around like you own the place. I will get dressed when I damn well please!"

 "Fat? I'm PREGNANT, Isaiah. What do you expect? Pregnant people get fat. We have the baby, and we work off the extra fat. What do you want me to do? Hmm, get rid of it?"

"Do what the hell you want, I don't want to hear it!"

"Get out! Don't come back until you figure out what you want, I'm keeping this baby!"

 "I swear, if you weren't carrying my child right now Inspiration. I would smack the dog crap out of you."

That sent me in a fit of tears and backed away from him. 

"But you said you never hurt me." That's when I looked up to him with my gorgeous green eyes. At least that's what he called them.

His face softened.

"Inspiration, goodness hun, I'm sorry...I don't know what came over me. I just needed to let go of some of that pent up anger. I'm sorry. I'm very sorry. I-I won't do it again. I'm sorry baby."

 "Promise?" Goodness, I was really a sucker for him.

"Pinky."

 "Why was daddy yelling at mommy?" Willow asked me about an hour later. 

"Because he's tired...Nothing to worry about."

"Is him gonna yell at Willow?"

"Of course not honey, Daddy would never hurt Willow."

"Well why he hurt mommy?"

"He didn't, hun. He didn't." I lied.

 A month later, we decided to remodel the kids room, One side blue and the other purple. The walls were striped. We made sure that the one side was unisex because we didn't know what we were having. I wanted it to be a surprise. It was more fun that way. I didn't like the way the picture I painted looked on the way so I was fussing at the home designer to straighten it. I knew she was sick of me. I was sick of me.

 I was satisfied with the room, and I knew Willow loved it, but while I was admiring it, a sharp pain kicked it. And it kept happening. I let it pass as gas.

 When the gas didn't happen, I got worried and began to panic because the pain was getting worse. I was begging that it wasn't a miscarriage. I was literally praying to the heavens above that I didn't lose this child.

 Early Labor Signs: Sharp abdominal pain.

There we go, I wasn't losing my baby, I was having him or her. I was having it! I called hubby home early from work, and he rushed right in. Something still wasn't right, I didn't feel right.

Isaiah finally had gotten home. Called a babysitter and we were off to the hospital. To hopefully deliver a healthy, happy baby.