American Woman: Book 3

Chapter 60

I didn't really ask Prince much about his phone call to Mayte. I just hoped he wasn't harsh. It took a lot for her to reach out and congratulate us. I didn't want that coming back to bite her. I decided I would send her a thank you card just to make sure she knew we appreciate her well wishes. That night Prince and I were both so paranoid the eye mask would fall off of Devon, that we took turns staying awake to watch her sleep. So needless to say, when Maria arrived the next morning we asked if she would watch and feed her for a couple hours. We also gave her the log to write down the diaper count. She seemed more than eager to help which made me happy. "Go lay down and don't worry. I can handle this. Ms. Devon and I are going to have some fun this morning. Aren't we precious?" She cooed at her.
"Remember she can't be out from under the lights unless you're feeding her." Prince reminded her.
"I got it, I got it." She sighed. "That's ok. We will still have a good time. I've got lots of stories to tell you."
Prince and I smiled at each other as we made our way to the bedroom. "I love you. And goodnight!" He said jumping into the bed.
"I've never seen you so eager to go to sleep." I giggle.
"I've never stayed awake all night with a newborn. I used to stay up all night long in the studio but this is different. I can't sleep all the next day! I'm turning into an old man."
"No! You are just a great daddy. Now no more talking. We have to take advantage of sleep time!" I say as we both hit our pillows and instantly fell into slumber.
The next thing I knew, I looked at the clock and it was almost noon. I didn't mean for Maria to have to be on baby watch that long and I knew Carol from church was supposed to be bring over lunch so I let Prince keep sleeping and got up to relieve Maria of her duties. I walked in to find her reading her a picture book from the nursery. "Maria I'm so sorry we slept so long. Why don't you go on home for the day, you've done enough. I really appreciate it..."
"Oh don't be silly. This is way better than cleaning or cooking. Go on back to bed if you want." She suggests.
"I'm actually feeling pretty refreshed. Poor Prince I don't think he slept even when I did my shifts last night. He's been running on pure adrenaline taking care of her and me for days. I hope he keeps sleeping and doesn't notice I'm gone or he will get up. He needs rest. If you could keep watching her for a few more minutes that would be great. I'm going to go meet Carol downstairs."
"Sure hun. We are fine." Maria responds.
I tried to get Carol to come up and see the baby but she said she had errands to run before picking her kids up from school but had first dibs on holding her when we bring her to church for the first time. I went ahead and ate and let Prince keep sleeping. And thankfully he did until early evening. Around 5:00, he comes staggering out of the bedroom with a major case of bed head. I had to contain my giggles knowing he had no idea. "What the hell baby?! Why did you let me sleep so long? How long have you been up?!" He says while plopping down on the couch beside me.
"Since noon..."
"What?!!! I'm such a loser. I'll take a long shift. You go sleep until like 10:00..."
"No you are not honey! I'm actually fine. Really. I'm glad you got some sleep. You needed it worse than me. I want to eat dinner with you. Who is coming tonight?" I ask.
"I can't remember. But I'll go wait in the lobby I'm sure they'll be here soon." He says standing up and catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror. "Oh my god!!!! My hair!"
I start laughing hysterically at his appalled reaction.
"You think it's funny!" He exclaims, sitting back down and poking my ribs. I scream out and yell for him to stop. "I'm laughing at your reaction! Not your hair! I promise!" He continues his assault on my midsection until I almost can't breath. "Stop!!! Please! I can't breath!" I yell out.
"Shhhh!!! You're going to wake the baby!" He laughs but thankfully does stop and leans over me. My back is resting against the arm of the couch and Prince begins kissing my neck up and down. "I love you. Thanks for letting me sleep. But now I'm spending the rest of the night with my lovely ladies. I'll be back." He whispers and quickly fixes his hair and heads downstairs. Not long later, he returns with Janet, all four of her children, and the nurse to check on Devon. "We aren't staying long! Just look at the baby and don't touch her!" Janet sternly says to her children and then turns to greet me. "I'm sorry, I wouldn't have dragged them all up here but if I bring one I have to bring them all and Carrie is dying to see the baby." She explains, referring to her ten year old daughter.
"Oh that's fine. Thanks for bringing dinner. I am so glad we took everyone up on that. There is no way I have time to even think about cooking!" I exclaim.
"I remember that all too well! Four times! Give it a few weeks and you will somewhat get back into your old habits. I would offer to babysit but I couldn't guarantee she would come back in one piece. Michael!!! I said don't touch!" She yells at her three year old son. "Wow! What an adorable baby! She's got craziness going on all around her and she is so calm. Lucky you!"
"Thanks." I say looking down at Devon who didn't startle until the nurse touched her foot to prick it to check the bilirubin level.
"Ok your diaper log looked good. I'm taking the blood straight to the hospital to test. Should have results in a couple of hours. I will call you if it is low enough to stop the phototherapy. Everything going ok?" The nurse asks.
"Everything is great!" Prince smiles at her. "Let me show you out."
"Us too!" Janet says. "We will see you at church." She wrangles all of her kids and I thank her again for the food. I walk to the kitchen to get out dinner. Vegetable stir fry. It looked really good, but I have noticed everything is vegetarian and it made me wonder if they all remembered me saying Prince was a vegetarian or if they looked it up on the internet or what. I couldn't imagine him telling them to only bring vegetable dishes but who knows. I put some in a bowl for each of us and sit down on the couch to wait for Prince to return before I started eating. Devon starts crying and I figured it was time for a diaper change bc I had just fed her not long ago. I walk to her nursery to grab more diapers and notice we were down to only five newborn diapers left. When I got back in the living room, Prince was standing over the bed trying to soothe her. "Is she hungry baby?" He asked.
"She shouldn't be. She just ate less than an hour ago. I think she's wet. And honey we are only down to five diapers. We may need more before tomorrow." I say while removing her wet diaper and logging it down.
"Holy crap! We had a bunch I thought!" He exclaimed.
"We have a bunch of size 1 and 2, but the newborn ones are down to five. I'm afraid the size 1s will still be too big."
"Ok momma. Let's eat dinner and I'll run to the store." He suggests.
"Is nobody here to go do it for us?" I ask.
"Wow! I've never heard you ask that in the over two years you've lived here." He chuckled.
"I'm sorry. That was rude. I just don't want you having to go run errands all the time bc I'm clueless and don't know what all we need."
"No honey I was proud! Amy was still here a few minutes ago. I have NO problem making her go do it." He says picking up his cell and calling her. "Hey I need a favor done before you leave. Run to the store and get some more newborn sized diapers."
"Pampers." I whisper.
"Make sure they are Pampers brand and that the size is newborn and get..." He turns to me and asks how many more we needed.
"I don't know. Let's try 5 more packages that have at least 40 diapers each." I reply.
"Get at least 200 more. And bring it up here when you get back. With a smile on your face." He commands. "Oh, oh, and Amy we need some Tucks wipes, stool softeners, pads in all shapes and sizes, and Lansinoh breast cream and nipple pads. Get that too." He demands and then hangs up.
"Babe! I have plenty of all that, I think!"
"I know. I just want to make her look for them and have to go to the register with it all. She's going to be furious!" He laughs and takes a huge bite of his food. "Let her keep making snide comments about the baby now."