I've had the highest mountains, I've had the deepest rivers, you can have it all but not till you move it. Cause I'm on top of the world, I'm on top of the world, been waiting for this for a while now, paid all my dues to the dirt
25th July 2021
"Come on Amhar get your shoes on" Merlin said quickly. It was Morgause's birthday and they'd decided to meet up at the beach, though Amhar was taking his sweet time in getting ready and they were already late.
Amhar loudly sighed. "Daddy, I am doing it! Wait please". Merlin sighed.
"Amhar, those are the wrong feet. We don't have time to mess around, we need to go". He picked him up despite his wailing and carried him over to his car seat, trying to get him to bend and actually get into the seat instead of remaining as a rigid plank. Fortunately Alfie was in a Sunny baby phase and was happy to go along with whatever was happening at that moment in time.
"Took your time" Morgause snorted as she saw Merlin and morgana walking up the promenade.
"Auntie morgue!" Amhar squealed as he tried wriggle free of the buggy.
"Are mummy and daddy being mean?" Morgause pouted as she took his straps of him and picked him up.
"No" he said as he rested his head on her shoulder. "What doing today?"
"It's my birthday" Morgause smiled as she poked his nose.
"Wow!" Amhar exclaimed. "You're old! You must be really old? How old are you?"
"How old do you think I am?" Morgause asked.
"Five?" Amhar guessed.
"A lot bigger" Morgause responded.
"A hundred!" Amhar beamed.
"Not quite that big" Morgause muttered. "Forty-six".
"Wow! That is old".
"It is, isn't it Amhar" Morgana agreed with a smirk. "So what're we doing for your birthday?"
"Oh we're going on the rides" Morgause smirked. "Lots of them". As promised, many rides were ridden—the small rollercoaster that Amhar loved, the paratrooper that gave a lovely view of the seaside, the Ferris wheel which also had a great view, some grasshopper style ride and the dogems (during which despite being told not to, they all crashed into one another) followed by the waltzer last (Merlin had decided never again but morgana ended up going with Morgause and Amhar decided to go too) which the sisters staggered off feeling dizzy and nauseous.
"That was so stupid" Morgana breathed as she learnt against a wall and drank some of her water. "Bloody hell … never again".
Amhar beamed as he walked of the ride, chanting "more, more! Again".
Morgana's eyes widened. "No … noooo! Never again".
"Pwease?" Amhar asked with a pout.
"Ask auntie Morgause" Morgana sighed. She still felt rather nauseous from the ride.
"No, Amhar" Morgause closed her eyes as she drank her coke. "Aunty Morgue is getting old".
28th July 2021
"Okay so we'll probably be a couple of hours, try not to burn the house down with your cooking" Morgana sighed as she put Alfie in his car seat.
"Nothing wrong with my cooking" Merlin pouted. "If I recall, this time last year you were practically begging for me to do the cooking".
"It was my due date, bloody hot and I was completely fed up of being pregnant" Morgana shrugged. "Now I'm heading back for a birth debrief".
"I hope it goes okay" Merlin smiled. "And I'll try not to burn the house down".
"It's our new one, so I hope not" Morgana grinned as she picked the car seat up. "Alright, i gotta go. See you later, love you".
"Love you too". The drive down to Avalon hospital was all too familiar as the many previous times, pulling up to the hospital roundabout then turning into it. She went past the main entrance which had a fruit stand on it, over the speed bumps, past A&E, then the women and children's part of the hospital before pulling into their usual car park. Alfie had fallen asleep so morgana attached the car seat to the buggy (fortunately it was one that could lay flat on the buggy so she wasn't bothered about keeping him in it for too long) and walked into the hospital via the children's and women's entrance, finding her way to the women's health outpatient department (she wasn't pregnant or having a six week postpartum checkup, so for many birthing debrief's they would be in the woman's outpatient). As usual, her midwife was slightly late though she took her through to a room, sitting on a large sofa all by herself while her two midwives Lily and Alice sat in their own armchairs opposite.
"Is there any particular part that you want clarifying?" Lily asked. "Or would you like to go from the start instead and stop if you have any questions".
"I think the latter" Morgana decided. The debrief began, they explained how Morgana's uterus hadn't grown therefore if labour hadn't started within the near future she'd have to be induced. Fortunately she was four centimetres dilated therefore in established labour, so she was taken to the birth centre. The labour was rather slow progressing (rather normal for first time mothers), within three hours she had only dilated one more centimetre. Overnight she'd only dilated one more centimetre while asleep. The labour was slow progressing throughout the day, though by eight o'clock she'd dilated to eight centimetres, nine centimetres after having been there for twenty-four hours.
Due to the labour being slow progressing at this point, they had to do some extra monitoring on the baby followed by a dipping heart rate so Morgana was moved to the delivery ward instead, having had a doctor come and being put on oxygen to benefit both mum and the baby. The pain continued to intensify, at this point Morgana was ten centimetres so was able to start pushing and Alfie had entered the world at 00:06 not breathing with the cord around his neck.
