Change My Mind || Sam Pauly || ✔️

Twenty-Three

Two Days Later
12:22 PM

The middle of the day was the perfect time for Matt and Sam to get literally everything done. The girls took the third nap of the day at 12 and didn't get up until 1:30, giving the couple time to work or play.

While Matt worked in the office, Sam sat on the patio on a Zoom Meeting with one of her students, Ashleigh, just chilling. "How are the twins?" She asked, not seeing the stars of Sam's Instagram story. Sam's eyebrows perked up as she looked back.

"Oh, uhh, I don't know if you can see, but Ella is back there in her swing taking a nap and Gene has Lora in our room. Both of them are taking a nap," she explained. "And Dale is laying under the swing," she said, lifting up the computer to show her greyhound fully under the baby swing.

"Awe, house deer," Ashleigh gushed. 

"He likes the way the bottom of the swing feels when it, like, goes back and forth. He's been doing that for the past week," Sam explained with a short chuckle, setting her laptop back down, but glancing back to Dale. "Are you watching your baby?" Sam asked in her baby animal voice. The greyhound fluttered one of his ears, but didn't move.

"Is he protective over the girls? I know a lot of dogs who have babies around can be impartial or very protective," Ashleigh asked, making a fair assumption given Dale's position.

"Uhh," Sam thought. "Not really protective. Like he will sit around them and watch them. He doesn't really care about them, though. Well... that's not true. He doesn't really like them when it comes to bed time. The twins only get up once a night now, but they typically end up in our bed after they get up once. So, he can't be in our bed now, because of his sleep aggression. We don't want him to accidentally bite the girls," the actress Samsplained, making Ashleigh sigh.

"Poor Dale," she empathized.

"I know, he's pissed, but lately he's been sleeping on- we got him this dog bed-,"

"Sam!" Gene called, coming from the bedroom.

"I'm in a lesson," Sam replied, before looking back to see her sister's shirt. "What is that?"  She asked, seeing a massive white and red stain on her sister's chest and shoulder. Gene hit the mute button to keep her sister business in the family.

"Ellie started to cough in her sleep and when I picked her, she literally threw up and it was a mixture of blood and formula," Gene said, trying not to freak her sister out. Sam's eyes went wide. Unmuting herself, Sam turned back to her student.

"Ashleigh, I am so sorry. I know we have like 40 minutes left, but something just came up. Can we reschedule?" Sam asked. Ashleigh nodded.

"Oh yeah," the sweet student agreed, seeing the desperation on her teacher's face.

"Oh my god, thank you. I'll reschedule this, don't worry about it! I'm so sorry!" Sam said, logging off and running to the back room. "Ellie," Sam said, crawling to meet her child in the center of the bed, lying on her side supported by a pillow.

"I left her like in case she threw up again," Gene explained. However, her explanation fell on deaf ears because Sam was not with her.

"Ellie, look at mommy," Sam slightly panicked, waking her baby. She hadn't thrown up or pooped blood before and at her six week appointment, the doctor said to call if she did. "Gene, get my phone and call the doctor, the password is 0922," Sam instructed. Elora's eyes fluttered open to see her mommy's face above hers. The happy baby looked up to her mother with a smile, recognizing the voice and features. Sam sat Elora up holding her by her torso, before the baby threw up once again; blood still in the mix.