It'll be Soon

Khaat was usually the one who took most of the young first time mothers simply because, even though her father had more experience at delivering babies than she did, most of the young women felt more comfortable with a women, she found. She picked up the chart for the next appointment and opened it to review it. Ashling. She hadn't seen her in months. She had wondered what had happened to her,and no request for prenatal care had come across her desk since Ashling had first come to see her early in her pregnancy, and by Khaat's calculations, Ash was in her 8th month now. Well past time for a follow up visit. She figured there had been some good reason, as dedicated as Ash had been to doing all the right things.

Her assistant, Hannah, came down the hall and presented Khaat with a new quick quotes quill. Khaat had found they were nearly priceless for cutting her work in half. "Sorry, Khaat," Hannah apologized. "The only color I could find downstairs was hot pink, with this strange fluffy feather."

"Its fine," Khaat laughed. "It reminds me of Abbey. Abbey would be playing with it by now. Thanks. As long as it works, its fine." She took the chart and went into the treatment room. "Hello, Ash," Khaat smiled. She opened the chart and put it on the countertop and set the quill with it. It stood up at prompt attention, ready to work. She frowned. It was an awfully obedient little quill. Maybe it had promise. Maybe its looks were deceiving. "Sorry," Khaat said. "New quill. I think its going to take its duties rather seriously." It made her laugh. "So, its been a few months since i've seen you. Catch me up. Where have you been? And how have you been?"

"Well, as you know, shortcuts, wherever you can get them, are a big help. And paperwork is an enormous job for me. So every little bit helps. I think I left my last one somewhere. I don't know. It'll turn up sooner or later. So--it sounds like the visit to your family went well. That's a good thing. The fatigue is a very normal thing when you're this close. Part of hat is just the difference in your size and body weight. What some women notice is that their energy amps up wildly in the last 24 hours before birth, and you might not notice it, but the people around you almost certainly will. If you find you have a sudden urge to rearrange the furniture or do some belated spring cleaning, or a big shopping spree...that sort of thing. Its a fairly common things. You might want to alert the people close to you to keep an eye out for that.

"I presume you have a bag packed to bring here with you to St. Mungos for you and the baby? You should have it where someone can help you get to it and get here when your labor starts. The book we gave you has a suggested list of things to bring, but feel free to include anything that you feel is essential to you. So. let's see how you and your baby really are." She went over to her to begin her check of Ash and her baby. She wasn't going to ask where Varod was or if he had returned. Not yet.

"You're fine," Khaat said. "You both are. Let me give you a couple of options, Ash. My father is probably one of the best healers in England, and when it comes to delivering children, if I had to pick one healer to make sure that my baby and I survived labor and delivery, if it were a difficult situation, in all honesty, I would pick my father. Just so you know, my daughter, Abbey, was born out of a miscarriage when I was not quite 7 months pregnant. I almost died. I did it to myself. I didn't take good care of myself. It was an ugly time for me. I was in intensive care for weeks. My fiance took Abbey home long before I could go home. And, you know what? It was my father who delivered her. He had the skill to pull off an impossible situation.

"You're not in any sort of danger like that, not that I can see. But, so you know, even though you don't know him, you might want to change your options. You might want him doing the actual delivery and perhaps allow me to be your labor coach. The other choices you have, as I see it, are having a skilled midwife as your labor coach. My mother is a skilled midwife. My fiance is a trained healer. He was my labor coach.

"What I'm saying is that you do have a number of options. You do not have to be alone unless you want to be. And, you can choose, still, to know the sex of your chlld before delivery if you want. Or you can choose not to. That is entirely up to you.

"But I have a question for you. Where are you going to go and what are you going to do when the school year ends and you find you are on your own? Are you set up with a place? How are you going to manage with you and the baby by yourself? Do you have friends that can help you for a bit?" She didn't want Ash to go through the first bit by herself with no help. She was too young to be totally on her own. And, she also didn't know how she was going to support herself and the baby and even get started without a job or income. There were so many things that Khaat didn't know if Ash had even had a chance to consider.

"Well," Khaat said, with a smile, "So far it looks like you and your daughter are just fine." She paused to let it sink in, and then she said. "You need to decide who you want in the room with you when you welcome your daughter. You have a whole list of good safe options. You just need to pick. If it doesn't matter, then that's fine by me. I will be sure that you do have someone there who will treat you well. But it is always your choice.

"As for a job, I suggest you visit the new career center at Hogwarts and apply for an apprenticeship. That would be a good way to get your foot in the door with a job. I would think you'll need to apprentice under someone anyway. But if you had Hogwarts to help make the connection for you, it will at least make sure that you have a job in place when you are ready to work. It might be worth your time to check it out."

"No, I don't think its too late to start an apprenticeship, but you do need to talk to the career counselor in Hogwarts to find out. He can tell you for sure. And he might be able to give you some ideas to choose from. Its worth a try.

"And, yeah," Khaat smiled. "You have a daughter. And so far, she's very, very healthy, so far as I can see. Just keep doing what you're doing and it should all be fine. If its any consolation, I wanted to know too. I wanted to be able to decorate my baby's nursery and buy a really special outfit to take her home in. There were just special, traditional things I wanted to do for Abbey, and I don't regret for one moment that I knew before hand.

"Oh, and one more thing that was really important to me? A baby book. I wanted to record all of Abbey's firsts. All of them. And when I was too sick after her birth? My friends kept really great track and took all sorts of wizarding photos. Get yourself a wizarding camera if you don't have one. And a beautiful baby book. You'll find it is something that you'll treasure. And your daughter someday will treasure it just like you have."