Motherhood 2
When they got home, Beth got out of the car, holding her little girls in her arms, and then headed up the driveway to the door into the house while her father got her stuff.
She went upstairs to the room Quinn had prepared for a nursery for the two girls. Quinn had said that when the girls were older, they would get their own rooms, but for now, they were going to share one as a nursery.
Beth loved it. Quinn was in there, putting the finishing touches, which was basically just putting away the gifts they'd gotten and folding their tiny newborn clothes. The room was baby blue and light pink. Also, the curtains were yellow.
Luckily, Quinn and Puck had finished painting the nursery two weeks ago, so you could actually breathe properly in it. Quinn and Puck had refused to let Beth help put the nursery together. They had told her that this was a present to her. And Beth's belly had been too big to do much work, anyways.
"Finished," Quinn said triumphantly as she put the last article of clothing into the dresser. Beth sat down in the rocking chair, rocking back and forth slowly as she swayed her daughters to sleep.
"Mom, I'm nervous," she said, as she rocked backwards.
"How come?" Quinn asked, sitting down in a chair she had dragged into the room.
"I mean, I'm a mother now, I'm responsible for my little girls, but I don't even know what I'm doing!"
"Sweetie, no new mother knows what she's doing. But your father and I will be here to help you out. When in doubt, let your instincts kick in." "What if I don't have any instincts?"
"Trust me, Bethie, every mother has instincts. And besides, it's not like you don't have any practice. Remember those couple of times that you babysat for Brandon?" "Yeah, but that was different, he's five, mom. Five year olds are a lot less work then newborns."
"Bethie, you'll do fine, I promise. When dealing with young babies that can't talk or communicate yet, the one thing that you have to do is learn the different cries."
"What?"
"Well, usually, babies have different cries for different needs. Like hunger, boredom, things like that. But don't worry about restlessness or boredom yet. Usually babies don't start getting upset about these until the sixth or seventh month. Just focus on the main needs right now. I'm going to go downstairs and bake some cookies to celebrate the birth of your children. We're having the whole gang over for dinner. Do you have any cookie requests?" "Chocolate chip. And don't let Dad lick the spoon, I want to do it!"
"Okay," Quinn said, smiling at the memory of Beth Puckerman at age five, saying the same thing, only she didn't have her twin daughters in her arms at that age.
Beth sat there, rocking her little girls and talking to them in a soft voice, until Quinn called, telling Beth she could lick the spoon now.
Beth got out of the rocking chair and walked downstairs, still holding Abby and Melanie in her arms. Quinn was at the counter, mixing the dough in a bowl.
She looked up at her daughter.
"Oh, sweetie!" she said. "You don't have to carry your babies around with you all the time, they really don't mind being in their bassinets or cribs, just staring at the ceiling."
"Oh." Beth headed upstairs. She tucked her daughters into their bassinets, making sure they were nice and comfy, before she headed back downstairs.
She licked the spoon, and then Quinn put the cookies into the oven.
"So, mom, can you explain the new baby monitor while the cookies bake?" Beth asked Quinn.
"Well, Beth, it's actually very simple. I bought it in a package. There were two speakers. You put one of the speakers in the baby's room, and then the other speaker goes in the room which you want to hear the baby from, which I put in your room. When the baby's upset, and starts to cry, you'll hear it, and then you'll be alerted that your baby needs something." "But mom, I'm a heavy sleeper. How will I wake up? I don't even wake up to fire alarms!"
"Sweetie, like I told you before, when you become a mother, you develop instincts. Even if your child whispered a little 'mom' in your ear, you'd wake up." "Oh." Just then, the timer on the oven went off. Just as Quinn stood up, put on her oven mitts, and opened the oven door, Beth heard a cry from upstairs.
"I have to go," Beth said, getting up from the table and running upstairs.
It was Melanie that was crying. Beth lifted up her shirt, ready to feed Melanie, even though she had absolutely no idea how to breastfeed yet, since when they were still in the hospital, the staff fed Abagail and Melanie formula.
When she picked Melanie up, Melanie turned her head the other way. She wasn't hungry. Beth lowered her shirt, and then thought.
Wait. She put Melanie on the changing table, and then got all the things she'd need to change her. She pulled off Melanie's dirty diaper in the trash, and then wiped her off and put baby powder on her. She got out a clean diaper, and then put it on Melanie. She put her daughter's clothes on again, and then put her daughter back in her bassinet. She headed downstairs, only to be lured back up by Abby, who was crying for a clean diaper too.
She could already tell that mothering was hard work.