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“That’s quite high,” she commented.

“Well, this is a slightly stressful situation,” Lucy snapped. “Sorry,” she said.

The midwife gave her a kind smile. “Let’s get you scanned and see what’s going on.”

They walked down a long corridor and were shown into the scan room where a sonographer was waiting for them.

The sonographer looked through Lucy’s notes quickly.

“OK, hop up on the bed and we’ll take a peek and see what’s going on.”

Lucy let go of Dylan’s hand, immediately feeling the loss of it, and got onto the bed. She lay back and her eyes found Dylan’s. She focused on them as Dylan’s hand found hers again and she felt the gel being put on her stomach.

They gripped each other’s hands, both of them simultaneously shifting their attention from one another to the back of the screen which was turned away from them.

Lucy’s heart was thumping and her legs trembled. She felt like she was going to be sick.

“Everything looks absolutely perfect,” said the sonographer, with a smile. She turned the screen to face them as she continued scanning. Lucy’s whole body seemed to give a huge sigh of relief as she felt it relax.

“Would you like to know the sex?” the sonographer asked.

“You can tell?”

“Yep.”

Lucy and Dylan looked at one another, and nodded.

“Yes, please,” Lucy said.

“It’s a girl,” the sonographer announced. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Lucy and Dylan both said, their faces bursting into grins.

“I’m all done here,” the sonographer said. “Your baby is fine. Everything looks exactly as it should. Sometimes we do see bleeds at this stage with no clear reason. I suspect what you had was a blood clot near the placenta, but there’s nothing there now.”

“Is there anything I should be doing?” Lucy said.

“Rest up for today. Come back if it happens again, but I don’t see anything untoward.”

“Thank you so much.” Dylan gave Lucy’s hand a squeeze.

“You can relax and have a lovely Christmas together. It’ll be your last quiet one for a while!” The sonographer handed Lucy some paper towel to wipe the gel off her stomach. “Take your time getting up,” she said. “I’ll update your notes and leave them for you at reception. Then you can head off.”

She left the room, closing the door gently behind her.

Lucy let out a breath and felt tears falling down her cheeks.

“Hey,” Dylan said, “Don’t cry. Everything’s OK. Our little girl is fine.”

“I know, I know,” said Lucy, accepting the tissue he passed her. “It was just . . . really scary.”

Dylan took the paper towel she still held clasped in her hand and carefully cleaned her stomach for her, before putting the paper in the bin and helping Lucy to sit up.

“Now, you mustn’t go scaring us like that again, little lady,” he said, addressing Lucy’s bump.

“Agreed,” said Lucy.

Dylan ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m going to be a girl dad,” he said in awe, as he fully processed the information.