-2 weeks later-
-end of February-
-Gracelyn is 2 weeks old-
~Skylar's POV~
It's been 2 weeks since Gracelyn's been born and these have been the craziest and fastest two weeks of our lives. Daniel does go back to work in 4 weeks. And I don't go back to work until she's a year old.
We still haven't told anyone on my side, obviously besides Maxx, about Grace. And they didn't know about the pregnancy. I talked to Ma and Mom a few times while pregnant, but never mentioned anything about it. But I talked to them yesterday and we're flying back to Chicago tonight for 3 days to surprise them. We got clearance from Grace's pediatrician that she's ok to fly so young.
Maxx is hesitant to come considering the last time he saw them, it was a huge fight and he literally left. Be our flight is in literally 6 hours, and it's 10pm. We have to wake up in 2 hours, but I cannot sleep. I just put Gracie down to sleep again after feeding her, and now I'm making sure everything is ready is leave. We've never even been out of the house besides for doctors appointments with her. And now we decided to go travel halfway across the country.
Daniel and Maxx were both asleep because we have to wake up soon, but I was in the living room. I was so anxious about flying with our newborn daughter. What if something goes wrong? What if she cries the whole time? What if she gets sick from going on a plane? It's freezing in Chicago, what if she gets sick there? I thought my anxiety was bad during my pregnancy, but now that I'm a mom, it feels like it's tripled.
As I sat on the couch, the more my mind was racing. The more my mind races, the more anxious I got. And the more anxious I got, the more stressed I got. I buried my face in my hands, wanting to flip a switch in my brain and just shut out all my thoughts.
I finally just got up and went to the bedroom.
I went in bed and turned to face Daniel, who was sleeping. I carefully moved his arm and snuggled in his chest. He barely woke up and I felt his wrap his arms around me. I felt my body relax as the smell of his cologne and the warmth of his body calmed me down. He makes me feel so safe.
At midnight, our alarms went off. I did not want to wake up. Yes, I was excited to see my family and surprise them with a new family member, but I'm so scared about the whole flying and airport part.
"Baby... come on, we have to be at the airport..." I heard Daniel whisper.
I slowly opened my eyes and I felt him rubbing my face with his hand. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it.
We both got up and got dressed. I got dressed in just sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I haven't lost any baby weight yet. And I'm so uncomfortable with my body right now, so I did not want to even try putting on leggings or jeans right now. Whenever I've gone out, which has been 2 times, I just wear some loose jogger set from target. I curled my hair and put some makeup on while I pumped my milk before putting some in a little travel cooler.
I packed up all my pumping supplies that I would need and made sure we had everything we needed. Daniel for Gracie ready and almost tripled checked for me that all her stuff was packed. Maxx was ready too and at the front door. Gracie was a bit fussy because we woke her up, but Daniel got her back to sleep and she was now just in her car seat.
"Everyone ready?" Daniel asked as he was ordering the Uber.
"Yes, I need a redbull or something..." Maxx yawned.
I anxiously nodded my head. Daniel knows I'm anxious about this whole thing. I've been talking about it all day.
The Uber came and we got to the airport. We checked in our check-in bags and now we just had our carry-ons.
"Ok.. let's go through security to get that out of the way and then figure out something to eat." I said.
"Yea ok, let's go." Maxx said.
All of a sudden, Gracie got fussy. I knew she was hungry because it's been almost 3 hours since I last fed her. I got her out of her car seat and held her and hoped that maybe I was wrong, but I wasn't. When I picked her up and she got close to my chest, she was moving her head around, trying to look for the milk.
"I'll feed her as we walk." I said. I had to Gracie to Daniel for a quick minute to take off my hoodie, which I was completely self-conscious about, and then got a baby wrap out and wrapped her up onto me. I got her secured and the wrap completely covered my whole torso from just above my shoulders, to just below my hips. Once I got her secured, I lifted my shirt and she started to eat.
We made our way to security.
We got through security with no issues except for it taking forever. And then we made our way to find our gate.
"Ok, we have an hour and a half until our flight." I said as we found the gate.
We all got something to eat, and then we went back to the gate and waited there until our flight.
"You excited to see your family again?" Daniel asked and I.
Maxx hesitated and shook his head.
