Dreaming of a white Christmas Ch. 10

"The head..."

I don't know how she managed it but with my phone on speaker beside us on the bed the voice guided Angie and me through delivering a very wriggly and noisy, messy lump of flesh which screamed even before the second arm appeared. Just as our little girls hips and legs slid out there was a knock on the door, it opened and a very heavy Scottish accent announced "Hello I'm Simone and what do we have here?" A bit quieter; "Can you bring some more towels please?" "Yes of course." "And a clean bucket or big bowl or something like that."

Our saviour dressed in dark green sat on the other side of the bed as I placed our screaming daughter on Angie.

"It looks like I'm too late to do anything for ye."

"Wee wee Mummy."

"See to ye bairn, I'll tak o'er here."

Freddy was already out of bed and walking to me, I picked him up and finding the condition of the bathroom, especially the toilet I pulled his pyjamas and pants down and balanced him on the edge of the basin. I saw the yellow trail heading to the plughole slow and stop. "All done, shake the drips, well done." Freddy went through the words and actions as has become the norm, he even checked the pants. I double checked to make sure it was not soiled, redressed him and held him to wash his hands. He grabbed the towel from the hook and I returned him to bed, dried his hands properly and tucked him in. "What mummy doing?"

"Our baby has been born and she is having dinner."

"At sleeps time?"

"Mmm yes babies have their dinner when they're hungry."

"Oh."

His eyes snapped shut. Freddy had been dry at night for a while and we'd moved from pull-up nappies to pants.

Returning to Angie the pain had gone from her face. She still looked frazzled, tired but she tried to smile, it nearly worked. "Thank you." She held out her mucky hand to hold.

"It should be me thanking you Angie, you have a perfect, a gorgeous little girl." I was lying as there was nothing gorgeous about the mess sprawled across Angie but the emotion made it all perfect.

I'd knelt on the floor and leaned in to kiss Angie. "You are such a clever girl." I turned to look at the baby and speaking in a silly way added; "And so are you my little princess. Welcome to the big bad world" The grip on my hand increased and shook a couple of times.

I took a heavy breath and puffed it out again. "So." I looked at Simone, "So what happens now?"

"I suggest we tak ye t' infirmary as ye say tis eight weeks prem. The bairn looks good, nee eight weeks early. All tests are good, bairn is a good size, ten fingers 'n toes 'n hungry, milk looks good."

While Simone continued her procedures I did the best I could to clean Angie and baby and I dressed in yesterdays clothes and managed to get Angie dressed with Simones help, we walked her to the corridor where the stretcher trolley stood, took a sleeping Freddy from his bed, grabbed the holdall with various bits of clothing and toiletries and followed the trolley with baby still munching on booby.

At reception I mentioned the state of the room and was politely told it would be sorted.

Angie and baby Brown were admitted to maternity and two hours later I was basically assured everything was fine, mother and baby were asleep and my presence was no longer required.

The taxi was quick to arrive and get us back at the hotel, the receptionist caught my attention. "Mister Brown, Madeline is still preparing your room, she..."

"Yes I'm so sorry about the state..."

"Oh it's no bother but taking a little while to do. How are they?"

"When I left mother and baby are both asleep, leaving me holding the baby, huh hu." I gestured to a sleeping Freddy who'd hardly stirred from his sleep.

"Oh that's so good, he has been so lovely to have staying here."

"Thank you. He can have his moments but he is a good boy."

"Excuse Me." she answered the phone; "Reception... oh lovely thank you."

"That was Madeline; she is just finishing your room."

"Thank you." I headed for the lift, the cleaning trolley was still by our room and the door was wedged open. As I got there Madeline stood from tucking in Freddy's sheet.

"Hello sir, you must have had a bad night."

"It was certainly unexpected."

"May I ask what happened? Sorry I shouldn't ask. It's none of my business."

"I think it became your business. A cross between Chinese food and err a new baby."

"Oh a baby? Bless you, I imagined all sorts of scenarios." She briefly touched my arm. "With all the blood I even thought someone might have been stabbed. I'm sorry my imagination running away with me. How is your wife now?"

"Mother and daughter doing fine and sleeping peacefully by the time they chucked me out."

"Oh bless them, give them my best when you see them please."

"I certainly will thank you."

"Good night Sir." She bent to retrieve the door wedge and left.

