Never Let Go.

‘Kieran’s POV’

Baby Benners is 21 weeks, and we are officially past the halfway point! Tomorrow afternoon we get to see our baby in 3D for the first time and intend to find out the gender of our little bundle of joy if he/she cooperates! Following the Stars win tonight we took one last poll of the locker room on the gender of mini 14. Each player and coach wrote their name on either a pink or blue sticky note and hung it on the wall of the locker room. With a decision of 14-11 the team has decided that I am having a little boy. My dad also agrees with this theory as well as Finn and Jamie’s mom. But what about me? I know it’s a girl, I can feel it! But I could be wrong, by tomorrow at noon we’ll know for sure.

In lieu of celebrating the win with the team Jamie and I are celebrating in our bed. No, not that way we’re looking at baby names. Jamie’s online looking at boy names and I’m flipping through the book my mom got me for a girl name. In case you were wondering if we were going to continue the alphabetical order we have going on as a theme for the baby’s name it’s still up in the air. If we went with the next letter, L if would be hard to find a boy name so we’re still not sure if that’s what we want to do.

“What do you think of Dayton?” Jamie asks laying on his stomach at the foot of the bed. I shrug it’s different but it doesn’t really stand out to me, “Isn’t that a college?” He goes back to the website, minutes later he thinks he’s got it again. “How about Ross?!” Ross Benn? No way. “Seriously? Are we on FRIENDS? How about Chandler then?” Jamie rolls his eyes, “Chandler is a girl’s name.” I stick my tongue out at him, “Yeah, and so is Jamie.”

His jaw drops open, and I can’t help but laugh at his shocked face. “Ouch babe,” he pouts so I close my book crawling over to him. “You know I’m just kidding baby,” He bats his puppy dog eyes and I try to resist them but it’s just so damn hard. God I hope our kid doesn’t have Jamie’s eyes I can’t handle another pair of them! I place my hand over his eyes kissing him softly, “Put those away Jamie Benn.” He laughs as he kisses me back, “Never, they work too easily. You find any good ones on your side?”

Cracking the book back open I flip to the R’s, “I really like Remi,” His nose scrunches, “Sounds like a dog’s name,” ughh I groan flipping to the P’s. “What about Payton, like Peyton Manning? But with an A?” That one doesn’t seem to bother him, “Not bad, better than naming her Romo.” That makes me cringe a little, I would never, ever name my child after that man! “Don’t say that name in this house, how about Oakley?” He closes the laptop in front of him, “Like the sunglasses? You need to go to sleep babe these names are weird.” Poking out my bottom lip I close the book, I guess it is back to the drawing board for baby Benn. Maybe this will be easier when we know what we’re having for sure.

While brushing my teeth I look down at my belly my toes now hidden by the large bump protruding from my once flat stomach. “What are you little one?” I ask rubbing my hand across the fabric of my shirt. That’s when I feel it for the first time, my child just kicked hard enough that I could feel it on the outside. Holy shit. I feel the toothbrush drop from my hand and my eyes begin to water, “JAMIE!!!” I yell as loud as I can hoping he can hear me downstairs. There are loud footsteps before my worried husband is standing in the doorway, “What? What’s wrong?”

With both hands on my stomach and tears streaming down my face I approach the man I love more than anything in this world. “Nothing is wrong! I felt a kick. It, it moved.” He exhales loudly before grinning, “You scared the shit out of me!” Grabbing his hands I place them on the sides of my stomach, “I talked to it, and it moved.” On his knees in front of me Jamie has a one sided conversation with our child, the first of many daddy talks. “You’re not going to move for me are you?” He asks as nothing has happened yet, “That’s okay, little one I love you no matter what. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.” As always he kisses the bump before standing and kissing my forehead, “Maybe they’re already a Mama’s boy, or girl.”

“Let’s go to bed, we’ve got a big day tomorrow.” Our fingers laced together Jamie leads me back into our room, tucking me into my side of the bed before turning off the lights. The mattress dips down and an arm is slung over my waist. “Tomorrow, baby B gets a name.

Notes