Marie and I have brought Michelle and Anne to City Hospital - they are both in labor! How fun to be doing this all together! It's incredible that the twins' pregnancies and births are so perfectly in sync, but somehow not unbelievable enough to interrupt the dream.
The hospital is overrun with covid patients and terribly overcrowded. Entire families are sick in there and it looks like people have been staying in their rooms and the halls for weeks. Many rooms are connected without hallway access, so people are walking through constantly. I worry that our luggage is too spread out and making it difficult for the others to get through.
It's just early labor, so everyone is jolly and relaxed. The girls are trying to express some colostrum to have on hand for after their babies are born. Marie is holding a small container for Michelle and I am doing the same for Anne. Michelle excretes a few droplets of colostrum - what you would expect. I turn my head to look at Michelle and Marie, but when I look back to Anne she is producing way too much! The container is starting to overflow! This isn't normal colostrum either, it's extra thick, like the texture of soft serve ice cream but warm.
This is just terrible. There is almost no staff at the hospital, so we can't make a big mess and expect it to be cleaned up. And I know it will upset Anne if she notices what has gone awry. Quickly and stealthily, I do the only logical thing to dispose of all this colostrum. I scoop it up with my fingers and eat it. It tastes horrible - not sweet like milk, but bitter like earwax. I eat several mouthfuls and am gagging on it when it finally stops coming out of her. Thank god it's over!
"What is there to eat here?" Anne asks me. I look over and Marie has just brought Michelle an open face roast beef sandwich. "There's a cafeteria downstairs, I think there's a salad bar." "Oh good! I was just thinking that I HAVE to have cold food! I want a salad and some cottage cheese and peaches. I'm so glad I have YOU instead of MARIE and I don't have to eat that roast beef Michelle has!"
