Saturday April 4th.
"Ah, guten Morgen mein schönes Mädchen." (good morning my beautiful girl) Seb exclaimed happily and planted a big kiss on his bemused wife's lips. "Did you enjoy your lay in?"
She was immediately suspicious of his enthusiastic greeting and the way he was excitedly watching two men unloading a large package from the back of a lorry, she didn't reply (mainly because she felt as though she was still half asleep) and instead meandered to the open front door.
Seb stayed where he was, at the window, waiting to hear her say something, waiting for her reaction. He wasn't entirely sure that she'd be happy with what he'd done, mainly because everything that was being unloaded from the lorry was going to have to be taken upstairs and that would mean the two men entering the house which, given the current health crisis Switzerland and the rest of the world was facing, was a bit of a risk.
"Holy crap! What the hell is......? Seb!!" There was the reaction he'd been waiting for. Seconds later she reappeared in the lounge looking less than impressed and she stood a couple of metres away from him with her hands on her hips and a questioning look on her face. "How come there's a shit load of boxes outside our front door? And how the hell is all that stuff going to be brought into the house? What the hell have you been up to?"
"The delivery guys are going to take it upstairs for us." He admitted.
Was he for real? Suddenly she felt wide awake. "Seb they can't! I don't mean to sound rude but they could have the virus! We can't have total strangers tramping through the house! Has all this time at home made you go completely insane?!"
"Just hear me out." He turned to face her and noticed how she was wearing his dark grey bath robe over the top of her pyjamas. "You're wearing my bathrobe." He pointed at her.
"I know, it smells of you." She replied, momentarily distracted, with a sudden dreamy smile, she quickly snapped out of it. "Anyway, don't try to distract me from whatever the hell is going on out there." She pointed towards the hallway. "So, go on, explain yourself."
"Well....." He walked over to her, looking a little wary. "......you know that nursery furniture you saw online and really liked?"
Chloe's head snapped from her husband to look towards the hallway, she gasped and then looked back at him, wide eyed and slack jawed. "You didn't!" She exclaimed in disbelief.
"I did." He replied, almost stepping back as he prepared himself for her to go mental at him.
"No way!! You never did!!" She slapped both hands over her mouth in shock.
"I did." He gave her a tiny shrug of his shoulders. "I know how taken you were with it, I ordered the whole range and the other things you'd saved in your wish list." He grimaced, he really wasn't sure which way this was going to go; if she'd go absolutely nuts in a bad way or a good way.
"The whole range?" She gasped and let one hand fall away from her mouth.
"Yeah." He answered slowly; he really couldn't read her expression, what if she felt it was too early to be buying things like that? "Oh.....erm, I'll be right back." Hearing one of the delivery men calling for him he brushed past her on his way out, he'd almost forgotten that he had to show them which room to take the boxes upstairs to. Stepping out onto the gravel, he was buzzing with renewed excitement as he saw the boxes, he couldn't wait to get the nursery set up and to see his newborn son in there. Out of all the trouble in the world right now, their baby was a big ray of light, a promise that things would get better. Seeing the delivery men wearing gloves and masks seemed almost normal now and as they picked up the well packaged, white painted oak cot between them, Seb led them back inside and up the stairs. For now, all the nursery furniture and other things he'd ordered we're going to be stored in one of the guest bedrooms until they'd decided on which one was going to be the new nursery.
Chloe stayed, loitering and listening in the lounge as heavy sounding footsteps made their way up the stairs. She let it sink in; they now had a cot, wardrobe, chest of drawers and a baby changing station and if Seb really had ordered the other things in her online wish list then she had a pale grey rocking chair with a pale green foot stool, a full set of bedding for the cot with a mobile to hang over the top and even a toy chest for when their baby would rapidly gain lots of toys. She was thrilled and it made becoming a parent seem even more real. Her husband was an angel and the kindest man on the planet; even with all that was going on, he was determined that she'd have everything she needed for their son and she was suddenly bursting to hug him and kiss him by way of thanks and she couldn't wait to see everything unwrapped and unboxed. This was like Christmas and her birthday all rolled into one, she felt enlivened and ready to focus more on preparing for motherhood.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Are you ready?" Seb stood in front of her with his hand on the door handle. Now showered, dressed and caffeinated, Chloe was about to see exactly what he'd bought for the first time.
"I'm more than ready and L.J is too!" She enthused as she patted her belly which was hidden underneath one of Seb's T-shirts.
"I hope you'll still like it now it's all here." He said breathily with a look of trepidation on his face.
