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The sound of children’s cartoons played softly in the background while Andrea played on the floor. Liam was upstairs with a friend playing video games. Carina and Maya cuddled up on the sofa with both of their hands softly tracing lines around the new addition that was Mayas baby bump through her striped shirt.
Earlier today they had told Andrea and Liam about the baby that was steadily growing and to their surprise the news had gotten old quick for their older kids, who had gone straight back to playing restaurant. Or at least so they thought.
The wife’s were just enjoying the peace, and a cup of coffee for Carina when the first question came.
“Mommy where is the baby now?” Andrea asks as she climbed up on the sofa to be closer to her mother’s.
Carina reached out to pull their almost 6 year old onto her lap, starting to comb out the wild curls on her head with her fingers as the small body relaxes against her. Maya looks at Carina, unsure on how to handle the situation.
“Babies grow in the uterus. It’s inside mommy’s tummy.” Carina says matter of factly.
Maya still blushes a bit. She had definitely grown up in a house where the right answer would have been “the stork brings them”, and the idea of telling their 6 year old the nitty gritty of reproduction made her cringe internally. She did admire her wife’s ability to be so open and honest, but she was still very much an “American prude” in Carinas words.
Andrea nods and looks over at Maya, reaching her hand over and placing it alongside her mother’s on the bump.
“In here? But how does it fit?” Small brows furrow, trying to figure out the logistics of how you could fit a whole person in there.
The baby seems to notice the conversation, needing to state their presence by kicking back on Andreas hand through the tight tshirt Maya wore making the girl squeal and Maya wince slightly.
Carina laughed softly at the interaction.
“See? The baby is happy to hear your voice.” Carina said softly. “They’re not very big now, it’s just about the size of a cauliflower, so they still need to grow some more. The uterus is kind of like a balloon, so it grows with the baby. Pretty cool no?” Carina says smiling.
Andrea kept looking at the bump while nodding, then between Maya and Carina before leaning back against Carinas chest, for a moment before slipping away, seemingly plotting something.
“How do you do that?” Maya asks her wife as their daughter heads upstairs for something.
“Do what, Bella?” Carina responds taking another sip of her afternoon coffee, still running her hand softly across the bump, loving this closeness to her wife.
Maya smiled softly, admiring how beautiful Carina looks, wither her hair tied up in a half up style, her sweatpants that have a coffee stain from earlier and a tshirt that used to belong to Maya. It was the simplicity of it all that made Maya almost break into tears.
“The whole explaining things? No hesitation, you just make it feel so normal?”
Carina thinks for a moment, she had never considered her approach to be anything out of the ordinary. But then again, Maya had not had an ordinary upbringing.
“Because it is normal bambina. I know in America you have “the talk”, but it’s feels so forced. It’s better you answer their questions directly. If they’re old enough to ask the question they’re old enough to know the answer, no?”
Maya nodded, understanding.
“Still. It’s just…. You do it so well. When she asked I didn’t know what to say. And you always know.” The blonde leans her head back, stretching her neck out.
Both the kids know what Carina does for a living, but until today neither of them had voiced any questions about babies, or what Carina does for work.
Liam on the other hand had been asking Maya every single question known to man about firefighting. Why the trucks are red, why the gear is so heavy, and why fire sometimes is blue. Maya had been answering them patiently for years.
But she felt out of her depth when it came to the questions that were going to be asked about the bodies and babies.
Carina laughed a bit.
“I know, it’s almost like I do this for a living?” Carina teased her wife, only to be met with a decorative pillow to the face and a laugh from her wife.
“Shut up. You know what I meant!” Maya playfully whines and the pillow comes flying back at her, only to be caught before actually hitting her in the face. Carina leans in and kisses Maya softly, placing a hand on her cheek. ”Ti amo, stupida”.
Their moment was soon disrupted by their daughter when she came barrelling down the stairs. With both her toy doctors kit in one hand and Carinas bag where she kept her supplies from medical school in Italy in the other.
“Mama! Look. I can be like you now, and I can help take care of mommy” their daughter dragged the bag with some difficulty over to the sofa, before standing up, slightly out of breath. She was truly their whirlwind. Carina tried not to laugh as Maya failed the task and broke into a fit of giggles. Their daughter was wearing one of Carinas old white coats, a headband with a red cross from her dress up box, along with a princess dess and a pair of Carinas heels. All while her hair was an actual mess of curls, falling lopsided over her face.
“Wow Bella. You look very professional!” Carina said holding her giggles at bay.
“Si, I’m the doctor now. And you are going to help me. You wear this!” She said handing Carina a nurses apron with the same Red Cross as the headband she was wearing.
Carina played along and tied the apron around her waist, even if it fit quite tightly. Maya was trying her best to rein in her laughter as their daughter sounded quite serious about the play session at hand.
“Mommy. You’re the patient. Lie down please.”
Maya sighed away the last of her giggles and settles herself more comfortably on the sofa.
“Okay doctor. Your patient is ready.” Carina said as she helped adjust a pillow for Maya, making sure she would be comfortable.
“First we must listen to you heart.” Andrea says using her plastic stethoscope from her doctors kit, running it over Mayas chest. And pretending to listen.