"So as to why he wasn't breathing…" Morgana said. "Was it because of the cord?"
"We think that you had excess amniotic fluid which means that there's more wiggle room for the baby, so sometimes the cord gets stuck. It is rather frequent, something we see in about twenty percent of babies and there's nothing we can do while the baby is in the womb. However it depends on and tightness of the cord, so once we were able to get it unwrapped from around baby's neck we were able to get Alfie breathing again".
"Was there anything else that could've helped? Like an eptisiomy, forceps or that toilet plunger thing?"
"It's unlikely, though in some cases having a forceps birth would be much more traumatic as you need to be in theatre for that".
"And my health problems?" Morgana asked. "I remember for half an hour things were fine".
"We made sure to keep an eye on Alfie's oxygen levels as sometimes newborns need a bit of help with breathing, especially after a traumatic birth. So when we saw them start to dip it was decided that we'd put him on oxygen, even though he managed to breath on his own at first after a bit of help. I think due to the whole length of the birth, the fact that you were exhausted and it had been a long night only to have the baby have to go to the NICU was what made you get higher blood pressure and an admission to the high dependency unit".
"So with the whole light thing? My husband said he saw my eyes flashing gold".
"Probably a trick of the light" Alice cut in with a shrug and a subtle wink. "Especially since it was a very hot day that day".
"Okay" Morgana nodded. "And with future pregnancies?"
"I see no reason to worry" Lily decided. "As with your previous one, we'd probably want to scan you every four weeks after the twenty week scan. Though the placenta results came back as normal, so things were fine and he probably was just small. Do you know how much you weighed at birth?"
"I was around six pounds I think" Morgana frowned. "I know my family makes small babies".
"And that's nothing to worry about provided that the baby is healthy and growing alright, which Alfie was" Alice smiled. Morgana felt a lot better about the birth situation after leaving the hospital, much more content and relaxed. Alfie had woken up now and she decided to stop at the drive-through for a Starbucks before heading home to her husband and eldest son.
"How was it?" Merlin asked as he picked up Alfie for a cuddle.
"I managed to get more answers about the birth, and it was really really helpful" Morgana sighed contentedly. "This little guy is one next week, though my periods aren't back yet I think I'm going to start doing a pregnancy test every other week … and no more condoms".
"Let the baby-making begin" Merlin grinned.
—
31st July 2021
Merlin and Morgana ventured into Cardiff for what would hopefully be a lovely day out for the family. One of the shows that the whole family enjoyed was 'In the Night Garden' so when Morgana had seen there was a live version at Cardiff theatre she'd immediately booked it. It was the first time they'd done anything like this with two children, while they had gone to shows at butlins and Woolacombe, it wasn't as formal as this one with it being in a much more formal theatre. They had taken Amhar to see Frozen 2 but he had been one at the time and Morgana was still pregnant with Alfie at that time. Amhar was surprisingly interested in the movie and they managed to stay through the whole thing, though at least this time around even though they had two kids it'd be better as they'd be surrounded by other babies and toddlers. They'd bought some fun packs for the children, each of them getting a toy pinky ponk, water bottle, Goodnight iggle piggle book, a sticker book, brochure and light up windmill. The show began with people dressed in dark clothes having the toys of the show and acting it out for a couple of minutes, then after a minute of darkness it restarted with people dressed in mascot costumes as the character's of the show.
Amhar and Alfie both loved the show, Amhar kept going on and on about it as they went into one of the shopping centres. He needed some new clothes for preschool and had outgrown his shoes so needed new ones, Morgana needed to get some more things for back to work, Alfie needed new clothes, Merlin needed new shoes for home life, Morgana needed new shoes for work and they'd begun birthday shopping for Alfie with it being one week away.
"This is so boring" Amhar dramatically sighed as he kicked his pushchair footrest again.
"But we need to do some shopping Amhar" Merlin explained. "So we're getting some new things for you to start preschool, mummy needs new shoes and work clothes, daddy needs new shoes too and it's Alfie's birthday next week".
"Ooo" Amhar squealed. "Can we get him presents?"
"We will buddy" Morgana smiled. "Now, who's excited for preschool to start?"
"Me" Amhar beamed. "I want lots of new stuff".
"You're getting a new bag for nursery and preschool this year, your old one's all gone horrible now. Would you like to choose one?"
"Yeah!" Amhar exclaimed. Fortunately they'd managed to finish off their shopping trip with lots of new things, as the saying went they shopped until they dropped. Amhar had a lovely new lion backpack for nursery, Morgana managed to get a her new wardrobe in a bigger size (not many of her pre-baby clothes fit her that well anymore), Merlin had got his shoes and probably some of the more emotional parts, they'd bought Alfie's birthday presents and first "shoes". They weren't exactly proper shoes, being a pair of grey striped step on's which was basically a sock with a shoe sole, though a big change nonetheless.