GETAWAY CAR

5. She Will Be Loved

December 20th 2016

Taylor's POV

"I'm not leaving you to spend Christmas alone!" Karlie's trying to convince me to fly out to St. Louis with her to spend Christmas with her family. "It's Maisie's first Christmas, she should be around people and experience the full Christmas Day." I sigh, "she's not even old enough to know what Christmas is yet! She's three weeks old, Karlie- she doesn't know anything other than sleeping, eating and pooping at this point."

She stands in front of me, crossing her arms. "Well if you won't do it for her, do it for me, you've still got another three weeks of recovery and you're still on quite a few restrictions. Put my mind at rest and come and spend Christmas in the states. My parents already love you like family and they'll love Maisie too." She smiles softly and I sigh, not quite ready to give in. "I'll think about it." I say and she looks overjoyed, "think quickly, the plane is leaving at one." I scowl at her as I stand up, "I hate you." I comment as I walk out of the room, "I love you too, Tay." She laughs.

I walk across the landing to my room, Maisie was sleeping so I went to Karlie to find her packing and that's when the convincing started. I swear she thinks I'm still an invalid, I cannot wait until the recovery period is over, I'm basically back to the way I was before pregnancy- if you looked at me you wouldn't be able to tell I was pregnant only three weeks ago.

Maisie's still asleep when I walk back into the room. She fusses a little but I just rock her until she's calm again. I sigh as I look down at her, a week ago I was so sure of why I was doing all of this, but now I just feel like I'm prolonging the inevitable.

Olivia stalks out from under the bed and I laugh as she brushes herself along my ankles. The cats have been feeling a little neglected since Maisie came along, but Olivia is in love with her. She lies under the bassinet as she sleeps and sits by her rocker or swing when we're downstairs. Meredith hasn't taken much interest in her yet, but that's not surprising.

I pick the cat up and stroke her as I sit on the bed. Meredith tends to gravitate more towards Karlie's room these days, that is unless Karlie has Maisie- she doesn't like the crying. So, more often than not I find myself sharing a bed with Olivia and Maisie in the middle of the night.

I stand up and leave the room, Olivia still lying along my arm. I find Karlie and ask, "what do I do with the cats? Can we take them to your parents?" She ponders for a moment, "I don't actually know- hang on and I'll call my mom." She finds her phone to call her mom and I go back to my room, I put Olivia down and the cat curls up on the bed and I take the baby monitor and go into Maisie's room.

I have no idea what to pack for her, there won't be anything at Karlie's parents house for a newborn so I need to take everything, but I guess we could just go to Walmart or something if we need anything. 

There's still three days until Christmas and we'll be there for at least a few days after, so I decide to pack for a week. It's still far easier to dress her in sleepers or leggings and shirts, so I pack a whole bunch of different ones, 2 outfits per day and a set of pyjamas -you don't believe how many outfits a baby goes through in a day until you have one. I pack a couple of sweaters, plenty of socks, hats and her snowsuit too- along with muslins, blankets, pacifiers and everything else I could possibly need to survive the next week.

After a few trips up and down the stairs, I finally have everything packed for Maisie, even her diaper bag which is filled with enough essentials to get through the 11 hour flight.

I zip up the pale pink suitcase as Karlie walks into the room, it was a cute gift from Abigail when I found out I was having a girl. "My mom has the dog, so it's probably not a good idea to take the cats but Cara can take them for the week if we need her too." She smiles as she sits opposite me on the floor and I nod, sitting back down as I stand the suitcase up.