My Little Girl

Chapter 1: Just Another Night

“Come on little miss you get out as well.” I say lifting Freya up out of the bath and wrapping her in a baby pink towel. “Rosie do you want to go into your room and we can get you both ready for bed.” My little girl skips off to her pink bedroom and pulls her pyjamas out of her drawer. “Can you pick me out something for Freya to wear?” I ask Rosie, who quickly skips off rummaging through the chest of drawers, before running back handing me a white sleeper suit with red polka dots. “That’s perfect.”

“I thought since I’m wearing my Daisy Duck ‘jama’s then Freya could wear Minnie Mouse one’s,” Rosie explains pointing out the picture of Minnie Mouse on the sleeper suit. “Because Minnie and Daisy are best friends just like me and Freya and the new baby will be as well.” Rosie knew was that in about a month’s time mummy and daddy would go to the hospital and pick up a baby brother or sister for her and Freya. For a four-year-old that was all she needed to know and to stop her from asking questions.

“Come on my two little girls should be getting to bed now,” I say picking up Freya and ushering Rosie to her bed. “Now what book do you want me to read?” Rosie had the biggest collection of Disney books I have ever seen. They were the same as the films but in a book. Rosie loved them all, but her favourite was Tangled. Rosie was fascinated by the princess with the long golden locks she even persuaded her dad to draw Pascal on her wall by the bed.

“Can we read Tangled?” she asked me.

“Of course we can sweetie,” with that I pulled the book off the shelf resting Freya on my left and Rosie on my right. “Once upon a time in a land far away...” I trailed off always exaggerating wherever I could to keep my girls interested. When I get to the third page both my girls are fast sleeping dreaming of them being princesses.  I try to stand up without waking either of them up. I just stare at my girls I push back some of her blonde curls to give Rosie a kiss on the cheek before I pick Freya up and take her to bed. After I tuck Freya into her crib I quietly creep out of the room.

I tiptoe into my room shutting the door behind so I won’t wake the girls up. Lying on my bed I just try to relax. I’m weird in a way I don’t like relaxing I always like to keep busy, in work I’m always up and now I’m on maternity leave I feel at a loss over what to do. I remember before Rosie I was born I lay on this bed every night when I was on maternity leave, just waiting for Michael to come home. It was always now I would worry. I would worry that I’d be a terrible mother and I would fail my baby. Michael would always see me worried when he came home he’d give me hug rubbing my back telling me everything was going to be ok. Now I look back and can’t see why I was worried, both my girls were happy and healthy what more could I ask for?

I grab my phone and start searching ‘baby names’ tapping at the first website I find. I remember with Freya we had her name picked out months in advance. But with Rosie we picked that out after she was born because of her rosy red cheeks. Scrolling down I looked at all the girls names; Amelia, Lily, Emilie, Sophia, Isabelle. I thought Amelia was a pretty name, Melissa had suggested it to me when I gave birth to Rosie. I wrote them all on a notepad next to me circling Amelia. Now for the boys; Harry, Jack, Oliver, James, Riley. Riley I liked Riley; I thought it had a little ring to it. I wrote them all down on a separate list making sure I drew a circle round Riley.

I looked down at my ever growing bump. “You don’t know what you’ve let yourself in for,” I laugh to my bump. “Whatever made me think I should work with a bunch of adults who act like kids in work and then decide to come home to a house full of kids.” Growing up wasn’t easy for me I was always the tough one and my sister was the frilly one. That was how I grew up and that’s how I stayed. I couldn’t believe that I Michael had ever fallen for me with my tough exterior. But then when Rosie was born and I looked into those big blue eyes my heart melted. She made me a kinder and a more loving person.  I still kept that hard exterior up in work, I remember the look on Ryan’s face when he found out I had two kids and I was pregnant again.

I started to hear a muffled cry through the baby monitor causing me to shoot out of bed. I tried to run into my girls room, as fast as someone could who was eight months pregnant. When I got into the pink room I could see Freya trying to get out of her crib. “Come on missy moo,” I whisper pulling her out of the crib. I quietly shut the door after I look over to see Rosie fast asleep. “One of those nights hey,” sometimes Freya struggles to get off to sleep, but it’s nothing a nice bottle of milk can’t fix. I place her in the pram in the hallway as I go to grab some milk.

“Ugh not today,” I see as I realise we have no milk left. “Well Freya since you’ve drunk all the milk you better hope Helen will lend me a bottle full.” I smile at her, I know Freya probably won’t understand what I mean but it’s a habit of mine. Freya is still fidgety and restless and I know she needs a bottle. I pass her a teddy before leaving our home to go and ask my neighbour Helen if I can borrow some milk.

These are the reasons I like our little cul- de-sac, it may be small but everyone helps out. “Hey Jenny is everything ok,” a concerned Helen asks when she sees me stood at her door.

“Freya’s being fussy and we’ve ran out of milk,” I explain with a smile.

“Come on in I’ll fill the bottle up,” Helen replies taking the bottle out of my hand. “So not long now then.”

I start to follow Helen into her kitchen, “no one more month left, and the girls are excited.”

“Oh that’s great do you know what you’re having yet?”

“No we always like to wait till the day.”

“Just remember if you ever need anything just ask.” I give Helen a gentle smile before heading back with my bottle of milk. It is so peaceful outside, the night is quiet warm, which is nice for June, the sun as not long set and I can see a crescent shaped moon. The stars are out shining in the night sky. I start to hear Freya crying again and I realise I better get home. 

Dedicated to searchmenot39 for the amazing cover :)