Fields of Gold; Daniel Ricciardo

Make her proud

We fill her little bath with warm water and with a thermometer we make sure it's not too hot or too cold.
I'm actually a bit nervous as I put her on the changing table and take her clothes off. This is something she disagrees on loudly. Little princess already has a strong opinion.
"I know sweetie, but you're going to feel so good once you're in your bath." I talk to her hoping she will calm down.

When I take off her diaper she decides to pee all over the place.
"Oh shoot, well maybe daddy can put a clean cover over the cushion once you're in the bath. Silly girl."
Daniel has a cape towel to wrap her in when we are done.
"What did she do?" He looks over my shoulder.
"I guess she was a bit angry and this is the way she showed it."
I quickly pick her up and then she's ready to get in the bath.

Once I lower her in the warm water she calms down. Her eyes open and for now they are still blue, but I know that can change. I don't think she'll have blue eyes, Daniels are brown and mine are hazel and with her dark hair I expect them to turn brown, but we'll have to wait and see.
I scoop hands of water over her little tummy and very carefully over her hair.
Daniel changes the cover of the changing table cushion before laying out an outfit for her.

He then comes over the help me out, he takes a soft wash cloth and gently washes her under her arms and the rest of her little body.
We can tell she's actually enjoying this to the fullest.
"I think she loves it, look at that face. Her eyes are wide open." We're both just gushing over our little girl.
"Can you believe we made her? I mean we actually made a little human." I still find that hard to wrap my head around.
She has been growing inside me for the last 9 months and now she's here and it's real. We actually have a child that depends on us.

That's something that is amazing and also terrifying. If we screw up, we screw her up.
"I'm really looking forward to raising her. We're going to do everything we can to give her the love and stability she needs to grow into an amazing woman."
Daniel always reads my mind and knows what to say to ease my overthinking.
"That's what we'll be aiming for. I just want her to be happy and always feels loved. We can't fuck this up."
"We won't. Don't worry about that."

Once we made sure she's nice and clean we wrap her up in the towel. She's knackered after her bath, so I put her clothes on and then put her in her cot so she can take a nap. We take the baby monitor with us to the living room, not that we really need it, because the apartment isn't that big, so we would hear her anywhere.

We sit down with Grace and Joe to enjoy the food.
They leave after Phoenix woke up and they had another cuddle with her after she had another really good feed.
That night we enjoy the left overs and then have an early night in to get as much sleep as we can.

The next day Michael and Daniel have to start training again, but Daniel actually finds it very difficult to leave. It will only be for a couple of hours, but the thought of having to miss those hours of his daughter is something he doesn't like.
"Babe she's sleeping, just go. By the time you get back she'll be awake and then you get to be with her the rest of the day." I almost have to push him out of the door, but finally he leaves after giving me a long and loving kiss.

Michael has, in the mean time snuck to Phoenix her room to watch her sleep, but when he realizes I manage to get Daniel to leave he quickly comes out before Daniel changes his mind.
When they are gone I take a nap as well, I'm still recovering and waking up every couple of hours is something I'm not really used to. Even though I wasn't able to sleep well before she was born either.

It's now Thursday morning and Daniel is about to leave for Spain. I really hoped he could stay home longer and so did he, but he has to go because later this afternoon he has a press conference.
His parents are staying at Michaels place, so they can help me out the next couple of days. Daniel will be home again Sunday evening after the race.
He really doesn't want to go at all, he almost told Christian to put Liam in the car this weekend, but I convinced him he had to race himself, he and Max are so close in points that if he misses out on one and Max wins, he won't be in the lead anymore.