Maybe Baby Lite (74 page)

“
We have a Preston,” Trey
says, gently handing over the squirming little bundle to my open
arms.

“
Ohh, look, Trey,” I say
softly, “look at his tiny little finger; tiny little perfect
fingers!” Preston wraps miniature fingers around my pinky, which
appears huge in comparison.

“
Oh, Preston. Mommy and
Daddy love you,” I croon softly, kissing his forehead. His tiny red
face wrinkles up and makes a hundred little expressions. I count
all of his fingers. They are all there. Ten perfect little
fingers.

“
I’m checking everything
Trey,” I say, “taking full inventory of our perfect little Preston!
Yes, I am,” I croon in baby talk. “He is going to be daddy’s boy, I
can tell,” I comment, smiling up at Trey who has never looked
prouder than at this moment. I was right. Men want sons and Trey
got his today. I beam with pride at being able to give Trey his
son. I pull the blanket away from the baby, wanting to count his
toes. That’s when I see that something is missing.

Oh my God!

My head snaps up
immediately in confusion. I look up at Trey. He is wearing a
sheepish grin.

“
Trey? What
the?”

“
Don’t be mad, Tylar,” he
says, gently, “Preston is a
great
name for a
girl
, don’t you think?” He is
sitting on the edge of the bed, next to me and our daughter. He
leans down and kisses me softly on the lips. “Tylar, I love you so
much and the fact that you want our daughter to be named after me
is the greatest honor possible. What really matters to me, Tylar,
is that she carries
both
of our names, okay? We did this
together
,
right?”

I nod, covering the baby
back up with the blanket, and holding her close to my
heart.

“
So, how about Preston
Michaela Sinclair? Does that work for you, baby?”

“
Oh yes!” I sob. I'm
filled with emotion. I reluctantly give Preston back to the nurse
so that she can clean, weigh, measure, and perform the Apgar
scoring. The doctor is finishing up with my stitches. The delivery
room is being cleared and I'll be transported soon to my private
room. Trey has gone out to let Gina know about the baby and to give
her my room number.

Nurse Ratched brings a
clean Preston to me, now wearing a disposable diaper, pink gown,
pink cotton cap, and pink knit booties. She is beautiful. I can’t
stop looking at her. She has a full head of dark hair like Trey’s.
She is sweetly sucking on her tiny little fingers. Her eyes are
wide and alert. They are very dark blue, but the nurse tells me
that most babies have blue eyes when they are born. I know that she
will have Trey’s eyes. She is staring up at me. My heart swells
with this new, indescribable feeling that I have for her. I lean my
face down and kiss her head, breathing in her sweet baby
smell.

I'm so enamored with my
baby I'm oblivious that I'm being moved to a recovery room on the
gurney. Trey and Gina are waiting there and immediately rush to my
side. Gina takes some pictures of the three of us with her phone.
The nurse assigned to me wants to help with my shower and brings me
a fresh hospital gown. I refuse to part with Preston. Trey finally
has to intervene on the nurse’s behalf, getting a bit strict with
me. He takes the baby from me, promising that I can have her back
as soon as I comply with the nurse. I grumble a bit but concede,
following the nurse into my bathroom.

When I come back out,
clean and freshly gowned, Gina is in the rocking chair, holding
Preston and cooing to her. I look over at Trey who is leaning
against the wall next to my bed and catch his smirk. He knows that
I want to take the baby out of Gina’s arms and he is mentally
weighing the odds as to whether I'll do it. Begrudgingly, I climb
back into my hospital bed. Trey slides down, sitting beside
me.

“
She weighs seven pounds
and eight ounces. She is 19 inches long,” I announce proudly. “Oh,
and she’s a 10 on Apgar.”

“
Of course she’s a 10,” he
replies in his smooth and silky voice. “Her mommy's a
10.”

“
Okay, that's pure cheesy,
Trey," I reply rolling my eyes at him. "Have you called your
parents yet?” I ask, watching Gina and the baby out of the corner
of my eye.

“
Yes, they’re ecstatic and
want to fly over and spend some time with us. Mom wants to help
when you get out of the hospital. Is that okay with
you?”

