Monday 1st July 2019, 3am
Tom slowly opened his eyes to see that Sam's bedside lamp was on and Sam was grabbing a hoodie out of his wardrobe. At 17 weeks pregnant, Sam had no hope of fitting into any of her normal clothes and to save wasting money on clothes that she would only wear for a few weeks until it was too small, she used her old maternity clothes from her pregnancy with Daniel, and now she was at an almost perfect size to fit into Tom's clothes, even if they were a little too long but tight.
"Hey, you cold?" Tom asked sleepily as he rubbed his eyes.
"No um... I've just got to pop out." Sam admitted as she pulled her hair out of Tom's hoodie.
"Right. Tell me what you're craving this time and I'll go and get it." Tom smirked as he sat up and got out of bed.
"It's not a craving. I... I need to go the the ED but don't panic, there's nothing wrong with the baby."
"Well what's wrong with you then?" Tom asked worriedly.
"I need to go to the toilet but I can't." Sam stated bluntly as she bent down to pulled her trainers on but she grimaced as she held a hand to her abdomen.
"Right, you want me to get you a laxative? I can go for you-"
"No, I'm not constipated!" Sam protested quietly. "I'm pretty sure I've got a UTI, I need to go and do a urine test and if it comes back positive for an infection then I'll get some antibiotics." Sam explained.
"Oh right. Can't you wait until the morning?"
"I want to get the course started as soon as I can because it's really... It's just painful and uncomfortable." Sam admitted as she rubbed her lower abdomen.
"Okay, give me a urine sample and I'll go for you. The last thing you need is to be running to the hospital at 3 o'clock in the morning if you're not feeling well." Tom said sympathetically.
"You're gonna have to wait a while for the urine test because seriously can't go." Sam warned.
"That's fine, take as long as you need. I'll go and get you some cool water; flushing out your system might help relieve the symptoms for a while." Tom said as he quietly slipped out of the bedroom and soon returned with two bottles of chilled water from the fridge. "You sure this is a bladder issue and it's not anything like periods pains? Or it could be a yeast infection." Tom asked once he had closed their bedroom door to prevent Daniel from being woken up.
"No, I know this is a urine infection; it hurts when I passed water before I went to bed last night but I thought nothing of it, I've got pelvic pain, I feel like I need to go but I can't and I went about five minutes ago but it was literally about a teaspoon amount and it was cloudy." Sam explained.
"Alright. You get back into bed until you can go, and take my hoodie off." Tom smirked.
"Oi, I'm sleeping in this from now on. It's comfy." Sam smiled but she groaned uncontrollably as she sat down on the bed and immediately stood back up because of the pain bending caused her.
"Do you want some paracetamol?" Tom asked.
"I don't think it's gonna help this kind of pain." Sam shook her head.
"Okay. Is there anything you want?"
"I want a hug from Daniel but I don't want to wake him up, so I suppose a hug from you'll have to do." Sam shrugged cheekily.
"I don't know if I should give you a hug now seeing as you insulted me." Tom laughed.
"Well I'm blaming you for having a UTI in the first place so I have a right to insult you."
"Why is it my fault? Because I impregnanted you?" Tom laughed.
"No, because being sexually active can irritate a woman's urethra, causing an infection. And it's your fault that I'm sexually active hence it's your fault that I'm in agony." Sam moaned.
"Well we don't have to be sexually active if you don't want to be." Tom smirked.
"Right, I'm gonna give it another try." Sam stated. "Can you go and get my handbag? I've got a urine sample tube in there that the midwife gave me for my next appointment." Sam requested and Tom went downstairs and did as Sam had asked before she disappeared into the ensuite bathroom.
Tom felt awful as he heard Sam's occasional gasp in pain which she was clearly trying to hide but she was in there for several minutes and Tom had still not heard the toilet flush.
"Sam, can I come in?" Tom asked softly. He knew she wouldn't have locked the bathroom door because they never did. "I think I might be able to help."
"Okay..." She replied hesitantly so Tom entered the bathroom and walked through the small thin corridor where there were two sinks on a marble surface until he entered the main bathroom where Sam was sitting on the toilet with her underwear and shorts around her ankles and she was leaning forward, resting her arms on her knees - so Tom couldn't see anything - and with the empty sample pot without a lid on it in her hand. "I'm warning you that if you laugh at me or make a joke about this, I'm not in a laughing mood."
"I know, this isn't funny." Tom said softly as he put the sink's detachable plug into the bidet that they never used, it just came with the house.
"What're you doing?"
