Chapter 82: Lily Luna Potter
I am currently in the living room, holding Hope, my goddaughter, and talking with Erin. It's been a little less than three months since she was born and she's a sweetheart, honestly. According to Erin, she sleeps very well and doesn't cry in the night.
My stomach has been growing rapidly and the kicks have been getting stronger. Although I'm only six and a half months pregnant, it feels like ages. I have been getting a few contractions lately but after going to the hospital, they said they were just Braxton Hicks contractions and nothing to worry about.
Harry and I both celebrated our birthday last week for the family. We had a small outing, like we usually do for birthdays, and had a fun time. For example, for Teddy's and Victoire's birthday, we went to a huge playground where all the kids who were able to run around had a lot of fun. Even Albus and Rose had a fun time, especially as Albus had just started to walk and occasionally fall down.
Although, as I'm holding Hope, I feel another Braxton Hicks but I don't remember it being this painful.
"Are you okay?" Erin asks as she sees my face scrunch up.
"Um, can you take Hope back? I just want to stand up a little and check what's wrong," I ask and she quickly takes Hope while also helping me to stand up.
"Thank you," I smile and slowly breathe out.
"How are you feeling?" Erin asks, looking worried.
"I don't know. I've been having Braxton Hicks for the past weeks but that one didn't feel like a Braxton Hicks," I say, just before another one bothers me.
I soon feel confident to sit down again but an hour later, as I stand up again, I almost get a heart attack when I feel a warm liquid slowly running down my bare leg.
"Eum, Ginny," Erin looks alarmed and I think I have the same look on my face.
"But- but this is impossible, I'm not due until the end of October!" I cry hysterically, knowing that if the baby's coming, he or she will be two and a half months early.
Erin quickly puts Hope in her carrier and then embraces me, trying to calm me down. It works because once I'm sitting down, I'm not hysterically crying anymore.
Erin quickly calls Kreacher to get a towel and a glass of water while she tries to contact Harry.
After getting my mirror and managing to activate it, Harry looks worried when he sees me. He knows I wouldn't try to contact him while he's at work so he excuses himself from a conversation with whoever it may be.
"Erin, Ginny, what's wrong?" Harry stammers, fear in his eyes.
"Can you come home? I think the baby's coming?" I mutter but Harry seems to have heard it as his eyes widen.
"But that's impossible, the-"
"I know, but it is happening so just come," I scowl as I double over because of a contraction.
"Of course," Harry looks guilty.
"I'm sorry," I apologise but he smiles and breaks the connection.
"Will you be okay for a few minutes?" Erin asks and I nod.
"Great, I'm going upstairs to pack your bag," Erin says and hurries upstairs.
Soon after she's left, Kreacher arrives with a towel and a glass of water.
"Is there anything else Kreacher can do for Mistress?" Kreacher asks, but I shake my head.
"No thank you, but thanks for asking," I smile and Kreacher returns it.
Moments later, Harry stumbles into the room, coughing from the ashes from the Floo Powder. His clothes are covered in ashes and dirt.
"I came as quick as I could," Harry says, placing a kiss on my head.
I smile gratefully.
"Perhaps you should go upstairs and change before we go. You might want to warn the kids too that we might not be home tonight," I say and he smiles.
"I'll be right back," he says and, just like Erin, hurries upstairs.
I hold the towel to try and absorb the liquid that's still managing to flow down my leg. I grimace when I see a trace of blood.
Seconds later, Erin storms into the room, having packed a whole bag of clothes, both for me and the baby. The bag also includes things like nappies, although they'll probably be too big for the baby, toothbrush and toothpaste, a pack of pads and even a nursing bra, probably just in case.
"Thank you so much," I thank Erin before another contraction hits.
"It's nothing. Besides, it didn't take that long because I still remember everything I needed with Hope," Erin smiles and puts her hand on mine.
"Everything is going to be fine," Erin says and I breathe in deeply, nodding.