“
Of course Trey,” I
answer, “I’d seriously appreciate her help. After all, she did such
a fine, fine job with you.” He leans over and we kiss long and
tenderly.

“
Okay,” Gina pipes up, “my
goddaughter is gagging over here at you two. Talk like that is
going to end up giving her a brother before she’s ready for
one!”

I blush at Gina’s remark
though God knows I should be used to them by now. Preston starts
fussing and within a minute she is into full-fledged wailing. My
nurse hustles in, taking the baby from Gina and bringing her over
to my waiting arms.

“
This little one is
hungry,” the nurse says, laughing. “She’s not shy about telling you
either, Mommy. You're breastfeeding, yes?”

I nod. She must have read
my body language or perhaps is just used to new mother
apprehension.

“
There’s no rocket science
to nursing, Mom,” she starts, “you’ll be a bit nervous at first,
afraid that you might be doing something wrong, not sure if the
baby is getting enough to eat. Trust me, your baby will teach you
how to feed her properly. The most important thing at first is to
get comfortable with it. Your breasts are tender and as tiny as
these little ones are, they can clamp on pretty tightly. The first
day or so before your milk comes in you should nurse anyway. She’ll
be getting the colostrum which is extremely important for her
health. Your baby’s tummy is only the size of a shooter marble
right now. As your milk comes in, her tummy grows accordingly,
okay?” I nod again, grateful for her knowledge. Gina and Trey both
watch transfixed as the nurse helps me with my nursing gown. I hold
Preston against my breast as the nurse calls Trey over.

“
Come here, Daddy. You can
put yourself to use until Mommy gets comfortable with this, okay?”
She shows Trey how to guide my nipple to Preston’s mouth, having to
brush it against the baby’s lips in order to get her to latch on.
It takes a few times and when she finally latches on, I know
it.

“
Wow,” I say, jumping a
bit when she clamps on. Her instincts take over and soon I can feel
her sucking rhythmically on my breast. Her little tiny fists knead
and push into them. “How does she know to do that?” I ask the
nurse, awestruck. Preston is making some very loud sucking
noises.

“
She knows to do it by
instinct,” the nurse answers, laughing. “We’ll make sure she’s
hydrated when she’s in the nursery.”

Nursery? I want her in my
room!

Trey has been watching me
and now he reads my mind.

“
Tylar,” he speaks up in
his lawyerly tone, “let the nurses look after the baby as they’re
trained to do. I’m sure they like to monitor newborns for the first
24 hours.”

“
Listen to your husband,
Mrs. Sinclair,” she advises, nodding her head in agreement with
Trey. I blush at her assumption that we're married. Trey has filled
out the form for her birth certificate making sure her name was
exactly the way he wants it. I grumble a bit, shooting Trey a sharp
look for butting in. The nurse departs, promising to come back
shortly to see how we're doing.

Gina gets up and
stretches. “I’m leaving too,” she says, “I want to call Ian when I
get home. The reception’s spotty in here.”

I know Gina feels little
uncomfortable witnessing our intimate scene with Trey and I on the
bed and Preston sucking loudly at my breast.

“
Be back tomorrow?” I ask
her.

“
First thing in the
morning,” Gina promises. “I already sent pictures of my goddaughter
to Ian. He wants us to get pregnant soon.” Gina smiles and I can
tell that she is on board with that as well. She gives me a hug and
even hugs Trey, congratulating him before she leaves to go back to
her Aunt Becky’s.

“
Do you think the world is
ready for Gina and Ian’s spawn?” Trey asks, smiling at me
devilishly.

“
Trey,” I say, in a louder
voice than I intend, “be nice!” My voice has startled Preston and
she drops my nipple. Her tiny little face turns red and scrunches
up unhappily. She starts fussing and fidgeting, her little mouth
rooting against me.

“
Now see what you’ve
caused with our daughter,” I reprimand him playfully. “Will you
help me get her on the other one, Trey?”

“
I’d be more than happy to
oblige, Mrs. Sinclair,” he teases, his fingers pulling at my other
nipple.

