(A/N: In the first chapter, we found out that Mario and Peach are going to be parents! Let's see what they're up to now that they know they're having a baby.)
The following day, Mario and Peach had to figure some things out, now that they knew the castle would soon have a baby living in it once again.
"Where is the baby going to sleep? Not in our room." Mario said.
"In the castle nursery. That's where I spent my early years until Toadsworth decided I was old enough for a room that wasn't the nursery. This room that we have used to be my parents' room, but I got it when Toadsworth decided I was too old to still be living in the nursery." Peach told him.
"Okay, I didn't know that this room used to belong to your parents, and since when has there been a nursery here in the castle? This is the first I've heard about it." Mario said.
"I'm sure the nursery was here long before my parents were born, or else I wouldn't have grown up in it. Plus, you and Luigi used to play in it with me when you were here as babies. You really forgot that Mushroom Castle had one?" Peach asked.
"No. Because I was a baby when I played in it, and I didn't even think that this place had a nursery when Luigi and I found out that we used to live in this kingdom and played with you. You'd think I'd have known this by now. It's kind of odd that I find out about it after our second wedding anniversary." Mario sighed.
"I should have told you about it sooner, but since we hadn't thought about having a child until recently, showing you the nursery didn't seem that important." Peach said, and she took Mario's hand as she led him to the castle nursery, which was only a few steps away from their room.
"Here it is." Peach said as they stood at the door that led to the nursery.
"How come I didn't notice this before?" Mario asked.
"Because the last time a baby lived in the castle was when I was born." Peach said.
"Okay, that makes sense. I probably would've found out sooner if we decided to start our family as soon as we married." Mario said.
"I guess so." Peach said as she opened the door.
Except when Peach opened the door, she wished she hadn't. The nursery didn't look as good as it had when it was Peach's room. Once she got her parents' room, nobody seemed to think about keeping the nursery neat and clean anymore.
"Mama-mia!" Mario said as he looked at the nursery. He knew for a fact their baby deserved better than what he was seeing.
"Ohh, this is embarrassing..." Peach said, her face flushed. She hadn't thought the room would look like this. That it would've been neglected. If she had known this was going to happen, she could've prevented this problem from happening in the first place.
"We've got plenty of time to fix this room for the baby, don't we, cara mia?" Mario asked.
"If we get started now, yes. The baby won't be here for a good while, and my pregnancy won't show until several months have gone by." Peach replied.
Mario and Peach both decided that the room needed a lot of work. They wasted no time getting ready to start cleaning up the room.
But Toadsworth saw them working, and he quickly called for some Toads to get in there and help Mario and Peach spruce up the place.
"This room should be cleaned up in no time at all!" Mario exclaimed as he started dusting and saw some Toads come in, ready to help.
"Mario, I'm afraid that the nursery is going to need more than a thorough cleaning. I think the walls could do with a fresh coat of paint." Peach said as she washed the windows.
"Good point. And maybe we should replace the carpet, too, if it's beyond getting clean." Mario said.
After the room was cleaned up, Mario and Peach both looked around the room. The walls in the nursery matched the walls in the Great Hall, sky blue with white, fluffy clouds.
"Perhaps we could change the design." Mario said.
"That's what I was hoping to hear." said Peach.
"Okie-dokie. We'll do it." Mario said.
By the end of the week, they decided to keep the walls sky blue, but the clouds were replaced with Power Stars instead. And the Star Spirits were painted on the ceiling, directly over the crib.
"I thought stars might work better in the nursery..." Mario said as he admired the nursery's walls after they'd been painted.
"I understand. And you're right. This room does look a sight better than it did at the beginning of the week. In fact, it's like a brand new room." Peach said as she hung fresh, new curtains over the windows.
"It will look like one as soon as we replace the carpet." Mario said, looking at the carpet a little unhappily. They'd vacuumed the carpet and even used one of those RugDoctor carpet-cleaning machines to clean it, but it hadn't been enough to clean it thoroughly.
"You're right. It doesn't look very clean." said Peach in agreement.
They talked it over and got new, soft, cream-colored carpet for the nursery floor.
"You'd never have guessed that the place looked forgotten if you saw it now." Mario said.
The Toads celebrated the fact that the nursery was taken care of and looked like a new room for the baby.
Peach had also gone through all her old stuff. The books were still in good condition, and that made her happy. As for her toys... the battery-operated toys no longer worked, for the batteries were all corroded, due to not being changed in years. But quite a few of the old toys were still okay, like her toy piano and her stuffed animals.
"Maybe we can get some new stuff for the baby, cara mia." Mario suggested when he heard about the battery-operated toys.
"I just wish I'd kept up with the battery-operated toys. There are some that I think the baby really would have liked, because I know I did." Peach said.
"Would I have liked them?" Mario asked.
"Probably. Maybe you did. You and Luigi were here often as babies, so I am pretty sure you played with some of my old toys." Peach said.
"I wish I had as good a memory as you do!" Mario said.
"Mario, you're forgetting that Toadsworth said you guys were over here quite a lot before you moved to Brooklyn, and that it was a sad thing you left, because the two of you had been my favorite playmates." Peach said.
"Oh yeah, Toadsworth did say he remembered me and Luigi when we first rescued you and brought you back here." Mario said. Then he realized what Peach said, and he asked, "What about Daisy? Wasn't she one of your favorite playmates, too?"
"It's kind of hard to say when your cousin lives in Sarasaland, and you didn't really have much time to spend with her." Peach countered.
