f i f t y - t h r e e

6 more months passed surprisingly quickly and on the 15th April, 2018, (4 days after his due date) our beautiful baby boy was born. He was more wonderful than I could have ever asked for. I already loved him before I'd met him but when I held him for the first time, just a tiny human with his eyes squeezed shut and a small nest of hair on his head, I knew I would do anything for him.

"No," I said weakly when the nurse took my baby from my arms, making him cry, and walked across the room, "No where are you taking him? Stop it he's upset!"

"They have to make sure he's healthy princess, that's all," Niall said quickly and knelt down by my head so I could see him, "Don't worry it will only take a second."

My hospital robe was still very low down on my chest showing most of my clevege and my chest had beads of sweat on but that didn't stop Niall from giving me a huge hug. Giving birth was very difficult I will admit but somehow I think it was actually harder for him. I hadn't screamed loads like in movies but I had yelled at the midwife when she told me to push because it hurt a lot. And it always killed Niall to see me in pain.

"Here's mummy," the nurse said and she placed mine and Niall's son back into my arms gently. He was wrapped up in an incredibly soft blanket now and only his head was showing. There were no longer cries coming from him, he was as content as he could possibly be.

"So he's healthy?" Niall checked as I rocked the sleeping baby back and forth. He was so utterly perfect that I was certain he must've been an angel of some sort.

The nurse smiled and nodded, "He's perfectly healthy."

I smiled at her, "Thank you."

"It's my pleasure. I'll give you 3 some time alone," she wondered out the hospital room and shut the door behind her, leaving me and Niall with our baby. Our baby. We had a baby now. An actual baby.

"He's perfect," I said and a few tears fell down my cheeks. Happy tears of course.

"Yes he is," Niall agreed softly and leant over my shoulder to see him.

"Here," I said and held out our son to Niall who so obviously wanted to hold him, "He's your son too."

Niall smiled and nervously held out his arms. I placed the delicate baby into them and leant back on the hospital bed in exhaustion. I hadn't realised how exhausted I was.

I think Niall asked me something but I didn't hear. I just fell asleep in the space of a minute in the uncomfortable hospital bed still in awe of how my body just gave birth.

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It was light when I woke up next. When I opened my eyes the first thing I saw were flowers on what seemed to be a bedside table. There was a card infront of them and I reached for it, still laying down.

To the new parents,

Huge congratulations on the birth. We all can't wait to meet the new addition to the family whoever he or she may be!!!

Sending all the love, hugs and kisses from all of us over here in Ireland and praying that mummy and baby are both happy and healthy.

Love Maura, Bobby, Greg and everyone else from Niall's side of the family xxx

I could tell by the handwriting that Maura had written the card but Bobby and Greg had signed their names at the bottom. I smiled at the card. It was so nice of Niall's parents to send us a card and flowers but I just wondered how they were already at the hospital from Ireland. I know post didn't take long but Ireland was a different country and it worried me slightly about how long I'd been asleep.

I sat up in the much comfier hospital bed than what I'd remembered and looked around the strange room. Well, not strange. It was a super nice room with a sofa by the window and a small coffee table that had magazines piled up on. There was a TV on the wall in front of the bed as well. Ok so maybe being married to a millionaire was handy sometimes.

I looked down and noticed I was dressed in something very different to what I had been before I'd gone to sleep. I was now wearing a blue hospital robe with white lace at the bottom and at the end of the arms. It had a belt type thing just under my boobs that I guessed was meant for feeding. I would use it if I had my baby but I didn't and it was scaring me about where he was. I mean I knew he'd be with Niall but where.

There was a pair of slippers by the door that could have easily not been meant for me but I put them on anyway. I opened the door to my room and walked out into a nearly empty corridor with only a few nurses having a quiet conversation.

"Excuse me?" I asked, trying to be as polite as I could.

"Ah Mrs Horan am I right?" a ginger haired nurse asked me.

"Oh, yeah that's me," I said, "Have you seen my husband?"

"I believe he's just down there by the coffee machine," she said and pointed to the end of the corridor where I could see a few chairs.

"Ok, thank you," I said quickly and walked down to the end of the corridor.

Just as the nurse had said, Niall was standing by the coffee machine with his back to me looking at the screen of the machine. I walked over to him and looked over his shoulder.

"Espresso huh?" I said, "Wow you must be really tired."

He turned around and smiled at me, "Welcome back to life."

"What do you mean? How long was I asleep?" I asked, worried now.

"I don't know, a week or so," he joked.

I frowned, "So funny."

"Only a day," he said, seriously now, "Maybe a few hours less but enough for me to get absolutely exhausted."

"Oh I'm sorry," I said and wrapped my arms around him, "I'm up now though so you can sleep."

"Oh I've had about 10 minutes of sleep in the past 20 hours so it's fine," he said.

"Niall," I said, suddenly realising he wasn't holding a baby, our baby, "Where the hell is our child?!"

He laughed and looked down at me, "He's with your dad and Carol. They arrived at the hospital this morning."

I sighed in relief that he hadn't just left our baby somewhere random like the bathroom floor because to be honest that was probably something Niall would do.

"Where are they now?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I think they took him on a walk down to the car park and back," he said and smirked at me, "Which means you have time to kiss me before they get back."

I giggled and let him kiss me. I hadn't kissed him in what seemed like a very long time but in reality it had probably only been a day or so.

Someone cleared their throat from behind us and I pulled away from Niall. When I turned around I saw my dad and Carol. In Carol's arms was my incredible son sleeping peacefully.

"Hey," I said in a quiet voice and took him about of Carol's arms and into mine.

"Have you thought of a name?" my dad asked and I looked at Niall. We had thought of names actually. For a girl it would've been Harper and for a boy...

"Arlo," I said softly, looking down at my favourite person other than Niall, "His name is Arlo."

We didn't have a middle name yet but we would find one soon enough. One fit for a prince. Because Arlo was my little prince, always and forever.