Everyone in our friendship circle was a little taken aback when we found out Laura was pregnant.
Not because she didn’t seem the motherly type or had told us she’d sworn off having babies. It’s just because we all thought she was, well, done.
It wasn’t an unreasonable assumption, I didn’t think. Laura and her husband Tony already have four children. Two sets of identical twins, in fact: two girls and two boys. Most people would be happy with that kind of luck, to have a double pigeon pair, if that’s what you’d call it.
Still, everyone congratulated her and Tony, most writing warm messages on the Facebook photo of their baby’s ultrasound they’d posted to announce the pregnancy.
Laura being one of my closest friends, I called her as soon as I saw the post. One, because I wanted to congratulate her in a more personal way, and two, because I wanted to know what the hell was going on.
She’d never mentioned to me that she wanted a fifth child. I mean, I hadn’t asked, I guess. Like I said, we all just assumed she and Tony were happy with their four kids and wouldn’t want to keep going, especially since they hadn’t planned on either pregnancies being twins.
So when I called Laura, who is 36, I half expected her to say they’d been a bit too relaxed with their contraception and this baby was a ‘happy accident’. Turns out, it was the complete opposite, in fact. This pregnancy had been very carefully planned.
After I congratulated her, Laura thanked me and told me she was really excited because everything had gone to plan.
“What plan?” I asked. And that’s when she told me the reason why she and Tony are having a fifth child. A reason that, quite frankly, I’m trying not to judge her for.
Laura has always been obsessed with Celine Dion. She has all her CDs, Titanic is her favourite film because of that song, and she’s flown to Las Vegas twice to see the singer in concert.
But until now, I really don’t think I realised just how obsessed with Celine Dion Laura truly is. Because over the phone she told me that the only reason she and Tony were having another baby was so that she could call her Celine.
Listen: Monique Bowley and Rebecca Judd discuss the ethics of shotgunning names. (Post continues.)
Top Comments
I doubt VERY much if this woman has chosen to have a baby JUST to name it Celine, for Goodness Sake, it's probably just one of the small reasons that add up to the very LARGE desire to have another child!
I'm sure she knows what she's in for, after 2 sets of twins!
What she doesn't need is to read this story and realize she is the main topic(I mean, how many families actually have two sets of twins AND are pregnant again, if she reads this, SHE'LL KNOW!)and that her 'friend; thinks she is so daft as to have a baby for the sole reason of naming it after Celine Dion, when it was 50/50 it would be a boy(why do I suddenly want to sing 'A Boy Named Sue'...?!)...!
My sincerest, cruelest and dearest wish is that it should be twin boys. Or triplets. Triplet identical boys. Please can it be?