"I see your point, cara mia." Mario said.
"But don't get me wrong. She and I have always been close, but we didn't really get to know each other well when we were that small." Peach explained.
"So that's why you were closer to me and Luigi. Because we were living here in the Mushroom Kingdom for a good while in our early days." Mario said.
"That's right." Peach said.
The two continued to work on the nursery, making sure they had things the baby would be needing when he or she was born. They also baby-proofed the castle, so they wouldn't have to pay the price when the baby learned how to crawl and pull itself up. They didn't want the baby getting into things he or she shouldn't. Still...
"Is there a way of finding out what the baby's gender is before it's born?" Toad asked Peach one day.
"Yeah! I'd like to know if the baby is going to be a prince or a princess!" Toadette added.
"Well, the ultrasound might show us the baby's gender, but I won't be having that done until I'm further along in my pregnancy." Peach replied to the siblings.
But the one thing that really had everyone surprised was that Peach didn't really have the well-known pregnancy symptoms, which are morning sickness, weird cravings, and mood swings. She only had to deal with Mother Nature's failure to visit.
Peach also had the baby bump, but her figure was still so perfect that you almost couldn't see it. Still, she knew it was there, and so did Mario. Perhaps the reason her bump was hardly noticeable was the fact that she was exercising and keeping herself in shape during this whole thing, so she wasn't going to lose her slim figure anytime soon.
(A/N: Peach having only the baby bump and no visits from Mother Nature were the same symptoms my own mom had when she was expecting me. But her baby bump was bigger than Peach's.)
However, a majority of the Toads in the castle didn't really believe Peach was pregnant until she had the ultrasound done.
"Well, I think that should be all the proof they need that there's a baby on the way." Peach said as she and Mario watched their baby on the screen when the Royal Physician gave them the ultrasound. That right there told the rulers what most of the staff refused to believe.
"I know. I still can't believe we're seeing our baby, cara mia. This is so amazing." Mario said.
After a few minutes, the Royal Physician said, "Okay, I have good news and bad news. Which do you two want to hear first?"
"The bad news. It's not terribly bad, is it?" Mario asked, concerned as he watched the baby on the monitor. He hoped there was nothing wrong with the child.
Peach was praying to the Star Spirits that nothing was wrong with the baby.
"The bad news is that it seems we'll have to wait until the baby is born to find out the gender of the new heir." the Royal Physician said, looking at the screen. It was really hard to tell what the baby's gender was.
"So what's the good news?" Mario asked as he and Peach sighed in relief.
"The new prince or princess looks to be a perfectly healthy baby." the Royal Physician smiled.
"In the meantime, we might as well come up with names for both genders." Peach said as she and Mario left the castle's infirmary with the sonogram. Now those who were having a hard time believing that she was pregnant could see that she truly was.
"And I bet I know what names you've chosen for both genders: the names of your parents!" Mario said.
"Those are nice... but I had a different name in mind for a son..." Peach said.
"What name?" Mario asked.
"I thought if we had a son, it might be a good idea to name him after his daddy..." Peach said.
Mario's face flushed, but he saw Peach's point. Bowser had a son named after himself, and thanks to him, the royal Koopa line was as strong as ever. The original Donkey Kong, now known as Cranky Kong, had named his son after himself, and his descendants were also referred to as 'Jr.' until they grew up. Mario was hoping that if he had a son, maybe he'd be a hero like him and Luigi.
"Well, cara mia, if you've chosen our son's name, then I'm going to choose a name for a daughter if we have one; and don't you worry, I'm not naming her after Pauline." Mario assured Peach.
"I didn't think you'd pick that name." Peach said.
"I wasn't going to. I was thinking that if we have a daughter, you might want to name her after your mother." Mario said.
"Probably. Unless we think of something prettier. And you'd better not pick my name." Peach said.
"How come? You said that our son should be named after me." Mario said.
"Because you're special." Peach answered.
"You think so?" Mario asked.
"I know so. And if we do have a son, he deserves a special name." Peach said.
"Okay. But our daughter deserves a pretty name, and right now, your name is the prettiest one I've ever heard, cara mia." Mario said.
"I'm sure we'll think of one that works better than mine." Peach replied, even though she was blushing at her husband's words.
Mario and Peach showed the sonogram to the Toads who had a difficult time believing that she was pregnant. Then they believed that a baby really was coming to the castle. Toadsworth almost fell over with delight when Peach showed him the sonogram!
Still, the biggest tell-tale sign that Peach was expecting a baby came when her pregnancy reached the point where she could feel the baby move.
It happened one night while Peach and Mario were sitting up in bed together, and Peach was reading to Mario from one of the "Little House" books. At one point, she stopped in mid-sentence, put the book down, grabbed Mario's hand, and placed it on her baby bump.
"What...?" an understandably confused Mario started to ask.
"Wait for it." Peach whispered.
Then Mario felt something move against his hand. It didn't take long for him to realize what that movement had been, and he slowly let a huge grin spread across his face.
"That was..." Mario started.
"Yup. The baby is moving. That's why I stopped reading, because when I felt that kick, I knew exactly what it was." Peach said.
"It doesn't hurt you, does it, cara mia?" Mario asked, a little concerned.
"No. I just take it that the baby's reminding us of his or her presence, and saying 'hello'." Peach said.
Looks like everything seems to be going well for the Mushroom Kingdom's favorite monarchs! But we're still not done! And you all know the drill: if you wish to see more, then you've gotta stay tuned!
