This Is Life

Pregnant

October 1950

I paced the house up and down for 20 minutes before Donny walked in the door. I stopped in my tracks and looked up at him. I knew I needed to tell him. I couldn't delay it any longer at this point.

"Julia, everything okay my love?" He put his bag down and walked over to me. He put his arms around me and gave me a soft kiss. "You seem stressed my love. What's wrong?"

"Donny. You're going to be a dad." I said softly.

"Julia, are you pregnant?" He said taking my hands in his. I nodded and placed his hands on my already growing bump. "Oh my gosh. We're going to be having a baby."

"Yeah we are." Donny immediately pulled me in close and ran one hand though my hair, the other rubbing my back. "I love you so much Donny. And I can't wait for us to be parents."

"Me neither. This is going to be incredible. You're going to be the best mother ever and I will try my absolute best to be the father this child deserves."

"You're going to be a great dad. I already know it. I was down at the library today, doing some research on it. Apparently pregnancy lasts 40 weeks which is 9 months. I don't know how far along I am, but apparently the fact I'm showing a bit already means I could be around 12-20 weeks maybe. I could go to the doctors and have a test. But they use animals and I don't want to do that. I read about feeling sick in the morning and having head aches. And I feel that. Plus I've clearly grown around my stomach and my dresses are becoming quite tight so I'm sure I'm pregnant."

"I'm sure you are too Julia." We headed to the couch and sat down together. I leant against him and he put one arm around my waist, the other resting on my bump. I placed my hand over his as I rested my head on his shoulder. "Our baby. I still can't believe it. I know we said we wanted to try have kids as soon as we got married, I didn't think it would happen so fast though."

"I know. But the last 5 months being married to you have been some of the best months of my life. I love you so much. And I love being married to you. Calling you my husband is the greatest thing in the world."

"And calling you my wife still sounds unbelievable." Donny said with a soft voice. "Julia?"

"Yes."

"Ever since I proposed to you I had this thought in my head. If our baby is a boy, can we either name him Michael or have his middle name be Michael. A way of keeping him within your family."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea." I said softly.

"I want this kid growing up knowing our story. Knowing their dad is a war vet, and their mom is also a war widow, married again. I want them to be able to pass the story on."

"And they will. While we won't give them all the more painful details, and we let those die with us, I want them to know where they came from, how we fell in love. I want them to know our story too." I said before kissing him. He kissed me back and we just cuddled. "Donny, what was your moms name. If we have a daughter, I'd want to honour her."

"Flora." He said softly. "Why don't we call her Flora June Novitski. For both our moms."

"I love it. It's perfect. Now we just need another name for a boy." We both thought for a moment. "Donny, after you. Michael Donny Novitski. Ignore Donald, because I know you hated that. Just straight in there with Donny."

"You really want to honour me in your son's name."

"Yeah. And he's your son too. If you want to name him after you."

"Well I think it's perfect. Plus I have my fathers name as my middle name, so I can continue that on by giving my name to our son, if we have one, my name as his middle name." I nodded, a wide smile on my lips. "Michael Donny or Flora June Novitski."