Government Mother

Chapter three. ~ 'Second stage'

Turns out .. that wasn't the 'second stage'.

This was...

|Having passed the first test upon selection. The ideal candidate will be moved onto the second stage. The second stage involves double responsibility and work. Upon any discover the candidate is not suitable they shall be removed from program M.|

.. The 'second stage' was in fact to be given another baby.

After the woman came out of the bathroom, she stopped as she neared the kitchen where the first baby was fast asleep.

"Oh dear! I didn't know you were part of the second stage! Will you give me a moment dear?"

With that she left, just like everyone seemed to.

Walking to the window in the kitchen I stood making sure she didn't actually leave. What I saw was her shouting angrily into her phone, pausing every now and again and then shouting again.

"Sorry about that dear, just a slight misunderstanding. Right well firstly well done for getting to the second stage. Now the first part of this visit will be for us to have a chat and then we can go through the questions and I'll get on with my checks. Does that sound alright to you."

"Sure. Do you mind if I find somewhere to put the baby down?"

"Of course not dear! There should be a cot down here somewhere.. here we are do want to put her down in here."

Her. Ok so I knew one of them was a girl then.

"Right then. I'm going to make an assumption you haven't had a chance to read through the pack, so that will be the first thing we'll go through. Now then I've got that from the table, so we'll start with the basics. The first baby is a little girl, her given name is Melissa, but you can put a request in to change it if you feel the need to. The second little girl, is called Grace. Whilst they have no relation, they are almost identical in age, Grace being born two hours ... now this is very unusual .. their records show they were both born yesterday. I can't quite understand why they weren't kept in longer but anyhow you will have a medical home visit within the next 24 hours. Grace did have some struggles after birth. Now don't look so worried! She's perfectly fine now, otherwise they wouldn't let her out of hospital! Now before we go any further do you have any question so far?"

Born yesterday. Two hours apart. Illness. Both girls. Questions.

Before I had a chance to begin to process the information, yet alone ask a question one of the babies .. sorry baby girls started crying.

"Sorry I'll just be a minute."

Once I'd made my way into the kitchen where the crying became even louder, it was all I could do to stop myself sitting on the floor and just crying. Holding the baby I know now as Melissa close to me, I lost sense of who was comforting the other. As I held her as close as I could without upsetting her, I made my way back into the living room.

"Oh look isn't she gorgeous! Once we get all this sorted I'll steal a little cuddle before I leave. Right now then you seem to know what you're doing so we'll get things going. The next thing that will happen is the paperwork will be fully completed and put in place.."

"Sorry what paperwork?"

"Right *sigh* has anyone actually explained any of this to you dear?"

"Um no not really.."

"Great, they leave me to do everything! .. Sorry that was unprofessional, it's not your fault. Right so 'Program M' is short for mother replacement program. All the babies within the program have either been removed from their mothers care, voluntarily placed into the program if the mother feels that's the best option, or their mothers have sadly passed away. All the participants have been put forward if they were going to miss the deadline or through career drop selection. Now the paperwork I have to complete today, gives you temporary parental rights until a more permanent order can be issued. You will have sole care, however there will always be someone to contact should you feel the need to. There's an allowance that will go through into a bank account, which the card and pin should be in your pack, which is for buying all the necessities such as food, formula, nappies and so on. There's also emergency transport constantly available which the number for is on the fridge. Now this street is where some of you are, so you will find others experiencing this, take support and comfort in each other. Every other day, there will be a group run in the community hall in the middle of the houses by a young mother. Attendance isn't compulsory, however it is advised. I think that's everything. If something comes to me I'll let you know. Now not to be rude but I do have other visits to make and the paperwork is quite long so I suggest we get started and you can ask any questions later."

With that lovely yet terrifying information, she pulled a great big folder out of her bag and dropped it on the table.

We must have been not even half way through when the 2nd .. sorry Grace started to cry.

"Here I'll take her and you can go get Grace."

Walking into the room where the cot was, I stopped just before the cot. Didn't she say something about Grace having problems after she was born? What if she was hurt or ill and by picking her up I made it worse? What if they kicked me out for being too stupid to realise? What would happen if .?

Breathe. In and out. In and out. And Breatheeeee.

Lowering the side, reaching carefully inside the cot I made sure to support her head whilst lifting her up. Once I had her settled into the crook of my left arm, I made my way back to the living room. Where I found the lady expertly holding Melissa over her shoulder with one hand while making a bottle with the other which she passed to me as I came in.

This was real.
REAL!
They wanted to leave me Evie, 18. In charge of two real life babies. One of which may or may not have health problems.

"Thank you. So these struggles you were talking about earlier, what exactly were they?"

"Oh nothing to worry about now. I'm sure the medical visitor will go over her records with you. They have put her on this milk though as a precaution so I'll show you how to make it up in a minute. It's no different to normal milk really just a bit thicker."

Thickened milk and going over records does not sound like nothing to worry about. Yet when I tried to bring it up she just carried on with the paperwork, showed me where all the contact numbers were, and where she'd leave all the information packs for me to read. Then with both babies crying, she was out the door making some excuse about other people to see.

So here I am. Sat on the floor trying to calm two hysterical babies whilst trying not to give into the urge to cry.

Every time I got one of to sleep, the other would start crying. It seemed like there was never going to be a point where both were asleep. Once Grace was asleep and I'm the cot, I gave up and took Melissa into the living room, picking up the information packs on the way.

As I sat on the sofa with one hand reassuring Melissa in the sleep pillow next to me, my brain struggled to process the information it was receiving. It's seems like just as I was getting over the shock of one thing, something else would be thrown my way.