"I fell in love with it online, I'll love it even more now it's here, I promise you. Now open the bloody door!"
"Obviously this is just in a guest bedroom and not in a nursery but I had an idea on how to decorate so I've got paint and stuff coming later too so we can visualise what the room will end up like and maybe make a start on decorating it."
"Seb, stop babbling and open the damn door." Placing a hand on his forearm, she grinned at him while bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.
"Ok." He smiled, encouraged by her enthusiasm and opened the door, allowing her to step in first.
She gasped loudly. "Oh my god!" The room was full and everything was unwrapped; all the wooden nursery furniture was made of oak and painted white, meaning there was no flat pack for her husband to assemble. The cot had the mattress in it, the wardrobe stood proud and ready to be filled with little clothes, as was the chest of draws and the baby changing station sat on top of another unit of draws. She was stunned. As she walked further in; she spotted the large toy chest and she couldn't resist opening it. Lifting up the lid, inside it was a large, traditional brown teddy bear. She bent to pick it up and held it against herself, cuddling it as though it was her own son. Now she was seeing everything with her own eyes, she was overwhelmed with happiness and felt overcome with emotion.
"I wanted to buy him his first teddy bear. I couldn't have a toy chest here and have it stand empty." He joined her side and wasn't surprised to see tears rolling down her cheeks. "You like it all? Are those happy tears?" He knew her raging pregnancy hormones would be playing their part again, one thing she'd always suffered with throughout the past months had been her emotions.
"Beautiful." Was all she could manage as she turned into him and put an arm around him while burying her face against his shoulder. Inside she was cursing herself for turning into an emotional wreck yet again even though she knew she wasn't crying because she was sad.
"Oh liebe." He wrapped his arms around her, engulfing her in a big hug. "There's more when you've stopped crying." He added with a small laugh.
"You're amazing." She croaked. "I'm so lucky to have you. I love you so much."
"I love you too." He replied, giving her a gentle squeeze. "I'm the lucky one, I've got a beautiful wife and a son on the way who I can't wait to meet."
"We're over half way now." She smiled at him through her tears as she managed to regain control of herself.
"Twenty-three weeks tomorrow, only another seventeen to go." He kissed her forehead and then her lips, straight away their love filled kiss turned into more than just a quick peck and he used it to try and console himself over the fact the he could possibly be the busiest he'd ever been when their baby was born because Formula One was still looking to cram in as many as races as they could, if the season was able to get underway. His schedule was possibly going to become relentlessly brutal and it was already making him feel guilty that he might not be able to be around for them both as much as he'd want. He had no doubts in his mind that he'd want his wife and son to travel with him as soon as they could because time at home could end up being extremely rare. Feeling her tongue slip past his lips to seek his own, he pulled away. "Let's save that for later beautiful girl." He stroked her cheek, already her gaze was full of her passion for him but he wanted her to see the rest of what he'd bought. "Take a look at what else we have for when L.J gets here."
Feeling excited and like a kid at Christmas once more, she stole one more kiss from her husband's gorgeous lips before stepping out from his comforting hold and closing down the lid on the toy chest, placing the teddy bear proudly on the top. She turned to look around the room. The next thing to catch her attention was the rocking chair and she went straight to it. As she eased herself down into the comfy seat she sighed contentedly, this was more comfy than her favourite chair in the lounge downstairs. Maybe she should ask to have it moved down there? Immediately she started to relax and closed her eyes. "This is bliss, it's sooo comfy. I could fall asleep sitting here."
"Let me try it." Seb held out a hand to help her to her feet and she took it, using it as an excuse to steal another kiss from him once she was up and close to him.
"Oh wow." He grinned as he sat down and immediately started rocking. "Slide that foot stool closer will you?" He closed one eye and looked at her as she duly slid it close enough so that he could put his feet up on it. "Best seat in the house." He declared as he put his arms up and his hands behind head. "You carry on, I'll be right here."
"That chair is meant to be for when one of us is feeding or cuddling our son, not for you to take naps." She playfully scolded him and moved to beside the chair to nudge his shoulder.
"When he's screaming in the middle of the night, we'll both be taking naps sitting here as we try and get him to sleep because some nights it could be the only sleep we get."