Freddy snuggled down as I placed him in bed; I went to the bathroom, abluted and settled in bed. My head was chugging thoughts around, of course the most prominent being: I'm a father, my daughter, my Angie. Suddenly logistics kicked in, here we are with a new baby and all of our baby things are one hundred and fifty miles away. A mental shopping list started and faded as my brain grew weary. The last thing I recall adding to the list is to thank... oh what was the name of the cleaner... to thank her properly for cleaning up the mess.

"Uncle Terry."

"Err wh... hmm. Freddy." I glanced at the clock and saw I'd had less than 3 hours sleep since... "Why don't we play a little game?"

"Yeaarrrhh."

"Get into the bed with me."

Freddy climbed onto the bed and crawled into where I opened for him.

"Shall we snuggly wuggly like bunny and whinney."

"Yeaarrrhh."

He backed his bottom right into my chest and pulled my hand to his chest just like the characters in one of his story books. "Time for sleeps Bunny."

"No Uncle Terry, I'm whinney."

"Oh. Time for sleeps whinney.

"Time for bobos bunny."

That was the cue to go back to sleep, however a few seconds later he mentally turned the page where the sun shines and says; "Ooowow, hello whinney, hello bunny."

And the response from both of us was; "Hello sunny sun." and I knew there was not a chance in hell of getting any more sleep. And we continued to the part where the sun says about eating your 'sunny flakes' and it became time for breakfast. Working through the story we went through the bathroom and dressed and headed for breakfast.

I prepared a bowl of Weetabix and Rice Crispies with warm milk, I hoped Freddy didn't rebel with the lack of chocolate flakes and he tucked in.

My next task was to phone the hospital; "Good morning, is there any news about Angela Kipkirui?"

"And your name please?"

"Of course, Terry Brown."

"She is awake and sitting up and currently eating toast."

"How about our baby?"

"I, ha ha, I think you might have problems with her."

"Why what's the..."

"No, no she is fine but all she has done all night is feed, poor mum must be worn out."

"So you don't want me there for a while?"

"She has been asking about you, I'm sure Angie will be pleased to see you."

"Lovely thank you, we should be about an hour. I'll bring in more toiletries and clothes, anything else I need and for baby?"

"You will need baby clothes for a nine pound baby."

I laughed; "Nine pounds, not bad for eight weeks premature."

"Who said she was premature?"

"The sonographers dates. I'll see you later, thank you."

I put some bread in the toaster, drank some orange juice, filled Freddy's drink cup with apple juice, collected some hot food and my toast and coffee. At the table with Freddy I put a few bits of sausage, scrambled egg and beans on a small plate for him then munched my way through the rest of mine.

Back in our room I collected the bits together and on the way out asked the receptionist for a good place to get baby things, I was directed to a massive supermarket where I was able to get a baby carrier car seat, a few baby grows the now very familiar massive box of nappies and probably far too many other bits and then we were on out way to find Angie and baby.

Sorry to say it but she looked a mess and that didn't change when she saw us and smiled. "Hey baby, who's a clever girl. How are you this morning?"

We held hands and I bent over to kiss.

"Mmmmmmm."

I sat and perched Freddy on my knees.

"Hello Freddy."

We sat and chatted for two hours during which our gorgeous little girl fed twice.

The doctor came round and said there was some concern that the bowel activity may be a problem with dehydration, for which she wanted Angie to stay another day. Otherwise she was very happy with the way things were going and chatted for a little while.

I said about how well Madeline had cleaned the room so quickly and looked as if nothing had happened. It seemed a name had been chosen when Madeline Elainer Kipkirui rolled around a few times surprisingly followed by Madeline Elainer Brown and Maddy Brown. It occurred to me we needed to start telling people, fishing out my phone I sat Freddy on the bed beside Angie and she promptly pulled him in close for a big hug.

Starting a skype call and recording, it opened with; "Hello Terry is that your hotel room?"

"Hello Elainer. No it isn't the hotel." I swung the phone round to Angie.

"Hello Mum."

"Hello darling are you okay? That looks like a hospital bed."

"It is Mum but I'm fine. Terry is going to move the phone over to introduce you to Madeline."

Hearing the name and seeing Maddy happened about the same time but from the sound of the shrieks and squealing coming from my phone I doubted she heard the name. When all the noise subsided I moved the phone back over to Angie and balanced it on the overbed table.

"Now I see why you look so terrible."

"Thanks Mum and I love you too."

"I see'd the guns in the castle nanny."

