A week later, Mollie was in her bed, up to her ears in food. She struggled with eating so much. As a dancer, it was always important for her to have a healthy diet and now being sedentary and forced to eat, she was miserable. At least she had Johanna back to entertain her. It was hard seeing her friend go through such a hard time but it was nice to spend more time together. Ever the faithful nurse, Johanna enforced all eating and came up with inventive ways to get in all of the calories.
Johanna threw her a lovely baby shower, where she felt like a whale but was happy to have her friends and family around. She got to stay home longer than doctors originally anticipated but after about a month at home, she was forced into the hospital. On the bright side, she’d progressed and the babies were now at 27 weeks. Her nurses assured her it was all about small goals now. It would make the time go faster, they said. A week later when they brought her a cupcake to celebrate getting to week 28, she was restless.
“I’ve never read more books in so little time. I need something else. Something that will at least make my brain workout if I can’t work my body out. The body that just keeps getting more rotund…” she trailed off.
“Stop…” JC warned, snuggling closer to her.
“I’m roughly the size of the house.”
“More to love.”
“Shut up,” she replied, whacking his arm.
“How about I get you a laptop? Maybe you can write, start a blog.”
“That’s an idea…” She was already thinking of what she could put on it.
“In the meantime, you should work on getting more sleep, you were tossing and turning last night.”
“You try sleeping with this huge stomach. I don’t like sleeping without you anyway.”
“But rest is important for the babies. For your sanity.”
“Well, for my sanity, I think it’s best you go home and shower,” she joked, pulling at his unruly mane.
“Is it that bad?”
“It’s pretty bad. I think you should do something with this hair. It’s getting way too long. I miss seeing your handsome face, get rid of this scruff.”
“I’ll go do that, if you promise to sleep.”
“I can promise to try.”
He was back later that night armed with a brand new laptop, a shaved face and short hair. She smiled at the new do. It suited him. He had great bone structure and should never hide his face with all of that hair. He ordered up some dinner from the hospital cafeteria and Johanna showed up after with ice cream sundaes, extra hot fudge. Mollie did her best to stuff it all down and after watching a few shows, she ordered them both home for sleep. JC hadn’t gotten a good nights’ rest since he insisted on staying here. Neither had she but one of them needed to be well rested for these kids.
When they left, she fired up the computer. After doing a little research, she found a domain, a website builder and started blogging.
What a Wild World
If you told me two years ago when my journey with my fiancé started that we’d be pregnant, for the second time, I would have thought you were nuts. If you mentioned that we would be having quintuplets, I would have fainted. But, alas, here we are. I’m 28 weeks in, 29 as of tomorrow and each day is getting harder. I thank God for every day these babies are not born. That might sound crazy but they need to develop more. They’re not strong enough to handle the world just yet.
As for me, I’m terrified. I was nervous when I thought it was just one baby. The thought of five at one time is something I can’t even imagine. Are we blessed that we have everything we need, in terms of clothes, diapers, food? Yes. Do I have any experience with babies? No. All of my nurses keep telling me that it will come naturally. I’m not so sure. Jayce will be fine. He’s been so at ease with all of this. It’s like he was born to do this. How is it possible that he can be so good at everything?
I know it’s normal to be nervous. I just want to be the best mom possible. I wish my mom were here to help me with this. She’d have all the answers.
I think it will be good for me to let this all out. Maybe if I get rid of all the nerves now, I’ll feel more prepared when the babies are born.
Speaking of which…we should probably start picking out names. We don’t know if they are boys or girls or a combination of both yet. So I guess we need 10 names just in case, five for each gender. Great, more things to worry about.
Until tomorrow,
Mollie
She didn’t know if anyone would ever read it. Maybe no one ever would but for now, she felt a little better. Maybe this would be like therapy. She shut the laptop and pushed the tray away. If nothing else, it cleared her mind and made her sleep peacefully that night.
She kept up writing, trying to post something every day. Sometimes she posted two or three times, depending on what was going on.
Almost to the big 3-0
We’re getting pretty close to the 30 week mark. From this point on, it could happen any moment. The doctors feel confident now about the babies being born and having good chances of doing well. They’re shocked I’ve held on this long but I am bound and determined to take these babies as far as they’ll let me. The closer we get to full term the better. I’m still up to my ears in food, but the nurses are getting creative. They’ve taken to making me protein smoothies packed with all the good healthy stuff but they’ve managed to make them taste so good! The chocolate peanut butter banana one is by far my favorite. It’s so much easier to suck down a shake or smoothie. All the solid food is tough.