"Don't put me off! He'll sleep like an angel, you'll see." She started to look round the room once more, Seb had certainly been on a spending spree; there was bedding for the cot, a changing mat, nappy bin, baby bath, monitor with camera, a cute owl night light that gave off a soft glow and emitted soothing sounds, a bouncer seat, a play mat, a nursing pillow, a body pillow to help support certain joints and for added comfort when she was feeling uncomfortable in bed as she got bigger, storage baskets of varying sizes, a clothes basket for baby Vettel's soiled laundry and even a Next2Me Crib that fitted to the side of their bed - vital for the first weeks and months when the baby would be sleeping in their room. There was also sterilising gear, bottles, a machine that made making up baby's formula easy (though she'd already thought of breast feeding at first), bibs and packs of muslin cloths. He'd even ordered packs of newborn sized nappies. She turned to look back at Seb who was still sat in the chair with his eyes closed and she was about to say something when he spoke first.
"Don't even think about the cost, I know what you're going to say. It's all stuff we'll need and I wanted you to be able to have everything you wanted."
"You know we spend too much time together when you can read my mind with your eyes shut." She replied as she came to kneel down beside the chair. "But thank you, this is all amazing."
He sat up, taking his feet off the foot stool and leaned forward until he was close enough to place his palm under her chin. "I know you well enough now to know how your mind works, I'm hoping you'll let me decorate."
"Oh really?" She took his hand and kissed his palm, he visibly swooned in response.
"Well going by the choice of colours of stuff you had in your wish list and how you love the view from your chair in the lounge, I had an idea." He pulled his phone from his jeans pocket and tapped away on it until he found what he was after. "What do you think?" He handed the phone to her.
As she'd picked the bedding, storage and linen baskets in shades of pale grey and green to match in with the rocking chair, Seb had found an idea online for pale grey walls with charcoal coloured, snow capped mountains on one 'feature' wall that tied in well with everything they'd got. "This is really good." She exclaimed, trying and failing to not sound surprised. "I love it!"
"Don't sound so surprised, what did you expect me to pick out? Flowers and ponies?" He laughed. "I am quite artistic actually."
"Of course I wasn't expecting flowers and bloody ponies, maybe cars and trucks? Like, F1 cars?"
"As much as I love my sport, I do not wish for my son's bedroom to be decorated in it and as you love the view from your favourite chair so much, I thought I'd bring a little of it inside."
"All we have to do now then, is pick which room he's going to have." She stood up and glanced around the room they were in.
"Not this room." He said straight away. "I'm not having a child's bedroom next to ours."
"Why?" She asked, quite surprised that he wouldn't want their son to be close to them.
He arched a brow at her, giving her a look that told her she should know why he didn't want their son in a room next to theirs. "Do I have to spell it out for you?" He gestured with his hands, making a circle with his finger and thumb on one hand and poking his index finger in and out of it with the other.
"Oh!!" She grinned as the penny finally dropped and she caught on. "I should have known you'd think of that!"
"You can use any other guest room, except this one."
"He's hardly going to be able to tell when we're having sex when he's just a few months old is he!"
"I know but when he's gets older I don't want him able to hear us."
"Who says I'll want sex after I give birth anyway, it might put me off it for life!" She broke out into a laugh at Seb's aghast expression, clearly the thought of not having sex with her horrified him.
"So....." He began, keen to change the subject. "We need to pick a room."
"Have you got one in mind?"
"I was thinking the room a couple of doors down, next to Leonie's. The one that faces the back so he's got a view. It's close to us but not too close that he'll hear us."
"I can't believe we're picking our son's room based on whether he'll be able to hear us having sex or not! He can hear us now anyway!"
"I try not to think about that." He replied, internally cringing at the thought.
"And don't forget that he'll be sleeping in our room for the first few months."
"Best we learn how to be quiet then. Shall we go and take a look at the room I've suggested?" He finally got up from the chair and gave it an almost mournful look as he walked away from it. He was seriously wishing he'd bought two of them now so that he could have one too.
"I don't think we need to look at it, I'm happy with your ideas."
"That's great, I'll start moving stuff out of there today and we can start to decorate tomorrow."
"You want to start it as quick as that?" She looked to the rocking chair, suddenly wanting nothing more than to be able to spend the day dozing in it.
"Yes, definitely. It'll give us both something to do and something to work towards. I'd usually have people come in and do this sort of thing but I think it'll be good fun for us to do it."
"Both of us?" Surely he wasn't expecting her to wield a paintbrush was he?
"Both of us." He nodded his head. "It'll be fun, trust me."
"Mmm.....fun." She mused to herself as if she was saying the word for the first time. Would it be fun to decorate a nursery? It would certainly be helpful if she'd ever done any painting before - which she hadn't. She was a complete novice.
"Oh I've got a DIY virgin on my hands, haven't I." He broke out into a grin at her hesitant expression. "Don't worry, I'll break you in gently." He rubbed his hands together gleefully, he was going to enjoy this.