"Oh no, I still have to get someone to look after the kids," I sigh and try to get up.
"Don't worry, I'll look after them," Erin smiles.
"Even for the night?" I ask, surprised by her offer.
"Of course. I'll ask Scott to come over and help and we'll be fine. Otherwise, I'll ask Molly of Hermione to come but I think we'll manage," Erin assures me before Harry walks into the room, appearing to be ready.
"Thank you so much for everything!" I give Erin a hug before I feel a little hand holding mine.
"Are you going?" James asks, his voice sad.
"For now but Mummy and Daddy will be back soon," I tell James and try to kneel down to get to his level. It hurts incredibly much but it also hurts to see my son so sad.
He wraps his arms around my neck and starts crying.
"Now, now, James, it's all going to be alright. I'm going to need you to help Auntie Erin to look after Albus and Teddy, alright?" I tell my crying son while wiping his tears away.
"Yes," James smiles and nods his head.
"Now, we both love you very much and we're going to miss you lots and lots!" I give him a kiss but then stand up again, with Erin's help.
"Good luck, Ginny," Erin smiles and takes James's hand.
As I sit in the car, I see how Erin is holding a tearful James. They're both waving at me and I wave back. I even blow a kiss before the car starts moving. I see James trying to blow one back.
Just like last time, I'm so thankful that the hospital is close. By the time we get there, I can hardly stand anymore and I seem to be losing more blood.
Harry quickly goes to alert the doctors and gets a wheelchair for me.
When we arrive in the maternity ward, there seems to be a little bit of panic amongst the doctors and nurses. I get wheeled to a room and am told to put on a hospital gown.
Once it's on, a doctor enters the room and his face is grave.
"I'm afraid we have to perform an emergency cesarean section," he says and I look at him in horror
"A what?" I exclaim, having no idea what it is.
"As the baby is too weak and too young to be delivered vaginally, we have to do a c-section to assure the baby survives," the doctor says and I look at him tearfully.
He quickly explains what it is and what's going to happen. When he's finished talking, a few nurses come in and give me an iv with a numbing medicine. Within a few minutes, I can't really feel anything anymore. They also give me a nose tube which provides extra oxygen.
Soon, Harry comes into the room, wearing nurse scrubs from literally head to toe. They've given me a blue hairnet kind of thing, similar to the one Harry has.
Soon enough, I'm being wheeled down the corridor with lights that are too bright for my eyes to cope with so I close them.
Harry is holding my hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze.
By the time the numbing medication has really started working, all I hear are blurred voices. All except one.
"You're going to be fine, everything's going to be alright," I hear Harry say. I try to smile but I'm not sure if I succeeded.
Once we're in the OR, they tell me that I may feel a little bit of discomfort. As soon as they've put up the curtain, I feel that 'a little bit of discomfort' is an underestimation. Ok, it probably doesn't hurt as much as it would without medication but it does kind of sting.
I start to feel a little dizzy and my mind starts to become foggy. The last thing I hear before I lose consciousness are cries, a baby's cries.
I wake up to find Harry at the side of my bed, holding my hand and tear tracks down his cheeks. My vision is a little blurry at first but it slowly starts getting clearer.
"Harry?" I whisper, my voice raspy.
"Ginny?" Harry looks up and looks extremely relieved.
"What happened?" I ask, trying to remember but my mind still seems to be foggy.
"You- you lost a lot of blood and that caused you to lose consciousness. Your blood pressure started dropping- oh Ginny, it was so scary," Harry sighs, looking at me with his emerald green eyes.
"But I'm fine now. How long was I out?"
"Since yesterday afternoon so you haven't missed too much," Harry smiles, holding my hand firmly.
"But don't ever scare me like that again," he adds.
"Have you been home yet?" I ask him, wondering if the boys know yet.
"No, I couldn't leave you or the baby without further information," Harry says, looking down at his feet.
"The baby!" I exclaim, looking at him with big eyes.
