21. Theo

"I'm just checking to make sure I didn't mate a dragon." I walked into the room we were setting up for our nursery to find it completely empty. It was no surprise. My mate had gotten up in the middle of the night and started moving things around. By the time I woke up, half of it was in the middle of the living room. I offered to help him, but he insisted he was going to take a nap and I could work.

His nap was short-lived. He was at the stage of pregnancy where insomnia was starting to kick in. He said it was because he had spent so much of his first trimester being tired and sleeping that he banked up his sleep. Now, according to him, he had an abundance of energy and didn't need sleep.

I had a feeling it had nothing to do with that and more to do with our new bed not quite being firm enough for him. It just wasn't comfortable enough to get a good night's sleep. As our baby grew, so did his belly, making everything more difficult for him, including rolling over in his sleep. I'd recently picked up a full-sized pregnancy body pillow for him. It didn't seem to help too much, but the cats liked it, making it half a win.

"Made your cup of tea." I handed it to him, wishing I hadn't listened to him and worked all morning. I'd made the mistake of thinking he would ask for help if the bigger pieces needed moving. I'd been wrong. At least he took them apart first and hadn't carried them out as one huge thing.

"Thanks." He indicated the tea. "Why did you call me a dragon? Because I'm hot?"

"You are scorching hot, there's no denying that. It"s a fact. But I called you a dragon because you're nesting." At least that was what I'd heard this kind of behavior called before. According to the internet, it was quite common. The name was odd, but the behavior made sense. Of course someone about to have a baby was instinctually going to feel the drive to be ready for them.

"Nesting?"

"Yeah. You know, getting ready for the baby."

He looked at me as if I had three heads.

"And that has what to do with dragons?"

"Well, dragons lay eggs, right?"

Another blank stare.

"Did you not read any fantasy books when you were a kid?"

He shook his head. "No, I was more into action adventure and mysteries. I loved a good mystery." That explained why my attempt at a joke fell so flat.

"Well, this…" I waved my hand around the now-empty room. "This is what I'd call nesting. You're getting ready for our baby. And the joke is lost on you because you are not as well versed in middle school dragon lore as I assumed you would be. I'll keep my day job."

"Oh, I get it. Yeah, maybe I am a dragon."

"Luckily, you're stuck with me…. too late to find a funnier mate now."

He forced a laugh. He really was the best mate ever. "It was funny."

Carlton rested one hand on his belly and brought his mug up to his lips with the other. "I think we need to carpet this room."

I looked at the hardwood floor; it was beautiful and nicely finished. Even so, I could see why carpet would be beneficial for a baby. Not so much for the cats, but for our child, for sure.

"We could do an area rug; it'd be less permanent. And the room is not overly large, so it probably could fill up most of the space if we picked the right one."

He looked around the room, contemplating my idea instead of immediately brushing it off.

"And then, in the middle of the night when we come to get the baby because they're crying, one of us trips, falls, breaks our nose, and we end up the night at the ER." As much as I wanted to tell him that his scenario was implausible at best, he wasn't completely wrong. The tripping was a very real possibility.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how that would go." Even if it wasn't all over the top. "But if you're set on carpeting, we could look at some today."

"And paint too." The walls were currently the typical move-in, already-painted, everyone-has-it beige that was all the rage right now. The one that was almost white, but not quite. Super boring, in any case.

"Do you think you should be around paint fumes?" I asked and he shrugged. "I wonder—maybe they make some for pregnant people?"

I had no idea if they did or not, but I knew how we could easily find out.

"Okay, let's make a list of things we might want for this room. We'll go to the home store and see what we can find." It would be good for him to get out of the house, anyway. "I'm going to go log off work, and we can go."

The two days a week had been working out beautifully for him. Although it wouldn't be long until those two days became paternity leave. He was getting close to delivery, and his body was at the stage where sitting too long or standing too long or sleeping too long, or anything pretty much, was uncomfortable.

I couldn't wait to be a dad. And he couldn't wait to, as he put it, "evict our baby." I could understand why. According to the midwife, the baby was pushing eight pounds already, and there was still some time to go. They were going to be quite a large baby, and currently they used all of that weight to perch on Carlton's bladder.

Once inside the big box store, we were able to pick out some carpeting fairly quickly. They had a large selection to choose from, but once we limited to in-stock options only, there was only one real choice.

From there we went onto the paint aisle. There was paint specifically designed to be safe around pregnant people, children, and pets. Still, I thought it best that we hire out, and then the day that they painted, to hang out at our favorite spot, and if need be, spend the night in a hotel and have a mini-vacation of sorts. To my surprise, he quickly agreed.

I had a feeling he was missing his bear and our spot where I usually hung out with the furry side of my mate. Technically speaking, his bear was still there, but he hadn't been able to let them out in a while. As this pregnancy got further along, his body wasn't allowed. The midwife said it was very normal. That didn't make it easy on Carlton.

So the day the painters and carpet could be arranged, we gathered up the cats and went to our favorite place, picnic in tow, and spent the day in the sun talking, playing with the cats, and snuggling. It was an absolutely perfect day. And when we came home to find the carpet and walls all finished, it was just the perfect ending.

We had ordered nursery furniture a while earlier and it had arrived already. It still had to be assembled, but it was there and ready to go. We opted to skip the dresser and go with one of the units that had cubes in them for keeping the clothes and diapers and such. We figured it would be easier and grow with our sweet one.

As cute as a little dresser with carvings of cats on it was, it wasn't something we could see an older child liking. The more modular type units that could grow with a child did. Also they made some adorable inserts you could use for cats, made out of felt. It was important to us that the cats didn't feel displaced when the baby arrived. And we figured that was one way we thought could help ensure that.

Putting together the furniture the next day was actually easier than I thought it would be, and we got it done in record time.

"I think it looks wonderful in here," I said, looking around the new space.

It wasn't at all what we had originally planned to do with the space, but it worked. When your mate was nesting, you went with it, and I was glad we did.

"I think it needs more," he said, leaning into my side. "Maybe those fancy decals that are on all the Pinterest boards."

I wasn't sure which ones he meant, but when he pulled them up on the computer, I saw that they could do very nicely in here. We ordered some and then got pizza delivery for a movie night.

We snuggled on the couch with our cats and turned on the movie we'd both been waiting for. We were going to have to wait some more. The two of us fell asleep long before the final credits came on. I wasn't even mad about it. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful day.