“And then your brain” she said as she moves the stethoscope to Mayas forehead. With a giggle.
“How does it sound doc?” Asks Maya holding back laughter.
“Hmmm…like you’re thinking too much” she responds in a very serious tone making Carina choke back her laughter.
After administering a few injections, taken her temperature and taking Mayas blood pressure on her foot, Andrea rummages around her toy kit looking for something, before turning to Carina.
“Mama….how do you check on the baby if you can’t see it?”
“Hmm…let’s see what we can do.” Carina says opening the bag of her old medical school items. She brings out a tape measure and an old pinards stethoscope from the bag, as well as grabbing the Doppler from her emergency bag by the door before returning.
“When you check the baby you can measure the uterus, and then you can see how big the baby is” she hands Andrea the tape measure. “You start from here” she says, gaining her daughter’s hand to the bottom on the bump, and the other to the top end of the bump.
“Can you read that number?” She asks as Andrea looks carefully at the tape measure.
“Hmmm…26?” She says looking to Carina for confirmation.
“Really good bella! You’re a great doctor” Carina says. Maya is just smiling seeing her wife play along.
“Now we can listen to the baby. You use this.” She hands her daughter the pinards stethoscope, watching her flip it around a bit before looking at carina for instruction.
“Like this. You might have to move it around a bit to get a good sound” Carina shows, putting her ear to one side of it.
“Maya, can I slide up your shirt a bit? It works better directly on the skin” Carina asks softly, and with a nod from her wife helps Maya lift the shirt up, letting their daughter try the instrument, guided by Carina.
“Can you hear anything?” She asks the smaller brunette as she stops in one spot and covers her mouth with her hand in surprise.
“Si! It sounds like the ocean!” She says excitedly. “Mama! The baby says she loves you! And mommy too!” She says seriously as she returns the instrument to Carina. Mayas eyes water a bit at the statement from her daughter. Carina uses the instrument again pressing it softly to Mayas bump, and then looks over at Andrea with an equally serious tone.
“You’re right doctor. The baby also said it’s really excited to meet you. And that you are such a good sister already” Carina states putting the instrument away, giving Mayas hand a squeeze, seeing the small tears that form in Maya eyes, letting her know it’s okay.
“Now, what do you think doctor, should we let mommy listen to the baby too?” Carina asks Andrea, but also looking to Maya. This was part of their routine now. Every night they would curl up in bed and listen to their babys heartbeat together. It had helped ease Mayas anxiety in the early days before she could feel their baby move, and then it had continued, becoming part of their evening routine ever since.
Andrea nodded, excited to hear it better.
“Okay, you put a little bit of this gel on, gentle please” Carina says, handing their daughter the small bottle of conductive gel and pointing to a good spot on the bump.
“Eww! It’s slime!” The tiny doctor squealed as the gel dibbled out.
Maya and Carina laughed as the bottle was put away and Carina sat next to Maya on the sofa, lifting her daughter onto her lap.
“Hold it like this, and I’ll guide you, okay?” Carina says, helping Andrea find a good spot before telling her to hold it still, as she turned the volume up on the receiver, the room filling with a whooshing sound of a heartbeat.
“Wow….mama, mommy! That’s the baby. It sounds like the sea again!” Andrea says exited while Carina adjusts her hair under the headband slightly.
Maya smiles and feels a few tears slide from the joy of seeing her daughter so excited, and how calm and happy Carina looks holding her.
They listen in peace for a bit before Andrea starts to get restless and slides of the sofa packing her toy kit away and taking off the headband and white coat. While Carina cleans Mayas bump up, kissing her wife softly, wiping a few tears away and whispering some “okays” between each other. A moment yet again disrupted by their daughter.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, Drea?” Maya says, sitting up a bit, feeling the need to move.
“How does the baby get out of your uterus, does it go through the bellybutton?”
Maya stops and looks at Carina, clearly a bit distressed.
“Uhmmm…well…the” she begins before Carina cuts her off noting her discomfort and the red colour that has flushed her face.
“Most babies are born through the vagina, but sometimes if the mommy or baby is sick or needs some extra help they can also come out through the stomach, with some help from the doctors” Carina explains calmly.
Andrea took a moment and thought about it, before accepting the answer and running off upstairs to put her toys away.
The blonde sighs and leans into Carina hiding her face in her shoulder.
“I really don’t like talking about vaginas with our kids” she groans into the fabric of Carinas tshirt, making the doctor laugh, pulling her wife even closer.
“Well, get used to it. They’re growing up, and there will be many more of those conversations coming.” Carina responds softly, kissing the top of Mayas head.
“Promise me I won’t have to do any of it alone, I don’t think I’d survive”
Carina just laughs and pulls back, holding Maya face between her hands, looking at her wife, now recovered from the worst of her blushing.
“I love how you still blush so easily, it’s very cute.” Carina teases slightly.
“Oh, shut up!” Maya laughs back, pulling Carina in, crashing their lips together, only parting when the need for air becomes desperate. Carina looks at her with so much love.
“Ti amo, bambina. Both of you”