A/N: My goal is to post weekly (this chapter took longer because I went on vacation). All reviews are very much appreciated!
As Jack reached for a second helping of mashed potatoes, Eddie winced again, twisting in her chair. The others looked up, watching her closely, and when the pain passed, she waved them off.
"It's just Braxton-Hicks," she said, and Linda shook her head.
"Something tells me those aren't Braxton-Hicks, honey. Jamie, you should be timing these."
Just a few minutes later, Eddie looked down, squeezing her eyes shut. Jamie checked his watch, and then offered her his hand, letting her squeeze it as she breathed through the contraction. The whole table stopped eating, looking at her in concerned silence.
"Please, just eat your dinner," Eddie told them once it had passed. "I feel like a sideshow. Plus, the talking is a good distraction."
"Seven minutes," Jamie said, checking his watch again.
"Keep eating as much as you can," Linda smirked. "You're going to need some strength tonight."
The Reagans were an impatient bunch, pacing in the waiting room while Eddie got set up and settled in. When Jamie came out to fetch them, they all filed into the hospital room she was assigned, trying to find spots in chairs, against the wall, and on the windowsill. They chatted off and on, stopping in awkward silence every time a contraction came around.
Eventually, as progression seemed to come at a snail's pace, Eddie gave in and opted for the epidural. She began to doze off, exhausted from the past few hours, and the Reagans began to check their watches, looking at how late it was and thinking of early morning wake up calls.
"I think we're just going to try and get some sleep," Jamie explained in a hushed voice, seeing Eddie struggle to stay awake to talk with everyone. "It's going to be a while. You should all go home—I'll call if anything changes."
"I'm on starting at nine," Linda told them. "I'll come check on you as much as I can."
"Morning," Linda greeted, handing Jamie a cup of coffee as she walked into the hospital room. "How was the night?"
Jamie shrugged. "Not bad. They kept her pretty drugged up, so we got some sleep."
"Except for them coming in here every hour to poke and prod me," Eddie grumbled.
"Any news on how things are moving?"
"Slow."
Jamie shrugged. "The contractions are constant, but her water still hasn't broken, so they're gonna come in and break it soon. Then we'll see."
"I've been fielding texts all day from everyone from the last name Reagan, because they apparently don't want to bother you but are fine with bothering me," Linda told them. "It's three o'clock. Still nothing?"
Jamie shook his head. "They said they'll start her on Pitocin soon if nothing changes. It's just a lot of waiting."
Linda nodded. "Eddie, make sure they keep that epidural on. Pitocin is no joke."
"Oh, don't worry."
"Did you two eat something?"
"A snack," Eddie answered. "I'm starving. These ice chips aren't cutting it."
"Okay, I'll head down to the cafeteria and bring you guys back something."
When evening rolled around, the Reagans began to arrive as the doctor told Eddie and Jamie—finally—that it was almost time to meet their baby. None could believe that they had worked full days and still had to wait, but the excitement in the room was palpable.
"I know this doesn't seem like a good thing now," Erin told Eddie on her way out of the room, "but when she's a teenager, you'll be able to hold this over her head all the time. 'I was in labor with you for over twenty-four hours…'"
Linda was the last to leave, and Eddie turned to her suddenly, calling her name. "I know we didn't talk about this, but… could you stay?"
"Of course." She took Eddie's other side, giving Jamie a thumbs-up.
"You can do it, Eddie," Jamie coached. "You're almost there." He brushed some hair, wet with perspiration, out of her face with his free hand. "You're doing great."
"Give me one more good one," the doctor urged, and Eddie leaned forward, squeezing Jamie's hand with all of her might.
Suddenly, a sharp cry filled the room, and the doctor smiled, holding up a squalling pink infant.
"It's a girl!" she announced.
Eddie fell back against the pillows, panting, and Jamie leaned forward to kiss her forehead, tears in his eyes.
"You did it, babe. You're amazing."
Linda slipped out quietly as the doctor placed the baby on Eddie's chest, and she brought her hands up to cradle her.
"Oh my god," Eddie whispered. "Hi there, little one."
Jamie rubbed the crown of the baby's head with his thumb, leaning down to take a good look at her.
"Hi, baby," was all he could say through his overjoyed tears.
The Reagans took up almost an entire waiting room, and all jumped up from their seats when Linda walked in.
"It's a healthy baby girl," she told them. "Mom and baby were doing fine. They're all getting to know each other in there, and I'm sure they'll come get us when they're ready."
About an hour after Linda, Jamie walked into the Reagan waiting room, meeting eight excited faces.
"It's a girl!" he announced. "Seven pounds, eleven ounces, born at 7:35 pm."
