The next few days are really busy, on Monday we drop the girls off directly to school; Gabe and I had a discussion on Sunday night and decided that it’s not good for Ava to keep seeing her parents taking lumps out of each other and until Nina accepts mine and Gabe’s relationship, which is probably going to be never. Especially when she finds out I’m pregnant. Anyway, until a time they can be civil to each other, Gabe will keep his contact with Nina to a minimum. It’s not me being a jealous bitch and forbidding him from seeing her, much. It’s just that we think it’s better for Ava if she doesn’t have to constantly listen to them fighting. After taking the girls to school, we head straight to the hospital for my appointment, where I finally get the cast taken off and replaced by a removable plastic type thingo, that stops at my wrist, freeing up my hand; I seriously cannot wait to get a mani and some shellac going on, I’m an Essex girl, having my nails au naturel these past few weeks has been almost painful but I will wait until I have a day to myself to get them done.
We leave the hospital and head back down to the peninsula, straight to the Palmers place at Red Hill so that I can take a look at what stage we are at, Gabe has told me that most of the tradies are off site now so it will just be a case of coordinating with the carpet fitters and the company installing the blinds; we arrive to find just the tiler on site. The place looks great, just in need of a builders clean before I then get the house cleaning company that I always use to come in and clean properly.
Gabe stands and looks at me totally confused. “So once I pay for the cleaners to come in and do a builders clean, you will then pay another lot of cleaners to come in and clean again?”
“Yes. Have you ever seen how dirty everything still is after a builders clean?”
“Well it is what it is, that’s why it’s called a builders clean and not a Mary fucking Poppins clean.”
“Well that comes later, because once all the furniture is in and I have dressed the place, I get another lot of cleaners in before I present to the client.”
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly.”
Gabe makes calls to arrange his cleaners over the next couple of days, I make calls to arrange for mine to come in at the beginning of next week, then I make calls to the carpet fitters and the company fitting the blinds and plantation shutters I am having fitted to the front of the house, to arrive next Wednesday.
Tuesday we have a doctor’s appointment to discuss the pregnancy and what our options are regarding, removing the coil and what tests there are available to us due to my age and the complications it may cause, we have done our homework and have decided that we want the CVS test that can detect chromosomal changes at just ten weeks, rather than wait until the fifteenth week of my pregnancy for an amnio test. The doctors are relying heavily on the ultrasound for dating the pregnancy as I have no dates to give them for my last period. An appointment is made for the thirtieth of November, at which stage I will be around eleven to twelve weeks pregnant, my due date being around the twenty first of June. Rachel my doctor also recommends that we leave the coil in place until the babies are viable as taking it out may increase the risk of miscarriage; it’s not causing me any problems right now so we will see how we go. We are given leaflets and booklets and a whole pile of stuff to read, I have my blood taken followed by my blood pressure, which is at the higher end of normal and I’m told to go home and rest. Before we leave, Gabe once again confirms with Rachel that sex is absolutely safe. I give him a, see I told you so look, when she tells us to ‘Go for it’. Although we are to get in touch if I experience any cramping or spotting. I leave the surgery with a head ache and feel drained and exhausted after being bombarded with so much information.
I sleep through most of Tuesday afternoon and later help Gabe pack a bag for his trip to South Australia in the morning. By eight o’clock I am beginning to wish I had stayed asleep, he is driving me insane with his list of instructions of what I can and can’t do while he is away, I now have his permission to drive, but I’m not to leave the peninsula, I am to make sure my phone is on ring and vibrate at all times and I am to put it on charge at every opportunity. He checks my phone to make sure that I have all the correct contact details for all of his family and he even checks to make sure I have the right number for my GP. MY GP! MINE NOT HIS! Of course I have the right number!
He doesn’t want me to go to work but I have to meet with the carpet and the blind fitters on Thursday but I promise to work from home on Friday; I’ve had enquiries from another couple of prospective clients but in all honesty and as much as I hate to admit it, I am already feeling so tired by mid-afternoon every day that it would be pointless to take on any more work. I finally walk away and leave Gabe dishing out his orders and go and run myself a bath; I manage to fill the bath and sink into the warm soapy water before he comes up for air and even realises that I’m missing; I’m dozing contentedly when I get that tingle and know that he is there, watching me. We’ve been so busy that I haven’t had chance to consider the fact that I’m not going to see him for two whole days, we’ve not been apart for that long since we met. Apart from the Alyssa incident, and I suddenly feel a little tearful, I’m going to miss him.
“I hope that waters not too hot, hot baths aren’t good for you when you’re pregnant.”
Then again, maybe I’m not going to miss him at all.