"Not really." He nervously laughed.
Gracie was sleeping in her car seat on the floor next to us.
"How do you think she'll be on the flight?" Maxx asked pointing to Gracie.
I sighed.
"I hope.. she'll just sleep... but with babies, you never know." I said, looking at her.
"Is she going to sleep in her car seat?" Maxx asked.
"Well, we could put her car seat on the seat, or we could just have the extra seat, and put her car seat in the overhead bin." Daniel explained to him.
We bought an extra seat for her car seat incase. So Daniel, Gracie, and I are in one row. And then Maxx is in the row next to us, in the aisle seat. And Maxx didn't want anyone next to him, and since he was sitting in a two-chair row, he bought the seat next to him for the extra space.
The 4 of us stayed at the gate, waiting to board.
"Flight 2G958X to Chicago is now boarding." I heard the speakers say.
We got up and boarded the plane. We got situated and ended up just leaving Gracie in her car seat, securing it to the seat. Mainly because she was still sleeping, and we did not want to wake her. Once we got situated, my nerves were going crazy.
I sat in the middle seat, Daniel was on the aisle, and Gracie was at the window. I was shaking my leg like crazy and fidgeting about with my fingers. I was terrified about this flight.
"Baby, relax..." I heard Daniel whisper in my ear and put his hand on my thigh.
I looked at him. And closed my eyes and I leaned my head on his shoulder.
"I've just been so anxious..." I whispered.
"I know... it's ok... nothings going to happen." He whispered and kissed the top of my head.
I opened my eyes and looked over at Maxx, who already made himself comfortable and passed out across both seats. I chuckled under my breath as I saw him. Daniel did the same and has the same reaction as me.
"Looks like he's already settled." Daniel chuckled.
"Yea... let's get ready for this 5 hour plane ride..." I nervously said.
As the plane started to move to take off, I started getting super super anxious. I'm never ever nervous on flights. And on this one, I'm absolutely terrified.
I could feel my body just wanting to cry so bad.
Daniel was squeezing my hand as the plane was stopped, waiting to speed down the runaway and take off.
"Are you ok?" Daniel whispered to me.
I looked at him and nodded my head at first, but then I started tearing up and shook my head and buried my face in his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and stroked the back of my hair as I hugged him tight.
I somehow managed to silently cry in his chest, absolutely terrified when the plane started speeding at over 300mph to take off.
"It's ok... you're ok... we're ok... Gracie's ok... everything is fine... just breathe..." I heard Daniel calmly repeat to me.
Once we were settled out more in the plane after take off, my nerves started getting better. I wiped the tears off my face and checked on Gracie, who was still asleep.
Daniel and I ended up falling asleep, and I had to wake up once to feed Gracie, and then Daniel had to wake up to go change her diaper.
We had about an hour left of the flight now, and I was now just awake because Gracie was as well. It was 8am our time now, but 6am Chicago time. And when we land, it'll be about 9am our time and 7am Chicago time. I know this time zone change is going to seriously mess with Gracie's sleep schedule. Even though it's only two hours, we were finally just getting her used to a schedule.
Gracie was awake in the car seat, not really doing anything. I had my hand on her chest, rubbing it to keep her calm. Daniel was still asleep and so was Maxx, he's been asleep the whole flight. This flight hasn't been bad at all, which I'm so happy about. The only thing that did stress me out was that she cried for about three minutes, because she got woken up from like one second of turbulence.
I started hearing some noise from her car seat. Almost like a whimper. I checked on her because I knew that means she was about to start being fussy. I'm finally learning all these little things that she does and what they mean. I checked the time and it was about 2 and a half hours since I last fed her, so she's most likely hungry.
I picked her up out of her car seat and held in my arms for a bit, trying to see if maybe I was wrong. But when I started holding her, she does the same thing she does when she's always hungry, she starts opening her mouth, trying to find the milk. I looked around our seat for the breathable cover-up, but I couldn't find it. Then I remembered that Daniel put it away last time I used it because we both didn't think she would eat again. She does have a blanket in her car seat, but it's a really thick fluffy blanket, so I don't want to use that one and make her really hot.
"Babe..." I whispered, nudging Daniel a bit.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked at me.
