Soon after, Marcia turned two years old. Like for her first birthday, Rosie organised a little party with Christine and Lewis.
Marcia was disappointed to the point of a tantrum by the first big gift she got to unwrap, a toddler toilet seat. "Stop trying to pressure me!" she shouted "I'm just two!", but then Lewis had calmed her down with his gift, a set of wooden jigsaw puzzles. Some of them were easy enough for average two-year-olds, but some were more difficult, catering to Marcia's need for a bit more advanced entertainment. As her little girl hugged and kissed her "uncle" Lewis, Rosie smiled broadly. Marcia got several coloring books from Christine and ate a surprising amount of birthday cake, and in the evening after the guests had left, Rosie found herself exhausted, while Marcia was still full of sugar-induced energy. "Come on, baby, time for bed!" Rosie called. "But I'm not tired at all!" Marcia replied. She was lying on her stomach in the play pen, coloring in farm animals in one of her new books.
"Come on." Rosie picked her up. "If I don't put you to bed now I'll just fall asleep, and then who's gonna nurse you to sleep and tuck you in?" Marcia looked a bit unhappy, but didn't say anything. Rosie had managed to reduce the amount of routine breastfeeding sessions to three per day - one in the morning before she started her work, one at naptime and one in the evening. The girl rarely fell asleep without her mommy's milk. Rosie often felt like weaning her, particularly now as for some days her nipples felt sensitive and sore for some reason. But then she felt compassion for Marcia, she'd been regressed against her will after all, and it was just fair to let her enjoy the one thing she loved the most about being little for a while longer. She quickly changed Marcia into her pajamas and watched her brush her teeth, sparing her the usual discussion about trying out the potty this time - she was too tired, and also it was Marcia's birthday after all.
Lying in bed nursing her daughter, Rosie almost winced in pain. "You like Lewis, don't you?" she asked Marcia to distract herself. "Hm-hm." Marcia said and nodded slightly. Then she suddenly let go of the nipple and looked up at her mom. "You can ask him to move in, he'd make a good daddy." Marcia said. Rosie looked down at her stunned, Marcia knew they were dating, but they'd not been particularly open to her about their relationship. Marcia grinned. "I heard you say you love him." "Huh, when did I say that?" "Last week when he crashed here. I woke up but heard you were busy, so I went back to sleep." She giggled an innocent toddler giggle as Rosie blushed. "Uhhh... did we wake you up?" she asked. "No problem, I was glad you're having fun." Marcia said and got back to nursing. Rosie felt bad about having been overheard by her kid, but on the other hand Marcia knew what was going on and apparently it didn't disturb her, so she guessed it was fine. Finally, the little girl fell asleep and Rose carefully brought her to her crib before falling asleep herself.
The next morning, she woke up from Marcia's calls "Mommy, wake up!", loud enough she heard them through the baby monitor and the wall at the same time. Rosie checked the time: 8.30 am. Oh no, she thought, she had a work call at 9 and had planned to get up at 7. She still felt a bit tired despite the extra sleep, and a bit groggy, as if she'd had a bit too much to drink the day before - but she hadn't had even a drip of alcohol for years.
She struggled out of bed and went to Marcia's nursery. "Finally, I'm hungry and I need a new diaper!" the toddler greeted her. She wouldn't have needed to say the second part, the smell was overwhelming as soon as Rosie opened the door. "Yuck, I can tell!" Rosie said. "What did you eat?" The stench gave her serious discomfort as she lifted Marcia onto the changing table and undressed her. "Come on, it's not that bad. But it's been in there a while and it's itchy." the girl complained. Rosie untaped the diaper, gagged and suddenly turned around and ran, barely making it to the bathroom. "Come on, don't be so dramatic!" she heard Marcia call after her, but as she threw up in the toilet she heard her concerned voice "Rosie? Are you ok?". "Yeah, I'm... ugh... fine." Rosie replied. When she finally stopped retching, she actually felt better.
"Poor mommy, what's wrong? You never get sick." Marcia asked as she sat in Rosie's lap at her desk and nursed. "I don't know, let's hope it was just one-off nausea. Now shhh, the meeting's starting. No talking and no reaching up to my face, ok?"
During the meeting, as she felt the kid's merciless jaws on her nipple the pieces came together in Rosie's head: nausea, fatigue, sore breasts: she'd never been pregnant, nor a woman for most of her life, but even she knew the symptoms of pregnancy. She tried to remember when she'd last had her period - about 8 weeks ago? She'd never been regular, probably due to the breastfeeding, but that was a long time overdue. Rosie was almost definitely pregnant. What would she do now?