Chapter 14
"You absolutely promise to ring me if anything, and I mean anything, is wrong with her?" Zoe pressed her husband. The consultant was about to go out to Mothercare with Connie, but she wanted to make sure that Olivia was okay.
"Yes! I'm sure that Olivia will be absolutely fine." Max assured her.
"Okay" Zoe said, giving him a kiss. "Love you."
"Love you too."
Zoe smiled at him, and dropped a kiss on Olivia's forehead. "See you in a bit."
"Don't go overboard on clothes."
"Ha ha, like that's ever going to happen. If I do I'll just blame it on Connie." Zoe smiled.
"Hmm. Anyway, go. The sooner you go the sooner you'll be back."
"Bye bye" smile Zoe, then left.
The consultant met Connie at the entrance to the ED.
"Hi Zoe, I thought that it would make sense to go in your car, to make sure that if you get a carseat, it fits?"
"Okay, good thinking!" Zoe smiled.
Zoe drove them to Mothercare, and Connie helped her to find a parking space.
They got out of the car and Zoe got a pound from her purse, and slotted it into a small trolley.
"You'll need a bigger one than that, trust me." Said the Clinical Lead, retrieving the money from the trolley and guiding the younger woman towards the bigger trolleys.
Zoe's heart began to beat a little faster with nerves, she'd never done this before in her life, and was glad that she had someone to help her out.
"Okay, I made a list of the basic things that you need, I hope that you don't mind?" Connie asked as they walked into the store.
"Not at all, I really do appreciate your help." Zoe knew that Connie wasn't being pushy or anything, it was her way of trying to help.
"First and foremost, a cot." Connie said, grabbing a store map. "According to this, the nursery things are upstairs."
"Okay." Nodded the other woman, navigating the trolley towards the travelator.
Zoe picked out a crib, it was one designed to attach to the side of a double or single bed.
Connie refused to let Zoe haul the box into the trolley, but had trouble with it herself. In the end, they decided to ask one of the shop assistants to put the box into Zoe's car when they'd finished shopping, instead of pushing it around the store.
"What's next?" Zoe asked.
"Pushchairs/prams."
"Oh, Max and I discussed this. For now we'll get a pram for Olivia, then when little one number two arrives we're going to get a double buggy for when they're both older."
"Okay" Connie nodded.
Zoe picked a buggy fairly easily, making sure that it had a lot of safety features, nearly driving Connie mad with the amount of questions she asked the shop assistant regarding safety, and everything under the sun.
"Honestly! I'm surprised that you've got any voice left after that." Connie sighed at Zoe.
"So we have: a pram and a cot. Next is a car seat, am I right?" Zoe guessed.
"Correct."
Zoe picked out a carseat fairly quickly, mainly because she wanted to get to the thing that she had been looking forward to the most: picking clothes for her daughter.
"This is the part where you go absolutely crazy." Connie chuckled at Zoe. The consultant's face was a picture, she was like a child in a candy store who had been told that they were allowed to pick an infinite number of sweets.
The pair spent a while in the clothes section, then picked up some other things such as toys, nappies, and muslin cloths.
"I enjoyed that." Said Zoe as she and Connie loaded the last of the shopping into the boot.
"Anytime, I enjoyed it too. Would it be okay if I see Olivia before you go, just to check her over?"
"Max just texted me to say that Rita's just done her obs, you can have a cuddle with her though." Zoe smiled.
"That was kind of what I was hoping for in the first place." The Clinical Lead admitted.
"How did I guess?" Zoe chuckled as they got into the car.
A while later...
"Right, are we ready to go?" Zoe asked. Olivia had been fed, her nappy changed, and was now dressed in a purple babygrow with "Mummy & Daddy's Little Princess" on it.
"Hang on, we've forgotten something." Max gently slipped a little pink hat with bunny ears on it onto Olivia's head, making sure that it didn't go over her eyes.
"I'm glad that I bought that, it's seriously adorable on her." Zoe commented happily.
"Smile" Max snapped a picture of his wife and daughter.
The little family drove home.
"Are you finished yet? Olivia wants to sleep and so do I!" Zoe asked her husband later on, the porter was having a bit of trouble attaching the cot that Zoe had bought to the side of their bed.
"Done it!" Said Max, walking back into the living room with a satisfied smile on his face.
Zoe didn't answer, she was asleep on the sofa, Olivia snuggled up on her chest. The consultant had one hand protectively around the baby, and one on her stomach.
"My two girls" Max smiled at the sleeping pair. He lifted Olivia up gently, being careful not to wake her. "Let's get you and your Mummy to bed, little one."