"I'm going to the loo, shall I take Freddy or leave him to talk with you and mum?"

"Leave him please."

I headed for the corridor alone feeling quite emotional. The 'League of Friends' had a card rack right at their doorway and I found a 'Beautiful Baby Girl' card, the toilets are adjacent to the Costa franchise and nipped in there first to order a Cappuccino to save time, after pissing I sat and waited just a few seconds for the coffee. I read the card again and borrowed a pen to sign it.

The place was busy and a couple of women asked to share my table, the one wearing a uniform quickly asked; "Are you okay sir?"

I wiped the tear from my eye, "Me? Yes, oh yes I'm very okay." I smiled. I looked at my watch. "I became a Daddy ten hours ago."

I showed her the card and saw the minor look of surprise, "Oh congratulations, how many is that?"

"My first, gorgeous little girl, Angies second. I must get her a drink. Thank you my dear." I drained the last of my coffee and left the women chattering away, ordered a White Hot Chocolate with Caramel, a Cinnamon Brioche, pink Fruit Shoot, chocolate cookie and carefully returned to my family with them.

Freddy was still sitting beside Angie as she read him a story from a well worn book, he pointed to the chicken as she read out the name.

Her mouth dropped open when she saw me holding the Costa glass mug and stared for a full five seconds. "Tell me that's..."

"With caramel."

Book and Freddy forgotten both arms reached out; "Gimme, gimme, gimme now." She took the mug and took a long hard sniff to take in the aroma. Her face shone.

"This is for Freddy..."

"Yeaarrhh."

I snapped the cover off, pulled the drinker open and handed him the bottle. "And this." I pulled the cookie from my pocket, cracked it, opened the wrapper and placed a couple of chunks on the plate and he promptly tucked in. "And this for Mummy." I pulled the cake from my pocket.

"ooooooooo you..."

Again I opened the wrapper and slipped the contents onto a plate; she grabbed the cake and took a bite from it. The look of ecstasy on her face told me I'd done exactly the right thing and I stood there watching my family, all three of them. All three of them chewing, including Maddy on her fist.

I picked up my phone from the table and took a dozen or so pictures then felt the card as I dropped it into my pocket. I sat and waited, enjoying watching Angie enjoying the offerings.

"Oh T... Daddy you are so clever."

"Oh Angie no... You, you are the clever one. You have baked the most perfect beautiful little girl."

"Who else have you told?"

"No one yet, I suppose I'd better and let them know we can't do Monday dinner, I'll just send a message to that effect."

I started typing a text message then deleted the whole thing and started again speaking the words as I typed; "Hi Danni, something has cropped up, Angie in hospital, we won't be able to do dinner on Monday. T&A XX Send."

"You rotten tease."

"Yeah, why not?"

A few moments later; "Oh no what's happened? Is it a problem with the baby?"

I started a face time call with me sitting beside the bed with Angie and Freddy in shot. Angie spoke first; "Hello Danni."

"Hello Angie you look like you've been through the wringer."

"Oh we had this lovely Chinese meal yesterday and during the night I, let's just say it hurt and it came out quickly."

"Oh you poor love, how are you now?"

"Tired and hurting."

"Any issues with the baby?"

I took over; "No there are no problems with Madeline."

"I didn't think you knew the sex."

"Oh well yes that kind of didn't go according to plan." I stood and angled the phone so Maddy came into shot as I said. "Meet Madeline."

"Oh you bloody sod, you... is she... shouldn't she be in an incubator?"

"What at eight pound nine ounces?"

"Wow, what happened?"

I moved the phone closer to me and lowered my voice; "Basically she shat herself and the baby came too. In the hotel before the ambulance got there."

"Congratulations to you both, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Doctors a bit concerned about dehydration with the diarrhoea and want to keep her in at least another day. Maddy keeps wanting a feed and that seems to be going well."

"I'm so pleased for you both, can I do anything?"

"I'll send some pictures, if you could let everyone else know why we can't do Monday."

"Course I will, take good care of her and her mother don't forget Freddy too.

"Love you Danni we'll see you soon."

"Yeah Bye bye, well done." The image jerked around and Danni's face vanished.

Within four minutes of sending some pictures the messages started arriving, some really soppy, some verging on very rude but all offering congratulations in some way. I was rather surprised how wide and how quickly the news was spreading. I had no idea who Mark and Sheila in New Zealand are but they were thrilled for us.