“
It’s not Sinclair yet,” I
remind him, shifting the baby.

Trey is taking quite a bit
of pleasure in fondling my nipple. The last couple weeks of my
pregnancy have seen Trey pretty much do without sexual
gratification. I was constantly having Braxton Hicks contractions,
so I wasn’t comfortable at the end. Trey tried to convince me that
the best thing for suppressing false labor was semen.

Nice try,
counselor!

I position Preston’s tiny
head at my breast; Trey rubs my nipple gently between his thumb and
forefinger and guides it close to her mouth. She latches on with a
vengeance.

“
Yikes, she has some bite
to her,” I giggle. Feeling her nestle against my breast, her tiny
fists kneading into me, is almost pleasurable. She starts with the
loud sucking again and I can tell Trey is mesmerized. He is
watching her as if he can’t believe that she is finally
here.

“
Are you disappointed we
didn’t have a boy,” I ask.

“
I wouldn’t change a thing
about her,” he says, taking his fingers and gently stroking the
dark tendrils that have escaped her pink knit cap.

When my nurse returns,
Preston is sleeping soundly against my chest. I don’t want to give
her to the nurse just yet. She is snuggled into me warm and
content. Trey shoots me a look of reproach, so I grudgingly hand my
baby over into the nurse’s waiting arms.

“
We’ll take good care of
her, Mrs. Sinclair. Don’t you worry. We’ll have her back to you in
the morning. Get some rest.” She bustles out of my room with our
daughter in her arms.

“
Why bother with the
marriage ceremony, Trey? Apparently everyone already thinks I’m
Mrs. Sinclair,” I say, waving my hand dismissively.

He is sitting in the
rocker and looks over, quirking an eyebrow. “Don’t be mean, Tylar,”
he admonishes gently, “you aren’t pissed about being called ‘Mrs.
Sinclair,’ you’re pissed because she took Preston to the nursery.
But I’m here with you, baby.”

I roll my eyes at him,
still aggravated that I can’t have my daughter with me all night. I
just met her a few hours ago.

“
What?” Trey teases,
sauntering over and sitting on the bed with me, pulling me close to
him. His hand strokes my hair. “So I’m just the lowly sperm donor
to be cast aside?” he complains.

I look up into his amused
eyes and laugh. “I didn’t mean to be that way, I’m sorry Trey,” I
reply. “I just miss having her next to me. We’ve been a
mother-daughter team for the past nine months, you
know?”

“
Trust me,” he replies
sweetly, “you’ll have plenty of time to spend bonding with our
daughter.” His hand lifts my still damp hair up off of my neck.
Trey lowers his head and I feel his soft lips on my neck gently
kissing me. “I love you, baby. Thank you for our daughter, Tylar,”
he whispers brushing his lips against my skin.

“
It’s my pleasure Trey,” I
reply, my mind floats back to that night in the stable, recalling
the raw passion and frenzied lovemaking that gave us our beautiful
baby girl.

“
Happy belated birthday,
Trey. I love you.”

The clock over the glass
windows of the nursery read 11:17 p.m. Nurse Sheila Bradley just
completed the last diaper change of her shift. She would be
clocking out for the night in a little less than 15 minutes. What a
day this has been. Five new babies in the nursery. Four baby boys
and one baby girl. Nurse Bradley glances over at the row of clear
bassinets. They are all down for the count, as least as far as her
shift goes. Four tiny little blue cotton caps and one tiny little
pink cotton cap. Five precious little angels.

It almost makes Nurse
Bradley long for her childbearing days. They seem to have gone by
in a flash. It makes a woman feel different psychologically when
the reality sinks in that childbearing is gone forever. She
supposes that's why God created grandparents. She peers out into
the empty corridor on the other side of the glass viewing windows.
That was a strange bird that had come in a little more than an hour
ago. How did she slip up to the maternity floor unnoticed like that
with visiting hours long since over? The woman was petite and
attractive; she looked like she wasn’t much past 40 years of age.
She seemed nice enough but she was one bull-headed lady that was
for sure. Claimed she was from out of town and just got into
Atlanta that very minute.