"Yea, what's up?" He groggily asked.
"I need a cover up for Gracie, she's hungry." I told him.
He got up and grabbed the cover up from the diaper bag.
As I fed our daughter, Daniel stayed awake and messed around with the TV on the plane.
"Look at what they have..." he whispered. I looked up and saw that he has the conjuring movie on the TV. I chuckled.
"The movie we watched that night." I smiled, remembering our first date. And now we have a 2 week old daughter.
"Alright everyone, we will be landing in Chicago in about half an hour, the seatbelt sign will turn back on in approximately 10 minutes. So if you need to use the lavatories, stretch, or just move about the cabin, now is the time to do so." We heard the pilot say on the speakers.
We landed about 30 minutes later and we were finally in Chicago. We got out of the plane and got our checked bags from baggage claim.
"Let's get the rental car and head to the hotel." I said. We got the bags, and got the car seat attached back to the stroller part and headed down to the rental car places.
~~~~~~~~
"We had a Kia Telluride reserved under the name Skylar Quinn for 3 days. What do you mean you don't have it?" Daniel was getting upset at the guy at the front. He had my phone, showing the guy the confirmation for the car. We've been at this car place for over an hour because apparently they don't have our car reservation in their system.
Daniel was getting annoyed. I was stressed out and just overwhelmed. Gracie was fussy, and she could probably sense my anxiety and frustration because of this. Maxx was ok, just bored and a bit worried about what's going to happen now. I was pacing back and forth in this place, pushing Gracie's stroller to keep her calm, but she wouldn't be quiet, she was just almost whining, not crying.
"Hey Skylar, why don't I take her outside to the main area and just push the stroller around so you can help Daniel deal with this? I'm also getting a bit restless anyway." Maxx asked me.
Where we were, it was like another section of the airport, foot courts, stores, it was inside. I thought about it for a second.
"Yea actually, that would be good, thanks. I'm afraid Daniel's going to hurt someone." I chuckled.
Maxx left with Gracie in her stroller and I went over to Daniel. He was frustrated, with no one at the counter anymore.
"Hey, what's going on now?" I asked him.
"They're trying to see if they can find any tellurides in the garage. And if they can't, then they'll give us a refund or send us to another location." He said.
He was super stressed out and rubbed his face.
"Hey it's fine... if anything, we can just get the refund, and Uber around." I told him, grabbing his arm and hugging him.
He turned to me, put his arm around me, and kissed the top of my head.
"Where's Maxx and Gracie?" He asked me.
"Out there. Maxx wanted to go walk around this area with her to let me help you a bit. Plus he was getting restless, so he'd rather kill two birds with one stone." I explained.
"That was good... if they can't resolve this issue soon. Maybe we can find another place." He said.
I didn't say anything. But I sort of nodded my head.
"Have you spoken to your family yet?" He asked me.
I shook my head.
"No, should I?" I asked him.
"If you want, are you planning on heading there after we get the car?" He asked me.
"No, I was planning on going to the hotel, shower, and then head over." I explained.
"Yea that's probably better." He said.
I leaned myself on him.
"When we get the car, can we please get a coffee somewhere?" I asked him.
He yawned and nodded his head.
"Definitely." He chuckled.
Then the guy came back out.
"Ok Mr. Quinn, we don't have a Kia Telluride, we've looked all over..." the guy told us.
"Are you kidding me? I have the confirmation and I paid for it already." I told him. Daniel put his hand on my shoulder. My hormones were still a little out of whack.
"Ma'am I understand. These closest thing we have to a Telluride is a Sorento. And because of this mix up, we can throw in insurance and an I-Pass for free." The guy told me.
I looked at Daniel. At this point, I didn't care, I just wanted to get out of here.
"Yes, that'll work." Daniel told him.
"Ok, let's just get this in the system." The guy said.
"You got this?" I asked Daniel.
"Yea. Where are you going to go?" He asked me.
"I'm going to go check on Maxx and Gracie." I told him.
He nodded his head and gave me a quick kiss before I went out.
I walked around and then found Maxx sitting in a chair, with Gracie in his arms. I smiled at them and went over.
"Hey." I smiled.
Maxx looked up.
