Heartstopper Future

Chapter 46: The 1st Midwife Appointment

Date: Monday 19th August 2024

Nick’s POV

Today is going to be a busy day.
We have our first midwife appointment at 11:00 and then we have a screening test for sickle cell and thalassemia in the afternoon.

As 9:30 starts to come, I make the decision to wake Charlie up, as even though he needs the sleep, we also need to leave in an hour. I begin to gently play with his hair until he wakes up. After about 10 minutes, he starts to slowly open his eyes.

“Morning love” I say

“Morning” he replies, before slowly sitting up. I pass him a ginger biscuit, which I had already gotten out then ask “Are you ready for today?”

“I think so, I think I just need to get the first appointment done so I know that everything’s fine and so I’ll worry less about the next appointment.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right. And not to worry you anymore than you already probably are, we need to leave in 45 minutes.”

“What? Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?”

“I didn’t want to disturb you because you looked so peaceful.”

“Ok, well, I give you permission to wake me up earlier next time.”

“Ok” I say before getting up and going round to Charlie’s side of the bed to help him up.

Once up I help him get dressed, as he is starting to struggle with the changes to his body, so I just want to make it clear that I don't care how he looks.

Once we have finished upstairs, we go downstairs and I make us some breakfast.
I have been researching good pregnancy foods, so that Charlie not eating enough is compensated, so I make us some scrambled eggs on seeded toast, with yogurt and fruit on the side. I serve Charlie up 1 piece of toast with enough egg on top to cover the toast, and I give myself 2 pieces of the same. Then I put a portion of yogurt into 2 bowls and add some fruit, knowing that it is one of Charlie’s safe meals. I then bring it all over to the table, where Charlie is already seated, and take a seat myself.

We make it through breakfast in about 20 minutes, and Charlie manages it all apart from a bit of the toast. Not gonna lie, how much he tries for our baby just makes me want to marry him more.

We then go put our shoes on and get in the car, beginning the drive to the hospital.

Charlie’s POV

When we get to the hospital, I remember how much I don't like these places. I know that there are other places I could do this in, but due to my anorexia me and Nick decided that a hospital would be the safest place in case something went wrong.

As we enter the hospital, we find our way to the maternity unit, sign in, and take a seat in the waiting room.

Eventually, our name gets called and we get directed to another room.
We enter the room, and a woman, presumably our midwife is sat at the desk.

When she notices us come in, she welcomes us in and tells us to take a seat.

She begins the appointment by asking us how the pregnancy has been so far and other easy questions like that. She then confirms that Nick is the father before asking us if we’re ready to start. We obviously are, so she starts giving us information about how the baby develops during pregnancy, and at the end of that section she asks if we have any questions so far. I decide to bring up the fact that my bump is already showing, but also that it is impossible for it to be any older than 10 weeks, as I was at uni. She seemed surprised that my bump was already showing so she asks if she can measure it later on.

We then move on to nutrition and diet, where naturally, my anorexia comes up. We tell her what we have been doing so far, with 3 meals and 1 snack, and how we’re trying to increase good pregnancy foods to compensate, and she seems fine with that, but she did say that if I can manage any more then I should, but if eating extra means I don't eat the minimum, then I shouldn’t eat the extra. She lets us know that at any antenatal appointment we have, she’ll check in to see how I'm getting on, just to make sure everything’s ok.

She then talks us through exercise and pelvic floor exercises, antenatal screening tests (which we tell her we have one booked in for later), breastfeeding (including workshops we could go to) and options as to where I have the baby.

She then needs to measure my weight and height, which I agree with so long as I don't see the numbers.

Once that is done, I get told to lie down on the bed and lift my shirt up so she can measure the bump and try and work out what’s going on. While measuring she asks things like when the bump started to show (6 weeks) and other things like that. She then comes to the conclusion that I is probably twins, but we’ll have to wait until the first ultrasound to confirm. She then asks if we have one booked, which we do so we tell her we have one booked for the 7th of September.

We then finish up the appointment with any last questions we have, before leaving. When we leave, we realise that we were in there for an hour and a half, so it is now 12:30. So we decide to go get lunch from the cafeteria, but we agreed to take it outside to eat.

Once we have eaten lunch we take a small walk round the grounds as there is only half an hour until the screening test. We end up where we need to be, so we go in and take a seat in the waiting room. We then get called into a room, where they quickly take a sample of blood, ask us a few questions, then we leave and go home.

When we get home, we go into the living room and relax on the sofa.

I begin to think about how, Nick has always been there for me and how he would never leave me no matter how hard it got. Which then led me onto thinking that maybe I’d like the bond between us to become a legal marriage.

‘I’m going to get a ring tomorrow while Nick is at rugby and propose to him on Friday’ I eventually decide.