Hello Dolly!

Malia's pregnancy was progressing well. Her gardening kept her exercised and when she felt fatigued Carl was happy to take over the more strenuous tasks. In fact his boss at the lab was keen for Carl to become more familiar with plants and their life-cycles as part of a major research project he team was working on.

Every few weeks Malia would be surprised to see another exotic plant mixed in amongst the ordinary fruits and vegetables she was growing for the local market.

The lab would allow them  to sell on the produce from some of the specimens Carl was given to work with; those that weren't particularly rare or exotic but merely unusual in this part of the world.

The local store owners did sometimes require considerable persuasion to take these unlikely local goods but slowly word of Malia's garden prowess grew and some of the residents of Hidden Springs would visit specifically to check if she could grow a particular vegetable or fruit that they had discovered on holiday and now wanted to try at home.

Apart from the benefits to both their careers, having access to such a variety of fresh foods meant that Debra was exposed to a diverse variety of foods and tastes so they hoped they would have no problems with her developing fussy eating habits.

It was clear to Carl that with another baby on the way they would need to extend their small home again.

This would be a more substantial modification than that required to create the nursery room for Debra.

The architect had suggested fully extending the rear of the building and rearranging the kitchen and living area.

To minimise the stress of all the works Carl and Malia decided to involve Debra by getting her to design her new room.

The look Debra decided to go for was quite typical for a young girl.  Surrounded by a cloudy skyscape with lots of her favourite animals and, a recent obsession, a wall full of pretty boy band posters!

While Carl was busy working on the extension to their home and getting the children's rooms finished, Malia would be in the garden tending to the many varieties of plants they now grew.

In these warm late spring days she loved being able to spend time outdoors, not doing any strenuous groundwork (Carl would take care of that!) but just being in the sun, surrounded by the colourful bounty that she, and Carl of course, had coaxed out of the earth.

It was on one such early summer day that Malia was taking out some weeds, with Debra at school and Carl working at the lab, that she felt this sudden tightening pain and as she struggled to stand up she realised her waters had broken ... it was a couple of weeks before due but it looked like baby was ready!

Malia called her midwife who was actually on a call a couple of streets away and by the time she arrived the regular contractions had started in earnest so she immediately phoned for an ambulance and rang Carl to let him know what was happening.

Carl shouted across to his partner "that's the call, gotta go!" who barely had time to wish him luck before he was out of the lab.

He knew and trusted the midwife and had confidence in the staff at the Sacred Spleen Memorial, but Carl felt anxious that he was not there at the start of the labour and the taxi ride across town seemed to take forever.

-- * --

He needn't have worried though, after the initial surprise at the slightly premature labour, everything went perfectly and that night Malia and Carl had their second child.  Another beautiful daughter, who they decided to name 'Dolly'.

Pleased with the condition of both mother and baby, the family were soon leaving the hospital and heading home to introduce Debra to her new sister.

Debra couldn't quite believe how small Dolly was ... but then surely she was too big to have been inside Mummy ... Babies sure are complicated ... and funny looking but she smelt nice and warm and cosy ... which is weird, how can something smell warm?  But somehow she did!

Carl explained to Debra that he and Malia would be extra busy looking after baby Dolly but that didn't mean they loved her any less because the new baby brought even more love into the house to share around and before she knew it Debra and Dolly would be playmates and the best of friends.