Another few weeks to go until she was at full term, they were going out to shop for the pram today and Peter was dragging Simon along with him in case they needed to load things into the car as Carla would not be doing that at all and putting her pregnancy at risk. They were also buying the car seat today and Carla was going all out knowing this was probably the only chance she was going to get at being pregnant so she wanted all the mod cons and features for her daughter. They were driving into town and the traffic was horrendous causing Carla to wind Simon up and Peter was convinced that she was going stir crazy. Recently she had been a real fan of the outdoors so Peter was struggling to keep her inside most of the time which was unlike her.

"Right," he says getting out of the car, Carla lobs one of her sweets at Simon "Carla stop annoying him"

"Yeah stop annoying me" Simon drones, she giggles and lobs another sweet at him "Stop it!"

"Alright give me the sweets," he says, she sighs and gives them to him as she gets out of the car "Simon go and get a ticket"

"Whatever" he mutters heading to the pay station, Carla bites her lip and giggles

"Stop annoying him," he says tilting his head to the side, Carla giggles again and puts her handbag on her shoulder "Right let's head off to get this car seat then"

"Sounds good to me" Carla grins at him and takes his hand, they walk to the shop they needed to go to "Car seat first?"

"Yeah sounds good" Peter smiles as they walk up the stairs to the car seats "Right which one takes your fancy then"

"I was looking at this one online," she says having a look at it "It'll fit her I think, won't it? She will basically be the size of a preemie baby won't she so?"

"Yeah it looks good and it twists making it easy to get her out," he says turning the car seat around, "I think this one was a good find love"

"There was also this one, it doesn't turn around but I think it would fit in the car better as it's much smaller"

"Well if we stick the car seat on the passenger seat side then we can just push the chair forward slightly and it can stay there"

"Yeah I guess so then we could go for the twisting one" she hums going back to it "It also has plenty of room to hang toys on as well for when she gets older, storage as well so we can put an emergency nappy and wipes in there"

"So I'm guessing we're going for this one?" he questions, she nods enthusiastically "Three hundred baby?"

"Yep" she giggles, he rolls his eyes not minding as this was for his daughter, he lifts it up and they take it downstairs to pay for it

"Do you need any help dad?" Simon questions putting his phone away to help Peter carry it to the car after they paid, they put it in the boot

"There we go" he huffs shaking his head, Carla giggles and hugs him "You're very giggly today, love"

"I'm happy and excited. I was thinking later maybe we could do the bump cast thing"

"Yeah I guess so, shall we go and buy this pram then?" he questions locking the car, she nods biting her lip as they walk to another shop and head to where the prams were

"Its this one!" she beams taking in its appearance, "Loads of storage, can change from baby to toddler as well which is good, easily portable and seems light so thats a good thing"

"Oh I love that one, it's not too girly either" he comments as Simon laughs so does Carla "What?"

"We wouldn't want to hurt his masculinity would we Si?" she raises her hand and he high fives it "Anyway do you like it, I love it...I couldnt find another contender if I'm honest"

"It's expensive...almost five hundred, baby"

"So?" she scoffs, he sighs and rolls his eyes and gives in "Yay! Help him carry it Si"

"Sure" he rolls his eyes helping his dad carry the box to the checkout, once again they pay then they both carry it to the car

"I was thinking we could go out for some food?"

"Yeah sounds good, we can go to that pizzeria if you want?"

"Oh that sounds perfect" she enthuses with a wide grin, "Last meal out probably as a family of three eh?"

"We best make it count then" Simon snickers, Carla shoves him "Oi!"

"Alright, children let's just have a nice civilised meal shall we?" Peter prompts, Simon and Carla nod, "Good, about time really..."

They had their meal and they decided to go for a walk to walk off their food as Carla was ever so fidgety recently. She just had endless amounts of energy and Peter was surprised that she did consider all the extra weight she was carrying around with her. Soon they would have the appointment just before she was full-term to check on the position of the baby to see if she wanted to come out at all and if he was honest he was nervous in case Carla ended up going past her due date and with Christmas fast approaching in a few weeks he didn't know how the family would cope with a surprise baby as a Christmas New Year baby. They had kept a low profile the last couple of months, he had been doing all the socialising and they had made up some excuse about her kidney and that it wasn't doing great so she had been ill and everyone seemed to buy it luckily allowing him to keep the pregnancy under wraps. They went home after walking off their food and Carla lounged out on the sofa, Misty lying on top of her body causing Carla to stroke her as she slept on her body. She watched Peter put together the pram.

"That looks so good" she hums thoughtfully, he laughs slightly attaching the seat to the wheels "She's going to be one lucky baby being this spoilt"

"Yes well she deserves it" he points out, she giggles and sits up stretching her back "It'll be crazy having her actually in this"

"It really will" she hums thoughtfully before wincing "She just jabbed me in the ribs"

"Lovely" he smirks, she laughs slightly standing in front of him, he places his hands on her bump "She's finding it rather cramped in there I think"

"She still kicks though, no rolling around like she used to because she's bigger now, getting close eh baby?" she smirks, he nods and pecks her on the lips "I love this pram though"

"Me and all" he chuckles as she yawns tiredly with a small smile "Do you want to do the cast now?"

"Maybe not actually I want to do it when I'm full term because yeah..."

"Dad" Simon enters the room, Carla frowns slightly at the camera he was holding, "I thought you could do with this when the baby's born"

"Oh he has a point, we should do some maternity photos" she gasps excitedly, he frowns and chuckles "Si I have a job for you..."

