msroom

MEAGAN'S NEW ROOM
by Kathryn Dyer 1997

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Meagan. She lived with her mommy and daddy, her big brother Corwin and her beautiful cat named Starweaver. One day Meagan was sitting eating breakfast at the kitchen table. Her parents had been up earlier but her mother still had not come to the kitchen. Meagan wondered what was going on. Michael didn't hear her when she asked for more juice. She sighed and asked him again. "I'm sorry," said Michael, "Your mother is taking a test this morning and I'm anxious about what it will say."

Meagan frowned, "What kind of test is she taking Daddy?" Just then Corwin came into the room. "Who's taking a test?" he asked. Michael smiled, "Your mother is taking a pregnancy test today. We may be having a new baby." Corwin and Meagan looked at each other in surprise. "Mom!? Having a baby?!" exclaimed Corwin, "Alright!" Meagan felt both excited and scared. "Hey!" she said, "That means I'll be a big sister!" Michael and Corwin laughed. "Well," said Michael, "We don't know yet..." He stopped and turned as Elizabeth came into the room smiling and holding a small white stick. She held it out for everyone to see. There were two blue lines on a small square. "It's positive!" she said. Michael grabbed her and swung her around. Then they hugged Meagan and Corwin. Meagan looked up at her parents, "When will the new baby be here?" Corwin laughed. Elizabeth smiled at Meagan, "Well, by my calendar we should have the new baby in about 9 months." Meagan's eyes got very big, "Why that long?" "Well," said her father, "It takes 40 weeks for a baby to grow inside their mother."

That day Meagan's mother called up her special doctor for an appointment. She looked a little disappointed. "What's wrong Mommy?" asked Meagan. "Oh," said Elizabeth, "I had hoped for you and Corwin and Daddy to be able to come to my appointment but they don't have anything available at a time you can all come. That's okay though, I'll have to go see the doctor or midwife every month for the first part of the pregnancy and then more and more often the closer we get to time to have the baby. There will be plenty of times for you to come along. In fact, the second visit they'll listen for the baby's heartbeat and that might be a better time for you all to go anyway." Later that day Meagan's parents pulled out the videotapes of Meagan and Corwin. It had been awhile since Meagan had watched them. Because twins ran in Elizabeth's family she had had ultrasounds while pregnant with Corwin and with Meagan. Meagan like looking at the videos of Corwin and herself when they were still inside their mother, even if they weren't in color. She also looked a lot at all the pictures of herself and Corwin when they were babies.

Sometimes it was hard for Meagan. Her mother didn't always feel like doing the same things anymore. She was tired and sometimes she ran out of the room when she smelled food cooking. "Don't worry Meagan," said her father, "It's normal for Mommy to be like this sometimes. Her body is having to adjust to having a baby inside of it. That's one of the reasons that she always needs to use the bathroom. But when your mother is about 4 months pregnant she'll start to feel better and that's only six weeks from now. You can help by running errands for her, like making sure that there are crackers by her bed." Meagan hugged Michael, "And I can carry things for her and take her a cup of peppermint tea if it's not too full!" Michael laughed, "That's right, honey. We also need to start fixing up a room for the baby to sleep in. We're going to make the room right beside our bedroom into a nursery." Meagan looked up, "But then where will Mommy do her sewing? And where will the books go?" Michael looked down at her, "We were thinking about putting them in your room and then letting you have the room upstairs with the gable window. You're big enough now to sleep upstairs like your brother if you want. But I guess we could put the sewing room upstairs." Meagan's eyes shone, "Oh no! I want to have that room! It's not as big as the one I have now but it's lots neater!! When can I move?!" Michael laughed, "Well, first we have to move all the stuff out that's stored there. And then we'll have to paint it and decorate it. You can pick out the paint for the walls."

Meagan was excited about her mother having a baby now. She helped sort out the baby clothes. She went with her family to a local baby store to write down all the things that they still needed for the new baby. "It's amazing how many new things there are!" said Elizabeth as she looked at a nursing pillow, "This looks like it would really help when I'm nursing the new baby." Meagan remembered seeing pictures of Elizabeth nursing her when she was a baby. As time went by more and more people brought things for the new baby to the house. Sometimes Meagan felt left out. Then one day it was time for Elizabeth to have an ultrasound. "I think the odds are good this time Elizabeth," said Wendy who was a midwife at the doctor's office, "You're bigger than you were with Corwin and Meagan at this same stage." Elizabeth had to drink lots and lots of water before the test. "I feel like a balloon about to pop," she joked but she didn't look too happy about it. Soon they went into the room with the ultrasound. The person running the machine made Michael, Corwin and Meagan wait until she had found the baby before letting them come look at the screen. "Okay," the technician said grinning, "you can come look now" and she turned the screen so that Elizabeth could see it too. She put a videotape into the machine. "We'll make a copy of this video for you to take home. See this? This is your baby's head...do you want to know the sex of the baby?" Everyone looked at each other. "It's up to Elizabeth," said Michael. "Yes," said Elizabeth, "If we can tell, I'd like to know now." The technician moved a thing like a wand over Elizabeth's stomach. It took a long time to find out whether the baby would be a boy or a girl. The technician had to check out all sorts of things about the baby for the doctor and midwife. Suddenly she started grinning, "There we go! It looks like your next baby will be a little....boy! Of course, we can't be positive with just an ultrasound to go by but usually when it looks like a boy it really is."