I Have A Daughter?

Chapter 3

Jake pov

Hours later and numerous trips to the car, we eventually unloaded the car and all the stuff we had bought was in the foyer. Aunt Sophie put the baby (in the carrier) on the floor and told me to go up to my room and start to make some room for all of the stuff and furniture. I climbed the stairs slowly before walking down to my room which was in the other side of the building. I lay on my bed for 15 minutes trying to think through all of it and then reluctantly pulled myself up off the bed. Then I had a brainwave (Irish Phrase) I looked around my room, I had a huge king sized bed, side table, Desk and chair, Guitar on its stand, 2 walk in closets and the wall nearest to the door was lined with book shelves. I opened both of the closet doors and started to transfer all of the clothes in the bigger one into the smaller one. Then took out 3 of the rails  and emptied the shelves then ran down to the foyer and grabbed the box that contained the changing table and carried it upstairs and started to assemble it in the space i had made in the walk-in closet. I ran down and brought the rest of the boxes up into the closet and started to assemble the chest of drawers, and put up some of the cupboards I had found in the garage, a few days earlier and left them in my room. Aunt Sophie walked into my room quietly, I had only noticed she was there when the door closed and banged a bit. She lay the baby down on the bed and motioned for me to sit down next to her on the bed,         

“Now, Jake, care to explain to me what happened?” She asked almost too calmly.

I was about to go down the sarchastic route and say well “when a man and a lady love each other verrrry much.....” but bit my tongue.

“Well, when me and Valarie were dating, we went to her best friend, Suzanne’s, party. We drank a lot of the stuff there but I didn’t know that there was alcohol in it someone must have slipped it in and we got very drunk, very quickly and then we must have slept together. I don’t remember much of that night, sorry” She looked both shocked and disappointed.

“Jacob (I hate it when she calls me that) I want you to know that I am both disappointed and proud of you right now” I looked at her.

“Well I am disappointed in you for being so irresponsible and proud that you handled this so well. I want you to know that I love you and I will help you all I can to raise Isabella” hugged her tightly and whispered “Thank you, I love you too”

“Right, let’s get this bed made so this little one can go to sleep, yea?” she asked-demanded.

“What about her, are you just going to leave her there? I’ll go get that carrier thingy!” I said quickly.

“No don’t she’s been in that thing all day and have you even held your daughter yet, Jake?” she asked

I didn’t answer. “Come here and I’ll show you how to do it” she said as she picked her up and repositioned my arms and laid the baby on them. I stood there awkwardly as Aunt Sophie wandered into the closet and smiled “This is a very good idea, Jake! I think we may get you a little mini fridge and a microwave though” she commented. I smiled I had wanted a microwave, Kettle and fridge for soooo long; when she saw my face she smirked and continued “The fridge to put formula in and the microwave and kettle to make the formula” the smile was wiped off my face.

“Maybe we could get that guy in the hardware shop to come up and put in a marble counter and fit a sink?” she asked.

“That’s a good idea but we may need to clear out some rails and move them to the back of the closet?” I suggested. She smiled. Then took the baby from my arms and pointed at the box with the crib in it and said “Come on, that’s a man’s work. Off you go”

I chuckled and got to work. Once the bed was made and the mattress in place Aunt Sophie lay Isabella on the bed and started to put the bed linen on the bed as I attached the pink mobile to the sidebar. Then she lay Isabella in the crib and we started to sort out the clothes and supplies and put them in their new places and I grabbed some sticky labels and wrote down that was in each drawer and cupboard on them and stuck them on the right drawer.  The shelves were filled with teddies and books while the cupboards had bottles, soothers, Nappies, wipes and a steriliser in them. The clothes had been put in the chest of drawers and all the lotions and powers in a basket on top of the chest. We had left a space for the hardware guy to put in the counter and sink. And yes my closet really was that big! Aunt Sophie had gone to use the phone in the kitchen and I lay down on the bed exhausted.  Just as I lay down Isabella woke up and started crying, I covered my ears. I grabbed the phone and pressed the intercom system.

