Poppy's PoV

Okay, so maybe I had exaggerated when I'd thought that nothing would be happy or excitable about giving birth. I was so consumed with the treatment plan after the birth that this seemed to have skipped my mind. However, as I lay there a day later, having the pessary removed with Sam and Sierra there for me. I did feel happy. The labour had started to come on, my contractions weren't too painful at the time but were regularly every ten minutes. The midwife Stella had been lovely too and even Sam had warmed to her following her making sure she'd read my notes fully. He wasn't usually that unfriendly but I knew he was doing it to protect both of us, the last thing we needed was another Calum situation where someone working there was leaking the press, or another me situation where Naomi had overheard someone and ended up spreading my cancer diagnosis and nearly my pregnancy to the world. Luckily, this time the only demon we were fighting was the cancer and that could go to the back of my mind until this beautiful baby was here.
My video call with Calum last night was one of the most emotional we'd ever had. At first it felt almost awkward as both of us were just too sad to say much, but Calum finally opened up about how he was feeling and his little meltdown to his friends. I completely understood, and as much as he hated not being here, I knew he couldn't do anything to change it. I reminded him of that and how I'd never hold it against him - after all he'd supported me more than enough through everything so far - and the conversation started back up again. We laughed, we cried and we really had our hearts on our sleeves. Sierra had been amazing whilst she was here but needed to go home just to freshen up and bring some stuff. I told her it was okay and that she could come back in the morning after a good sleep. Sam had refused to budge other than when I'd had the call. I told Calum everything that had happened, every pain, every monitoring and even sent him a recording of the baby's heartbeat on the monitor. If this was the best we could do, then I was going to make it the best. Some people don't have someone beside them when they give birth, or to support them through the pregnancy, I was lucky enough to have a group who wouldn't go anywhere no matter what. I wanted to make them all proud and show everyone that I was a strong woman. I'd had so many breakdowns this time, which I'd blamed on hormones, but truthfully I think my way of handling the situations were just too different. My last cancer diagnosis came as a shock, an incidental finding on a scan that I'd never have known about. This time, I knew about it from the word go. this time my mind worked in overtime to come up with different scenarios and panic myself over what may happen in the future. Now, I decided to just tackle what comes head on. There's no point in me wasting my energy on things that may happen.
I started to focus more on the moment, the fact I was in hospital about to give birth to the baby I'd grown in my stomach for the last nine months. Were they going to be a boy or a girl? Were they going to have Calum's dark features or my lighter ones? Were they going to look like one or the other's twin, or really have a mixture of our genes? It was something I didn't know but excited me to find out. Soon, this little precious life that I'd looked after as it grew was going to be in the world and our lives as we knew them were going to change.

"How are you doing Mrs Hood?" Stella knocked on my door and pulled me from my thoughts. She'd finished her shift last night and handed over to another lovely midwife called Manny, who had then handed back to Stella this morning. She looked down at my uneaten breakfast and frowned. "Not eaten yet?" I sighed.

"Just caught up in my thoughts to be honest." I let out an embarrassed chuckle. Suddenly, the tightness of my lower belly caught me off guard and I sucked in a quick breath, making Stella run in and place her hand on my stomach, another holding her fob-watch as she counted the seconds. This one seemed more intense and lasted longer than the last few. Sam suddenly rushed in, armed with a large coffee and some pastry.

"Everything okay?" He said, flustered. Stella offered him a comforting smile and he relaxed into the chair, sipping his coffee and munching on a croissant.

"That was quite a strong one, Poppy." Stella said as the pain and tense feeling began to ease. I let out a smile. "Did you manage to get some sleep?" I nodded proudly at the fact I'd managed a whole night of sleep after speaking with Calum and feeling a lot more at ease. "Good, I have a feeling this baby is coming today." She grinned. "Now make sure you eat your breakfast, you could have a long day ahead of you." And with that, she left the room. Suddenly, the idea that I'd be holding my baby within the next twenty four hours had hit me and I looked down at my stomach, realising this could be the last day of looking pregnant. I grabbed my phone and took one final picture of me in my beautiful hospital gown with my bump protruding the front of it and sent it to Calum.

Me: hey baby. I'm not sure on the time so I'm sorry if I wake you! The midwife has said she thinks the baby will come today because my contractions are getting stronger! Obviously no guarantee, they'll decide when they want to make their appearance 😂 but wanted you to know. I may not be around my phone much but Sam is here and Si will be back this morning. I love you so much and hopefully next time we're talking, I can show you our baby ❤️

Just as I was about to place my phone back down, it buzzed almost instantly. I checked and it was Calum. My heart sped up as I smiled and unlocked it instantly.

Calum: I'm so proud of you baby. I really wish I could be there to hold your hand and stroke your knuckles like we always did to help each other. I'll keep my phone with me, we're just about to leave to travel to Moscow. Only 5 more days until I can be with you Pops. I miss you so much ❤️ and I can't wait to meet our little girl or boy

Me: last bets what do you reckon we're going to have?

Calum: 🤔 a boy

Me: really? I think girl. We'll be finding out very soon! 🤞

A/N: what do you think they'll be having?