Jayce is getting antsy. He’s finished the construction on the house. We knocked out part of the wall between the two spare bedrooms. Instead of taking out the whole wall, we put in two sliding doors that hide in the wall when open but can close and create two separate rooms for when the babies are older. He’s put together all five cribs but is leaving some of the organizing and decorating for when I get home. We know that no matter when the babies come, they’ll probably be in the hospital longer than I will so I can help finish. That’s really important to me. I know being in the hospital and monitoring the babies and their growth is the best thing I can be doing for them right now but it’s hard to feel like a mom when I haven’t been able to prepare my home for them.
Word has spread, mostly through this blog to JC’s fans and the press. We want to thank all of you for your kind words and wishes and thank those who have sent gifts. We are extremely fortunate and would like to ask that in lieu of gifts you make a donation to March of Dimes, St. Jude’s or any other children’s charity you like. These babies are already so blessed to have what they’ve been given and to be loved not only by JC and I but by all of you who are reading and supporting.
To the media, we understand your curiosity but ask that you please respect our privacy during this personal and highly stressful time. If we choose to make a statement, or speak out, we will but please, after extending your invitations, allow us time to think it over.
She sighed and hit post. The blog had taken off, found out by an Nsync fan site. They were getting flooded by mail and phone calls. Mollie tried to respond to a few comments every day but it was impossible to keep up. She smiled and shook her head as JC came back in the room.
“So, that was a very interesting phone call,” he said, waving his cell phone.
“Who was it?”
“Oprah.”
“Like her show? For what?”
“No, not her show. Oprah herself called.”
“What?!” Mollie had little to look forward to and had made it a habit to tune into the Oprah show every day as a way to mark the time. She’d become slightly obsessed with it.
“She would like to offer us an opportunity to be on her show. She wants to make it a multi part series. She’ll be here tomorrow, if we want, to document the pregnancy and talk to us about how everything is. Then she’ll come back when the babies have been home for a few weeks and then check in with us at a year. After that it’s up to us.”
“What did you say?”
“I said, it sounded like the best offer we’d had so far but I’d have to talk it over with you.”
“Well, yes! It’s Oprah!”
“Are you sure?”
“Well, I feel like ever since I started this blog, I know it’s only been like 2 weeks, but it makes people feel involved in this. Your fans, they feel like they know me better and approve of me and now they want us to succeed. They can’t wait for these babies to come. I just feel like if we’re going to do it, we should do it with someone as reputable as Oprah.”
“You’re not just doing all of this so you can meet Oprah?”
“I’m totally doing it to meet Oprah but I also mean everything else I said.”
“Then I’ll call them back.”
She spent the rest of the day making sure her hospital room was neat and showering and doing her hair. They would be arriving tomorrow afternoon and she’d made JC go get her a nice shirt and sweatpants. It was really the only thing that fit her anymore but that didn’t mean she had to wear a ratty pair. She was nervous, the spotlight had never really included her.
Johanna arrived early then next morning, while the crew was over at Mollie’s house, filming the babies’ room and a few shots of JC getting ready to come see Mollie. Johanna painted Mollie’s nails for her and they were anxiously playing cards when JC entered the room, followed by cameras. He greeted her as he normally would but Mollie’s heart raced. This was easy for him. Nsync had cameras around all the time. She knew they wanted her to act naturally so she tried. She updated him on what the nurses had said while he was gone and he updated her on how his songwriting was going. When the nurses came in to wheel her down to the sonogram room, the producers turned the cameras off.
“We’re just going to hang here, set up some lights and prepare for the interview. When you get back, we’ll go over what you do and don’t want to talk about.”
So they headed down to the sonogram, which was just routine for them now. She had them twice a week to keep track of the babies and who was where. Everything was normal but her blood pressure was a little high. They attributed it to the stress of the interview but told her they’d be monitoring her closely throughout the day.
When they arrived back to the room, everything was bathed in light. The windows had been covered and the bright lights were shining. She climbed back into her bed and got settled into a comfortable position. There was a chair positioned at her bedside. Makeup people descended on her, powdering her face.
The producers went through how the interview would go, what kind of questions would be asked. They explained that after Oprah spoke to both of them together, she would talk to Mollie alone and then go back to their home and speak with JC there, while touring the babies’ room.
Most of their questions were obvious. How did they meet? What did they think when they found out about the quints? What were their expectations for the future?
They asked to speak to Johanna as well and arranged to speak with the other Nsync guys. None of the preparation could make Mollie’s nerves go away. She tried to calm down, for the sake of the babies but she couldn’t. It wasn’t until the producers announced that they would begin soon that she felt a sense of calm. The anticipation had come to a head.
Oprah was here.