"If you sit on the bidet and splash warm water between your legs and around your urethra, it'll help your muscles to relax and then if you try going to the toilet after that, it might be less painful and a bit easier." Tom stated as he began to run fairly warm water into the bidet to create a pool of clear liquid. "Don't look at me like I'm crazy, I had to do it for a urine sample once in a doctor's office and I couldn't relax so he told me to do that and hey presto. I filled the pot. Though I didn't have to do it in a bidet, I did it in a sink."
"One: if you haven't noticed, we have slightly different anatomy downstairs and two: why were you doing a urine sample for a doctor?" Sam demanded - her first thought was that he had been tested for STIs because she knew that he had been a bit of a player before they began going out.
"Because I've had a UTI before." Tom replied.
"Oh..."
"Just try it. I'll wait in the bedroom for you." Tom gave Sam a reassuring smile so he turned the tap in the bidet off before he left the bathroom and closed the door to give her some privacy.
A good ten minutes later, Tom was almost ready to knock on the door to see how she was getting on when the bathroom door opened and Sam came out.
"You got a sample?" Tom asked and Sam handed him the clear plastic tube containing about a tablespoon of cloudy urine - she hadn't even managed to fill the small pot but it would be sufficient. "Alright. I'll take it to the hospital and get it rushed through the labs. In the meantime, you try and get some sleep." Tom ordered as he pulled back the duvet and he carefully tucked Sam and her 17 week bump under the thin duvet.
"Thanks for doing this." Sam whispered.
"It's alright, I know how uncomfortable an infection can be, but I can imagine it's worse when you're pregnant. Right, I'll turn the light out and lock the front door once I'm gone."
6am
Sam and Tom's alarms went off and both turned it off quickly before they had a good stretch and pulled the duvet off of them.
"I left you a present on your bedside table." Tom quipped and Sam looked next to her to see that there was a pharmacy bag, and inside was a box containing a full course of amoxicillin. "You need to take two tablets now, then two tablets about 12 hours after that, and you need to do that same every 12 hours for 10 days." Tom explained as he slowly sat up. "And I went to see an obstetrician who was oncall quickly, and he reassured me that it's not gonna harm the baby; it's perfectly safe."
"Thank you for going for me." Sam said gratefully before she used her bottle of water to swallow two tablets. "What time did you get home?"
"I was in the hospital for about half an hour which was pretty good actually. I got back and you were fast asleep so I didn't wake you." Tom said as he headed towards the ensuite.
"Tom wait. Can I go first?" Sam asked as she grimaced whilst she stood up because of her pelvic pain.
"Yeah sure. Be my guest." Tom nodded.
6pm
Sam, Tom and Daniel had just had their dinner and were sitting out in the back garden on the lovely Summer's evening. Sam had just taken her antibiotics and Tom was kicking a ball about with his son on the grass when there was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it." Sam stated as she got up. Sam locked the dogs in the living room using the baby gate to stop them from jumping up at whoever was at the door before she opened it to greet two strangers in jeans and red coats and one of them was holding a camera pointing at Sam.
"Mrs Kent?"
"Yeah, that's me." Sam stated confusedly.
"Could you please confirm your postcode for us?"
"Er, it's HC3 8DF."
"That's brilliant, we're from the postcode lottery Mrs Kent and we've got something for you. Would you like to see how much you've won?" The woman asked as she brought out a large gold envelope.
"Yes please." Sam smiled and as the woman slide the woman slid the oversized cheque out of the gold envelope to reveal a cheque for £2,000,000! "No way. No, this is a joke." Sam protested.
"It's very much real Mrs Kent, you're the winner of postcode lottery's monthly two million pound prize!"
After briefly talking to the woman about the fact that the money would be paid straight into Sam and Tom's bank account and a further congratulations, the two people left and Sam shut the front door. She turned around and leant against it, holding the cheque in one hand and her bump in the other. She had to take a few deep breaths to calm down when the shrieks of her son who had presumably scored a goal against his father brought her back to reality. She walked through the house to the back door where she stood with the cheque behind her back.
"Hey, who was that?" Tom asked curiously.
"Um... Can I have a word please?" Sam asked and Tom's smile of victory disappeared as it didn't seem like it had been a good visit.
"Yeah sure. Daniel, just stay where we can see you yeah? I'll be right back."
"Okay." Daniel nodded as he ran after the football so Tom followed Sam into the kitchen.
"What's up?"
"Tadaa." Sam said excitedly as she showed him the large cheque for £2,000,000.
"What? How? I..."
