Blessings ; George Weasley

Sixty-nine

I'm going to bed 'cause it's almost 2am.

I'm so excited to just be able to sleep without having to worry whether or not I can get out of bed and get to school.

I dropped out of school today.

It's only for a few months while I start medication and therapy for my depression but I've never felt a bigger relief than being told that it's a good idea if I dropped out.

Now I can just focus on me and not stress myself out about getting up and going to school.

-

"You're one centimetre dilated, thirty percent effaced."

I looked at Meg and sighed.

"I'd like to keep you for observation. Let's see where you're at in an hour. I'd like to stop the labour to possibly give them a few more days so that their lungs can develop a little more." She said. "It's safest for you to go into labour from thirty-four to thirty-six and right now you're only thirty-three..."

I sighed.

"So I'll have to go into labour twice this pregnancy?"

"Most likely." Meg smiled. "But hey, the longer they get in there, the better their chances are out here."

True.

Fred was in the room with George and I. He insisted on coming with so Lee was at home to be there once the girls woke up, to cook them breakfast and babysit them.

After an hour, Meg came back and checked on me.

I was now two centimetres dilated and eighty percent effaced.

She put an IV in my arm and started me on the highest dose of Magnesium Sulfate which can be used to stop preterm labour.

It was the most uncomfortable thing I had ever experienced. It felt like my body was on fire — like I was burning up on the inside.

I was on the IV for twenty-four hours where they gave me two shots of steroids to help the twins lungs to develop faster.

Twenty-four hours where Fred slept most of the time on the sofa in the room and where I was tired with that burning feeling in my veins and the contractions that came and went.

I was given an epidural as well. I could handle the pain but apparently epidural's could also slow labour.

Meg told us that if we could hold off labour for twenty-four hours after the two shots of steroids, they'd have a better chance at surviving, and twenty-four hours later, here I laid, so tired that I could fall asleep.

George hadn't left my side. He was sitting in a very comfortable-looking chair next to the bed.

We were talking quietly to each other after George had gotten off the phone with Lee and then a nurse name in.

"Hi Dahlia." She smiled. "I'm just here to give you some Ephedra. I'll be quick so you can rest."

"Ephedra?"

"Your blood pressure has dropped a lot so it's just to help keep you stable." She said and offered me a smile before she started giving me the medication through the IV.

I hated this.

I had never been pumped up on so much medication.

I couldn't feel my body because of the epidural which is why they had attached a catheter to my body.

Though after two days in the hospital, they had stopped the labour and I had been taken off the medication.

We set an induction date which was on February tenth which was in a couple of weeks, and then we were sent home.

As we walked through the door, I had this awful feeling. I had just gotten my hopes up that they'd come today but then again, I wanted them to have the best chance at surviving.

"Mummy!" Leah shouted and came running from the kitchen when she heard us. "Where are the babies?!"

"Still in my tummy, darling." I smiled, brushing my hand over her hair as she hugged my legs. "They'll be here in a few weeks, yeah?"

"Lee said you were having the babies." Roxanne said, causing me to look at her.

"We thought it was time." George told her with a smile and hugged her which Leah wanted to join in on so she ran over and hugged them both. "But you will be meeting them soon, I promise you."

"Can I sleep on your sofa?" Fred asked with a yawn. "I'm too tired to apparate home."

"Sure." I told him and he made his way over to lay down. "I'll call Eloise."

"No, I'll do that." George told me. "Go take a nap. You've been full of medication for two days straight."

"Yeah." I muttered. "I hated that."

The day after, I hit thirty-four weeks and I knew that the next time I went into labour, they wouldn't try and stop it.

That day, the day after we got home from the clinic, I had some type of period-like cramping in my pelvis and it reminded me of the feeling of just wanting them out and being tired of being pregnant.

We ate breakfast as a family and while we did, I texted Inez who wanted to make sure I was doing alright after that visit to the clinic.

I was still having contractions but these were the same kind that I had experienced for months now, they were just a bit more intense and painful now.

I knew that it was from my uterus being completely stretched out.

I wasn't feeling very well on the mental note. I actually felt really depressed. I just had this feeling of wanting to hide in a hole until the babies came out and I knew it was just the hormones, but it was tiring having to act as a parent and be present for the sake of the girls while feeling like shit.

George noticed.

He checked up on me multiple times throughout the day and gave me the option to have a break to take a nap on more than one occasion and I did take a few naps actually.

That night, after a long and stressful day, George and I were in bed and he was running his hand around my stomach, trying to shift my focus from the pain while talking to me.

My eyes were closed and a smile was slowly spreading across my face as I listened to his voice.

"You know one of the things I'm the most excited about?" He whispered, his lips brushing past my ear.

"Sex?"

He chuckled.

"Well, I am very excited about sex, but no... I can't wait to see them sleep peacefully in their bassinets. To watch them and know that they are ours. I did that with both Fred and Roxanne." He said. "You have these tiny humans that you made and it's so surreal. You made them and they're yours and you'll always love them and make sure they're safe."

I tilted my head back to look at his face.

"I hope they look like you." I said in a whisper. "I'd like to see you in them."

"You probably will." He smiled. "They're a mix between the two of us. We'll see the both of us in them at some point."

He kissed my lips before resting his head against mine.

"But I hope they look like you." He said. "Your dark hair and your dark eyes..."

He kissed me again.

"You're beautiful."