Aunt Sophie was there within minutes and asked “What’s wrong?”

“It won’t stop crying!” I complained, feeling a migraine coming on.

“She is not an it, Jacob! You can’t just leave her to cry! You have to check her nappy and feed her and comfort her! You are her father, are you not? I think that it is about time you act like it!” she snapped.

“I don’t know what to do!” I whispered. She sighed.

“Aright I will show you this once and only once, then you are on your own” she said as she picked up the now screeching baby and walked into the new “baby” room. She lay her down on the table and continued “First you UN button the baby-grow and unfasten the nappy. Then grab both of her legs, gently, in one hand and hold her bottom up and pull the nappy out from underneath and wipe up the mess. Then rub some talcum powder on her bottom and up her front then put a clean nappy underneath under her then put her bottom back down onto the nappy and fasten it up, simple, now your turn!” she moved to watch me as I ran the instructions through my brain. I went to go and get what I needed when Aunt Sophie cried “NO, NEVER leave a baby alone on a changing table, it could roll itself off!” she put her arm on the ledge of the table and waited for me to grab everything I needed, then moved so I could try changing Isabella. I replayed the instructions in my head a couple of times before starting. I did it almost perfectly, only making a few errors here and there. Isabella was just sobbing at this stage.

 Aunt Sophie was laughing at me softly.

 “What?” I asked confused.

“Oh your face was brilliant! It was all scrunched up!” she giggled.

“I was concentrating!” I argued. As I tried, with difficulty to put a clean baby-grow on her. In the end Aunt Sophie ended up doing it for me.

“Come on I’m sure she’s due a feed” she said before grabbing a bottle and some formula and walking out and back down into the kitchen, leaving me and Isabella there on our own.

“Hiya, sweetie. I’m your daddy!” I whispered as I picked her up gently. The sobbing stopped as I walked around. I carried her very carefully down the stairs and in to the kitchen where Aunt Sophie was pouring formula into a bottle and pouring a bit on her arm.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“That’s how you check if the milk is too hot, it works the same for baths as well” She said softly before putting the top of the bottle against Isabella’s lips and  she quickly opened her mouth and began to suckle on the bottle quietly. I kept thinking in my head if Val was pregnant for 8/9 months and she was gone for almost 11 months that made Isabella almost 3 months old. I made a mental note to check the passport to check exactly how old she was. When the bottle was finished Aunt Sophie places a piece of cloth on my shoulder and lay Sophie on it and said

“Pat her back softly” I did as I was told and was glad that Sophie had put the cloth on my shoulder, as Isabella threw up a bit after. It was almost 10 o’clock at that stage and I was absolutely exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. The handy man was coming tomorrow afternoon so I couldn’t be in the house then so I decided to go to bed then. “I’m going to bed now” I said as I handed Isabella to Aunt Sophie, who handed her straight back to me saying “You go to bed, she goes to bed, there's a soother here I just sterilised it she may take to it she may not. I’d turn on the mobile” I groaned and took the other from her and brought Isabella up to my, OUR, room and lay her down in he crib and put the mobile on. I tried to put the soother but she seemed to have none of that, she just put her little thumb in her mouth and closed her eyes. I pulled the covers up and tucked them into the sides of the mattress, because the lady in the baby shop said that if you left the linen loose she could choke herself. Then pulling off my jeans I collapsed into the bed and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.

In what seemed only minutes later I woke up to the sound of Isabella crying.  Groaning I stood up and picked her up and changed her. Then Aunt Sophie came in holding a bottle. “I thought you may need this” she said sleepily before walking back to her room. I fed and burped Isabella and put her back in the crib and went back to sleep.

Isabella woke up twice more that night, but only wanted food once so it was pretty easy to deal with. The next morning woke up before Isabella and went downstairs and made a bottle and went back upstairs, As if on time Isabella started to cry. I picked her up and changed her, then lay her on my knee “I’m not sure how i am going to manage this but i promise that i will try, sweetheart” beore feeding and dressing her and bringing her back down the stairs to see her Auntie.