Title: When Big Sister Meets Little Sister

Time: September 2023

POV: Claire

It hadn't been easy, getting pregnant a second time. We started trying at the start of 2022 and we had tried for months for another baby, but there were no results. Shane and I had spent many night researching secondary infertility, convinced that I had it. Our doctor told us to try for a year before running any tests.

Carrie was already in bed, ready for school tomorrow. She'd put up a fight, but sleep overtook her easily, as it does for all 7 years olf who don't want to go to bed. I felt Shane brush the hair from my neck and sighed. It was June now. We'd be officially trying to have a second baby since January, and we'd been unofficially trying since October last year. It was so easy with Carrie, no trying involved, she'd just appeared into our lives so easily.

Why couldn't it be the same this time?

Maybe it's my karma. Shane had wanted another baby for so long and I kept saying no. How was it fair that when I finally said yes, it wouldn't happen. I kept seeing babies everywhere now. A simple trip to the shop ended up in tears now, when I saw a mother pushing a pram and cooing over a young child.

It made me feel like crap for being so jealous.I already had one baby, Carrie. And she was beautiful, smart and perfectly healthy. Some people would kill for one baby, and here I am, moaning because I don't have two. But still, I felt like I was failing. Women were built for this, weren't they? So why couldn't I just do it?

And that was June. Little did I know that I'd have another half of a year of waiting before I would finally get pregnant. Shane and I had been to a doctors appointment while Carrie was at school and he told me that there was nothing physically wrong with me and that Shane and I could have another baby, it was just about being patient. I'd been so happy, that night, and well, I guess you can figure out what happened next. It was the first night in so long that we'd had sex because we wanted to and not because we felt like we should.

It seemed that as soon as all I needed to get pregnant was permission.

I'd stopping getting excited and taking the test as soon as possible now. After a while, I figured that it would only get me more upset. I'd been so convinced that it wouldn't happen, that I didn't see the signs. When the smell of coffee in the morning made me want to vomit and I started crying my heart out to my newly-turned 8 year old daughter because Olaf was willing to melt for Anna, it was Shane that mentioned taking a pregnancy test.

We waited until Carrie was at school before taking it. I'd sighed at Shane and told him that we already knew what the answer would be but he smiled back at me, he was still hopeful. Secretly, I felt a little excited myself, but I didn't want to show it incase it was negative.

It wasn't.

A tiny knock on the door woke me up from my daydream. Shane ran over to it and opened it up, swinging Carrie up into his arms and hugging her. You would have thought that we'd been away for a week, not a day and a half, but Carrie's excitment made my heart melt.

The baby in my arms whimpered and I bounced her a little to calm her down. Carrie looked over at me, shocked to actually see the baby. Shane put her down and she walked slowly towards me, as if she was terrified. I put my arm out to her and she rushed into it and stared over into the blanket.

"That's your baby sister, Carrie," I heard Shane tell her with a warm smile.

Carrie didn't say anything for a while but eventually turned to me with a nervous look on her face, "Can I hold her?"

I nodded and Shane put her into a chair and arranged the pillows, making it easier to Carrie to hold the baby. I placed her gently into Carrie's waiting arms and melted as my now big girl smiled down at my new little girl.

"What's her name?" She asked and I looked over at Shane. We didn't really have any ideas. Picking a name for Carrie had been easy, we knew her name before I was even pregnant. Choosing a name for this baby was a lot harder, especially considering we had already used our favourite name ever on Carrie.

"We don't know yet," I told her, brushing her hair away from her face.

"I like the name Eloise," Carrie told us and I looked at Shane. Eloise. Baby Ellie. I liked that, surprisingly. Carrie had came up with a thousand crazy ideas for the baby's name. Rapunzel, Persephone and Carrie Two had been on her list.

"That's a nice name," Shane told her.

"Yeah, I actually like that," I told him.

"Eloise?" He asked, testing the name out, half asking if I wanted to go with that name.

"Eloise," I confirmed, fixing the baby's blankets "Our little Ellie,"