Anna || HS

Anna 2- CHAPTER 38

~May to June, 2019~

Harry- 25
Anna- 25 (35- 37-ish weeks pregnant)
August- 2.5
Robin- 17-18 months old

~May 24th, 2019~

Anna POV:

It's been a week since Bumble opened in Los Angeles. It's not like there's been a giant swell of business because we've been doing both New York and Los Angeles business this entire time. It just means that I don't have to fly back-and-forth to the New York offices to meet clients for Los Angeles projects. So, now that construction is complete at both our apartment and the office, things should be calming down a bit, right? Not necessarily. Seems that at times like this, when I want to just sit back and put up my swollen ankles and take a break, the universe likes to remind me of who I'm married to.

Harry has commitments the end of May to Gucci, but Alessandro also knows that we are growing close to meeting our third child. Luckily, Ale is willing to be flexible. He understands that his muse might not be able to attend some of the things that he wants him to if his offspring decides to make an early appearance, which he says 'simply won't do." He is even willing to move the shoot for the Gucci fragrance, Gucci Mémoire d'une Odeur, which Harry is the face of, to Los Angeles, if baby decides to not cooperate and stay put until the end of next month.

This morning, we are at Dr.Singh's office getting the all-clear for Harry to leave the country for the next week. First, we head to the ultrasound room to get a better look at everything. The technician, who I know on a first name basis at this point, shows us all of Florence's tiny features. She measures her right on track for thirty-five weeks before sending us off to the other room to meet with Dr.Singh.

"Well, we are nearly in the home stretch here," Dr.Singh cheerfully greets us as she enters the room. She keeps her back to us long enough to wash her hands in the sink as Harry obnoxiously plays with a piece of my hair that's falling out of my ponytail. "How are things going?"

"Honestly, I feel the best I ever have at this point in my pregnancy. By this point, I'm usually starting to get really cranky and super uncomfortable, but that hasn't happened yet."

Dr.Singh examines some of the images from our ultrasound on the computer screen in the room. "That does not surprise me. This baby is in a great position, unlike your last two who had settled in a position less kind to their mother at the end. Now, I'm not saying that can't change by the time I see you next week, but it explains why you're still feeling pretty good at this point."

She checks some other things on the screen, switching between what I assume are other files before coming back to talk with us, shifting her body to face both Harry and I. "Baby actually looks to be on the smaller side of normal, which is just fine. We are nearing the end, so we do need to talk about your final decisions on delivery plans."

"Even after last birth," I start to say and look back at Harry for reassurance, "I would still like to go through with a vaginal birth." Harry and I have talked about it a lot over the last couple of weeks since Dr.Singh asked us our plans.

"I don't feel like I need to go over all of the VBAC risk factors because we had that conversation prior to your previous birth. I do want to talk about what we can do to minimize the chances of tearing this time around." Harry goes rigid at the mention of the tear from Robin's birth. He would've preferred another C-section, just to avoid all of that, but I preferred a vaginal birth and he left it up to me to decide. "Generally speaking, there is a higher risk for a person to tear during delivery if they have during their previous births."

Harry rolls his lower lip between his thumb and forefinger. "Like what kind of percentage are we talking?" Harry asks.

"The chances of tearing during a second birth is usually around one percent. Whereas the chances of tearing after a second birth, when you have previously torn, are closer to seven percent."