"Don't you remember when we merged bank accounts years ago that I told you I had an account for the postcode lottery and I paid £10 a month for tickets? I changed the postcode when we moved house and after that I'd forgotten about it... Until now of course." Sam smiled.
"And that's all yours?" Tom asked.
"No, it's all ours." Sam corrected.
"And it's not a con or anything?"
"I bloody hope not! They just said that it'll be in our bank account within 48 hours." Sam stated.
"Do you know how many things we could do with that amount of money? I mean I know we've got a lot in our account already but we've saved that for a rainy day, and now that we've got this we can do whatever we want with it!"
"I know but we need to sit down and budget what we're going to spend it on. I don't want to go spending it all in a year or two or waste it on stupid things like cars and I want to save some of it for the kids if they want to go to university."
"Yeah I agree. But why didn't you tell me in front of Daniel?" Tom asked curiously.
"Because, you know what kids are like. He'll probably go and tell all of his friends at the crèche and then it spread around the mums and I just don't want everyone knowing about it. Plus if Daniel knew, he'd probably ask for every single toy in the store even if he didn't want them just because he knew we had the money." Sam stated.
"Fair point. Right, let's talk tonight once Daniel's gone to bed. And we can sort our finances out." Tom said smugly as he rubbed his hands together before he put them on Sam's bump.
"I think I'm started to feel movements." Sam admitted. "Not anything like kicks but, kind of like fluttery feelings and turning sensations in my stomach."
"Maybe they're practicing their summersaults in there." Tom smiled before he leant in and kissed Sam on the lips.
"What was that for?" Sam asked.
"For making an account on postcode lottery." Tom grinned. "And for giving me a second child." Tom added as he pecked Sam on the lips again. "How's your bladder?" Tom asked.
"Um... A bit better than last night. But I don't think it's the antibiotics working already, I think it's because I've been drinking a lot to keep my urine diluted. And it's only painful when I go to the toilet now whereas last night it was whenever I moved."
"Well seeing as you're feeling better, does that mean you're on snack duty?" Tom asked cheekily.
"Depends what you have in mind." Sam replied sheepishly.
9pm
Sam and Tom had just sat down after ensuring that Daniel was asleep and each had a hot chocolate and a notepad to share, to organise their finances.
"Right. First thing on the agenda is a last minute holiday for late July or early August, in a couple of weeks time ." Tom stated.
"And of course, that's an essential is it?" Sam smirked.
"Yes it is because we haven't been abroad since we had Daniel, and you're pregnant so I'm sure you'd enjoy a holiday."
"It depends what kind of holiday you have in mind."
"I'm thinking of somewhere nice and sunny and hot. Just rent a villa with a private pool and we can play with Daniel in the pool for a bit then you and our baby can relax while me and Daniel splash you with water." Tom smirked.
"Well that sounds nice but can we just talk about that later and focus on the essentials first?"
"Yeah sure." Tom nodded.
"Right well we definitely need to budget for the new baby's room which is currently Daniel's play room. And I think that we need to redecorate Daniel's bedroom because he needs a bigger bed and new furniture."
"I'd say Daniel's new room including furniture, would be about £800-£1000." Tom stated and Sam began to write it down. "And it really depends on whether it's a boy or a girl because if it's a boy, we'll be able to reuse a lot of Daniel's things."
"How about we go and do a scan at work tomorrow and we can find out?"
"Sam." Tom warned.
"What? You can't tell me that you don't want to know and I'm 17 weeks, 96% of sonographers can correctly determine the gender by 14 weeks."
"You've looked this up haven't you?" Tom grinned and Sam couldn't help but smile. "We'll do it tomorrow after our shifts. But cmon, back to finances. Let's say Daniel and the new baby's nursery combined would be about £2000 together. Let's say all together, a holiday somewhere nice and new clothes and everything would come to around £5,000. "
"Yep. There is one thing I've been thinking about now that we've got the money." Sam admitted.
"Okay, what's that?" Tom asked.
"I think I'd be really nice, when both of them are a older - not really older, just like in about five years or so - to take them to Disney World. And because we've got the money, we could have an amazing holiday tickets to all the parks, stay in a Disney resort and everything could go perfectly."
"You do realise you'd be taking three kids on that holiday right?" Tom smiled and Sam rolled her eyes. "That sounds like a lovely idea." Tom added.
Coming up: Sam and Tom sneak a scan at work to determine the gender of their baby before they take a holiday using just a fraction of their winnings. But when Sam has reluctantly left Tom in charge of literally everything including their destination and the packing, will it all go to plan?
Thanks for reading, please review :)