"Hey, she started to cry, but I didn't want to bother you guys cause I know you both are stressed, so I just sat here and started to hold her. She calmed down pretty quick." Maxx explained.
"She likes you." I smiled.
He chuckled and nodded his head. He was so gentle and sweet with her.
"Did you guys figure everything out?" He asked.
"Sort of, they didn't have the car, so they gave us another one, plus they threw in some things for free." I said.
"Well, at least we finally got one. Are we heading out now?" He said.
Then as soon as he said that, I heard Daniel's whistle. We always use this whistle whenever we are out, or even just daily instead of yelling out each other's names.
I looked over and he motioned for us to come over.
Maxx out Gracie in the stroller and I pushed the stroller back. We finally got the car and headed to the hotel.
Once we got there, we got the room. It was an apartment style room, sort of. It had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a living room. With a small kitchenette with just a mini fridge and microwave.
"Ok, so... are we going to go to Mom and Ma's house right now?" Maxx asked.
I had Gracie in my arms.
"Well, I was thinking that we should all shower, get the plane and airport off of us. And then head over." I explained.
We all got showered, and ready. Daniel and I were in our room, both getting dressed.
I was in my suitcase, trying to find an outfit, but the problem was, I didn't like anything that I packed.
"Why the hell would I pack this?" I whispered to myself, looking through the clothes.
I grabbed a pair of jeans and put them on, and of course they wouldn't button, and they just barely went pass my thighs. I have no clue why the hell I would even pack my pre- pregnancy clothes at just barely 2 weeks postpartum. Daniel came out of the bathroom, came behind me, and wrapped his arms around me.
"What's wrong?" He whispered.
"Nothing fits me..." I groaned.
He picked up my chin so I would look at both of us in the mirror. I looked at my body and touched the loose skin and body fat that I gained during my pregnancy. Everything got bigger. My thighs, my butt, obviously my stomach, my face got swollen, especially towards the end, and then my chest, which I wasn't super shocked about that because of the breastfeeding.
I looked back up at Daniel through the mirror and his eyes locked with mine and I couldn't help but start crying. Daniel turned me around and wrapped his arms around me as he kissed the top of my head.
"It's ok.. it's ok..." he whispered.
"No, it's not ok... my body looks disgusting..." I cried.
"Hey, no it's doesn't... you look beautiful and you always will, it doesn't matter if you're a size 0 or a size 18. You're my wife and you'll always be beautiful to me." He whispered and picked up my chin.
He looked me in the eyes and wiped the tears off my face. He turned me around again and we both looked at each other in the mirror. He was behind me and touched my body, he has his hands going up and down the sides of my body, my hips, and thighs, and then he made his way over to my stomach.
"You're so beautiful... and do you also want to know what's beautiful?" He asked me. I looked and him and didn't say anything, because all I wanted to do was cry.
He pointed through the mirror at our daughter laying on our bed, sleeping in a dock-a-tot we brought from home.
"The fact that your body was able to make and keep our daughter safe as she grew. And your body continues to nurture and nourish her to help her keep growing now. I would say that's pretty beautiful too. And I know you hate all this change and you might be upset right now... but soon, you'll realize that all this struggle right now, will be worth it. Just like how the pregnancy was worth it to have her here now... All this struggle with postpartum will be all worth it when she's a toddler, running around, giggling and laughing, playing. I promise... you are so beautiful and I wish that you didn't have to struggle with all of this, and I will forever be grateful for all the things that you have given or gone through to help our family. I know I'll never understand exactly what you're going through, but, just know that I'll be with you every step of the way." he told me.
I looked up at him through the mirror and cried at how sweet he was. He always knew what to say and what to do to make me feel better. He left from behind me and carefully grabbed our daughter and held her in front of me.
Gracie squirmed a bit and then opened her eyes. When she did, she looked at us and smiled.
I smiled at her and wiped my tears.
"Hi sweetheart..." I whispered to her.
I got her some Daniel and held her close to me.
All of a sudden, we heard some knocking on our bedroom door.
"Just a second!" I called out, knowing it was Maxx.
We finished getting dressed and finally opened the door.
"Hey, are you going to leave soon?" Maxx asked.
Daniel and I looked at the time and then at each other.
"Let's go surprise them..." I nervously said.
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