It was a crazy idea but one that could be worth it instead of them paying for professional photos, her idea was to get Simon to take the photos as they really needed an announcement photo for when the baby did arrive. Peter was sceptical but Carla wanted to do this so he was automatically going to do this as well as this was their baby and he wanted them to seem solid. She got dressed in long flowy dress that just about fit her and she forced Peter to dress casual so it matched her dress, they were ready and then Simon suggested they did this in the garden as it would be much better so they sat on the grass, luckily it was dry. Carla's head was on one of Peter's legs as he sat half-crossed legged, one of his hands on her bump and he was looking down at her and Carla was smiling up at him with one of her hands placed over the one he had on her bump.

"Perfect" Simon smiles taking the photo, "Maybe move your hair to the other side Carla"

"Alright," she says moving her hair, Simon takes another picture

"There," he says as Carla gets up to look at the photo, the tears well in her eyes "Who knew photography enrichment would come in handy"

"Those are amazing Si" Peter smiles as Simon smirks at Carla who looks at the photos "Maybe we should do a standing one?"

"Yeah, one of each" she confirms as they stand on the grass barefoot, Peter places his hands under her bump, Carla tips her head forward

"Maybe both look at her bump" Simon suggests "Dad put your head like by the side of her head"

"Here?" he questions, Simon nods as Carla and Peter both look at her bump, Carla's hands resting on top of his

"There we go" he smiles showing them the photos, Carla takes the camera and looks at them "Are they ok?"

"They're perfect" Carla nods with a grin showing them to Peter who kisses her on the back of the head "Now can we go inside because even with the chimenea on it's freezing out here"

"Of course" Peter chuckles as Carla heads upstairs and gets changed out of her dress and returns to snuggle up with Peter on the sofa, "I say we take that pram upstairs into the baby's room"

"Yeah good shout in case anyone comes in" she smiles as Peter gets up to take it upstairs before he forgot, he returns for the car seat as well "I don't really feel hungry for once"

"No?" he questions rubbing her bump, she shrugs "Do you feel ok generally?"

"Yeah I mean, I think so, I do feel really weird though and she feels weird if that makes sense"

"I get you" he pushes down on her bump causing the baby to move "Can you describe it to me then maybe I can help?"

"I don't feel as if my mind is in my body, dazed I guess?" she questions with a shrug, he nods slowly kissing her on the side of the head "I felt ok earlier"

"Maybe it's the photos" Peter suggests as Simon comes down the stairs with his laptop "Do you want to watch a movie?"

"Yeah go on then" she nods turning the TV on, Peter runs his hand over her bump as she settles down on the sofa, she huffs in annoyance unable to get comfy so she climbs onto Peter's lap

"You're getting a bit big for this" he chuckles slightly, she pouts her lips wanting cuddles

"I want cuddles" she whimpers, he just holds her close and it wasn't long before she fell asleep against him, Simon chuckles

"Rather you than me" he whispers at his father, he rolls his eyes and holds his wife but Peter didnt mind, as long as she was happy...

Carla was waking up from her sleep, she glanced to the alarm clock and groaned tiredly before getting up and heading into the bathroom, she just couldnt sleep as she was woken up by the baby so she decided she would just bounce on the gym ball and of course Peter woke from feeling the coolness of the sheets next to him. He clocked her sitting on the ball and bouncing gently, he bent down in front of her and rubbed her bump for her and raised an eyebrow at the movements of the baby causing him to sigh and realise that she had definitely woken because of the baby. Gently he guided her to the bed again wanting her to get some sleep so she was lying between his legs and he was rubbing more stretch mark cream into her tummy trying to settle the baby.

"Mmm" she hums allowing her eyes to close before her body jolts "You see every single time"

"I know" he whispers into the back of her head, she closes her eyes and allows Peter to continue rubbing her stretch mark cream into her tummy "Tell me where you want me to focus"

"The top, she keeps kicking my ribs" she sighs tiredly closing her eyes again, Peter runs his hand over the top of her bump before she jolts again "I might have a bath but I'm so tired Peter I don't think I could even walk there so much for that endless amount of energy I had"

"Too good to be true eh?"

"Indeed" she nods sitting up slightly, he presses his hands on her back "She's definitely not back to back anymore"

"She must be head down then" he smiles, she nods slowly "Or going that way at least which means she may want to come out sooner rather than later"

"As long as she comes out in around three weeks or so then thats fine as she will be full term" she confirms, he chuckles slightly and kisses her on the back of the head

"Maybe she just wants to see her mummy"

"It's going to be crazy isnt it? I guess she hears me talk all the time so she'll be used to my voice, probably the only comfort she'll have and your voice as I'm pretty sure when you've been talking to her it hypes her up as well"

"Must mean she loves us"

"Funny" she pokes him on the cheek, he continues to rub her bump before grabbing his phone "What are you doing?"

"This" he laughs playing some music and holding the phone close to her tummy, she giggles as some calming sleep songs come on

"Oi! Stop that" she laughs slightly at the protruding limb that was at the top of her bump "She doesn't like that does she?"

"What about this one?" he questions finding a more upbeat tune watching as Carla winces

"Ok let's stop that now before I get bruised ribs" she giggles, Peter kisses her on the back of the head "I think this has to be her foot doesn't it?"

"Yeah I'd say so" he pushes it and then gets kicked as a result "Oi! She's cheeky isnt she?"

"Like you then" she smirks kissing him on the lips "I don't think we're going to get any sleep are we?"

"Probably not," he says grabbing the TV remote and turning it on "We'll just chill and relax"

"Sounds perfect"