chapter 18

On December 30, Alison Ava was born. She was a big girl, weighing almost 9 pounds. She had blonde fuzzy hair and pink skin. She would be called Ali. Ava and Laura were so in love. Even though Ava was Asian and the baby would never look like her, she would be the best mom to Ali. Laura's parents were thrilled to be grandparents. Her sister Aimee had been trying to get pregnant for years so they had been eager for grandparent life.

Laura and Ali came home from the hospital a few days later. A few days later, Aimee came to visit with her husband and they found a hotel nearby. Laura's parents headed home, begging them to come and visit soon.

Ava had been given parental leave as well. For the first 8 weeks of Ali's life, Laura and Ava focused only on each other and on the baby. They were so happy. Eventually Laura and Ava got back to work. They took pride in not needing daycare for Ali. Brady got to meet her and he asked about signing up for child support. Laura told him just to support his other baby. If he wanted to buy Ali gifts or anything, that was fine but she and Ava were supporting her.

Ava and Laura were very much still into each other. They even had stuffing sessions every now and then. Laura had stayed sober, deciding that she couldn't control her drinking to a reasonable amount. Ava didn't drink much either but they both were still fat and they were ok with that. Laura's belly hung very low after the pregnancy. She wished it would have stayed higher. She was also still nursing Ali so she had enormous heavy breasts. She was a far cry from her gymnast days but she was pretty far from her bed ridden days too.

As Ali blew out the candles on her 2nd birthday cake, she beamed at her moms. They smiled back as Laura's mom snapped tons of photos. Ava and Laura had moved to Dallas just about a year earlier. They had decided they could live for much less and be closer to family there. They had a beautiful 3 bedroom house with a fenced in back yard and a rescued golden retriever named Johnny. Ava stayed home with Ali and Laura was a VP of marketing at a Dallas based company. Ava was active, keeping up with Ali, but she also grazed all day. Her weight had settled at around 235 and she felt great. Laura had had some trouble losing weight after Ali stopped nursing plus she spent about 50 hours per week at her desk. Laura's weight seemed to stick around 300 pounds. Her face was soft but not round. She was more of a bottom heavy hourglass than a pear these days. She was a marketing genius and quickly had gained the respect of the local team. She gave one hundred percent all day every day and loved her job. When she walked in the door at home in the evening, she couldn't think of anything other than Ava and Ali. They were blessed with a good baby and she had been sleeping all night since she was 6 months old. Ava and Laura had a wonderful sex life and couldn't be more happy.

Ali has one arm around Ava's neck and one around Laura's. They all smiled for one last picture before cutting the cake. They loved this little life they had.