It was nearly four hours later the messages and phone calls stopped and we started discussing the immediate future, I made a bit of a list of the things I'd purchased so Angie had an idea and from those a list of the items I should bring in, it was all in the car anyway and likely to stay there until wanted. I went to get some items and bring them in then Freddy and I did our hugs and kisses then waved and blew kisses as we walked away.

As we approached the Costa franchise I asked Freddy if mummy would like another drink. He said 'yes' and I turned in to get one. Returning to Angie she didn't need words, I'm sure her arms were twelve feet long to get to the clear mug, again the long sniff of the aroma before taking the first sip. "If you keep bringing me these I think I could get to love you daddy."

I blew a kiss and Freddy copied me Angie caught it, placed it in her mouth and washed it down with more of her white hot chocolate. Finally a gesture with the back of her fingers to dismiss us.

I took Freddy to dinner and knowing how he well he eats 'by taking food from my plate' at a Toby Carvery, it was the obvious place to go and as predicted he ate well and nicely.

By the time we were back at the hotel Freddy was asleep in the car and putting him in bed was not too bad.

At breakfast one of the waitresses presented me with a dress for Maddy, fairly simple red with white trims and letter 'M' on the chest with a matching hat which I added to the items to take into the hospital. It hadn't occurred to me to buy any outer clothing and it was a welcome addition.

I phoned the hospital to make sure nothing had changed, phoned Angie for a chat and took Freddy to the zoo as we'd discussed the previous day, we had to take a big bag of his coloured plastic toys to compare them with the real thing. We were lucky to see a Panda which was due to moved for mating, spent ages watching the lions and Hippopotamus and squealed telling the penguins to chase the fish being thrown and of course the selection of monkeys and similar at that time of year were all giving some lovely demonstrations of 'cuddling'

When Freddy was hungry we shared a massive sausage roll in a restaurant overlooking the penguins and shortly after that left to go to Angie and Maddy.

Passing Costa was not possible, I had set a precedent already and it was now compulsory to get a white hot chocolate for Angie but I had a decision whether to stay on caramel or her other choice of maple syrup, I tossed a coin and selected maple syrup. I repeated the previous days order too and added a cappuccino takeaway for me.

Turning into Angies ward we found sitting in the armchair and Maddy having dinner, Angies face turned from a smile to a massive grin then seeing the drink her spare hand came out to take it and inhale the aroma. Talk about getting priorities right. "Oooo, maple syrup tonight, yummy." She took a sip and placed it on her table.

I was partway to unloading: cookie, brioche, fruit shoot, plates the red dress was in my hand. "Ah Mister Brown," I turned to see the doctor.

"Good afternoon doctor."

"I thought that was you I saw, please take a seat." I sat on the plastic moulded chair with Freddy on my lap.

"We need to discuss the arrangements for getting away from here."

"Oh good, yes how are they doing?"

"I understand you delivered the baby, err Madeline."

"Pfwah, I wouldn't say that exactly, it was all so quick it was more like catching her."

"I gather it was a bit unexpected."

"You could put it that way."

"When you leave here what are the plans."

"We want to go back to the hotel, the staff are... interested and Madeline was the lady who cleaned up the mess so we plan to take a bunch of flowers and well a big tip and a cuddle if she wants, that reminds me I haven't managed one of those yet."

"How much longer are you staying?"

"Oh no, no we're going straight home then, should be about three... and a half hours from here."

"O...kay and what are your travel arrangements?"

"We're in the car."

"For baby?"

"I got a rear facing baby seat yesterday."

"Baby is fine, weight is good, hearing and feeding very well... I'd like to keep an eye on Missus erm... Angela's hydration for another night, otherwise we are happy with both of you... Any questions?"

"Yes, can I have more of these please?" Angie drank more of the hot chocolate.

We laughed.

"If there's nothing else I'll see you in the morning," looking at Angie, "and you Mister Brown about midday or so." Looking at me.

"Thank you Doctor."

Freddy just sat there turning his head to whoever spoke.

Doctor Dimitri collected the folder together and stood from her seated position on the bed.

"Bye bye doctor."

She turned to look at Freddy, "Oh there's a good boy, are you going to help Mummy look after your baby sister."

"Yes."

Her shoes tapped on the floor as she walked away.

"So my ladies are doing well and tomorrow we go home but first this," I picked up the dress from the bag, "from the hotel."