"Yeah?" Harry, the bloody oblivious idiot, asks.
"Tell me you idiot, how is it doing, is it a girl or a boy," I demand, glaring at him.
"Oh, sorry," Harry grins sheepishly.
"So?" I smile, a little less fierce this time.
Harry starts grinning even more.
"She is doing okay. They took her in for testing and she's in an incubator. She's still tiny and she's got a breathing tube, a feeding tube and several other monitors. They're not sure yet when she can come out but we can go and see her once you're all cleaned up," Harry smiles.
"A girl," I confirm, sighing out of relief.
After a while, a nurse comes in and shooes Harry out of the room. She claims to want to check up on my wound from the c- section. She also tells me that she's going to remove my catheter, which explained why it had felt so uncomfortable.
"I'm going to need you to relax while I remove it," she says sweetly.
'Try relaxing yourself when a stranger is cleaning your private parts and then come back and tell me if you relaxed too,' I think, clenching my teeth.
When she's done, she lifts my hospital gown to have a look. I've got to say, it doesn't look very pleasant.
"We'll keep you on pain medicine for now and I'll let someone bring a wheelchair so you can at least go and see your daughter. If nothing bad happens today, we can see about trying to walk tomorrow. Now, let's go get your husband and you can go and see your daughter," the nurse smiles which relieves me.
Harry soon enters the room, with a wheelchair, and together with the nurse, they carefully help me into the rolling chair. She tells me to hold on to the stick thingy from which the pain medication is hanging.
Harry follows the nurse while pushing me to the ward where the premature babies are. Through the window, Harry points to the baby that is closest to us. As Harry had said already, she's incredibly small. She has all sorts of tubes and wires around her and she looks so vulnerable.
"Here, if you clean your hands thoroughly, you can come in and have a closer look," the nurse says quietly and puts a dollop of disinfectant lotion on her hands.
We follow her example and then go through the door which she is holding for us. From inside another doctor takes us to her and informs us about the test results in a hushed voice.
"Her lungs are still a little weak and so is her immune system. We want to keep a close eye on her because we're still not sure how everything is going to go. It may take a few months until she can go home," the doctor says.
I try to hide my sadness and Harry is trying to do the same thing.
"If you want, I can show you how to change her nappy," the doctor says and we both smile, eager to try.
After explaining how to do so and not interfere with any of the wires or tubes, he makes us wash our hands with warm water so we won't have cold hands to startle her. He opens the small round doors on both sides of the incubator and Harry and I put our hands inside.
Very carefully, we unwrap her from a kind of cushion that recreates the womb and she starts whimpering. Harry manages to calm her down and together we change her.
I have to say, changing her nappy was one of the scariest things I've had to do in a while. Partly because I couldn't reach her as well as Harry could because I was still sitting in the wheelchair but I was so scared to hurt her because she's so fragile and so small. She's so small that she could fit in my hands and still have some space.
Once Harry and I are back in my room, I lay down and wince as I feel a sharp pain in my abdomen.
"Are you okay?" Harry asks and I nod.
"So, we never finished our conversation about baby names," Harry starts on the topic we left behind us long ago.
"Ah, well I'm glad it's a girl so she doesn't get two rather, eum, special names," I say, trying not to laugh as I remember the conversation quite well.
"There was nothing wrong with Dobby Hedwig," Harry smiles.
"Well, keep telling yourself that," I tease him and he laughs.
"But, seriously, what are we going to name her," Harry says, returning to his serious self.
"I- I eum, I was thinking of Lily," I mumble, looking at my hands and remembering the small wisp of orange hair on my daughter's head.
"To be honest, I was thinking the same thing," Harry admits and I look up at him, smiling again.
"Great," I grin and hold Harry's hand.
"Do you think Luna would suit as middle name?" Harry asks, soothingly stroking his thumb up and down my hand.
"Lily Luna? Sounds amazing," I smile once we've decided on our daughter's name.
Lily Luna Potter.
Q: What's your favourite book?