Jamie made his way around the room, hugging each member of his family, taking their congratulations with a bright smile affixed to his face.
"Does she have a name?" Danny asked.
He nodded. "Katherine Rose Reagan."
"How's Eddie?" Frank asked.
"She's good. You can all come in and see them, if," he looked at Danny and Erin,"you promise to stay calm."
Eddie sat in the bed, dwarfed in one of Jamie's Harvard sweatshirts, the baby in her lap.
Frank, of course, had first claim to the baby, lifting her gently from Eddie's arms into his own.
"She is just beautiful, you two."
Katherine made her way around, from Frank to Henry to Danny to Linda to Erin to Nicki to Jack to Sean, each cooing at her and declaring that she was the prettiest baby in the world.
"Got some of these," Frank said when the baby made her way back to her mother, showing Jamie a handful of cigars.
The men headed outside to smoke their cigars, the women opting to stay in the room and drink a bottle of sparkling grape juice Erin had brought in, Katherine sleeping in her clear plastic crib.
"Hey, I've been thinking." Eddie said as she and Jamie, alone again, sat in the hospital bed, the baby in her lap.
"Yeah?"
"You know how we were gonna call her Katie? I don't think she looks like a Katie."
"No?"
"No. I think she just looks like a Katherine."
Jamie and Eddie were sent home late the next afternoon to a fridge full of food stocked by the family, but to a home without doctors and nurses to take care of Eddie and Katherine around the clock. They were officially on their own with a newborn, officially parents.
The first night, Eddie fell asleep quickly, then woke up soon after just as quickly, sitting up to look at the bassinet on the other side of the bed.
"She's still breathing," Jamie reassured. "I haven't been able to stop watching her yet."
"Newborn fog" was a great term for the first week at home with the baby—the days began to blur together, two hour stretches of sleeping blending in with seemingly endless nursing, countless diaper changes, and the baby's near-constant crying.
She cried all of the time. They knew that it was because it was her only way to communicate, but it seemed so incessant that it echoed in their ears even in the silence. It was like trying to figure out a secret code—was she hungry? In need of a diaper change? Too hot or too cold? They moved her, rocked her, held her. Eddie felt like Katherine was continually attached to her breast, leaving her especially at the baby's beck and call, unable to do anything but sit on the couch or bed and nurse.
When Eddie nursed during the day, Jamie felt like he needed to be doing something productive, like washing dishes or doing laundry. At night, he felt like he needed to lay there and talk to her, keeping her company in the dark.
Jamie insisted that they put the bassinet on his side of the bed so that when Katherine woke up to eat during the night, he would be forced to wake up to hand her over to Eddie so that Eddie wasn't the only one awake—at least until he went back to work.
When Katherine's cries started, quiet and mewling, Jamie—already a light sleeper—lifted her gently out of the bassinet and put her in the middle of the bed. Eddie would roll over and coax the baby to her breast, staying mostly asleep as Katherine ate. The first few times, Jamie was still mesmerized by his baby daughter, watching and stroking some part of her. But eventually, sleep deprivation caught up to him, and he would lay there, almost asleep, until Eddie told him to put Katherine back.
Jamie slept on the couch, Katherine on his chest, His hand covered almost her entire back, and she was sound asleep, sighing contentedly. Eddie couldn't believe how full her heart felt—like it might burst completely out of her chest. She snapped several pictures with her phone.
Eddie looked at herself in the mirror—greasy hair pulled up into a bun, prominent dark circles underneath her eyes, old t-shirt stained with breast milk and spit-up—and couldn't help but laugh.
"I might pass out onto my plate if we have to go to Sunday Dinner," Jamie called from the bedroom, and she breathed a huge sigh of relief at not having to be the one to say it.
The breast pump was a magical invention, Eddie decided—she had never been so grateful for Erin's advice on anything. Even if Jamie took over just one feeding a day, that was an extra hour or two of sleep at least. If he took one during the day, and she took one at night without waking him up, they could each get a four hour stretch of sleep and feel a little bit more like real humans. Maybe if she got four hours of sleep, she would have the energy to deal with the growing laundry pile (she silently thanked God for the large amounts of baby clothes and blankets they had been given, though they had wondered before Katherine's arrival what they would do with all of it), or to actually enjoy a meal, or to at the very least get rid of the pounding headache always at her temples.
Jamie was grateful for the one feeding he got each day, her warm little body snuggled in the crook of his elbow, her blue eyes looking up at him.
"Hey, sweet girl," he whispered. "I am so glad that God picked me to be your daddy. I love you so much."
Eddie fought with herself every time someone asked to come over. They always said they would watch the baby while she and Jamie slept or showered, or they would help around the house, but she would be a terrible hostess if she let them do that—and at the very least, she didn't want to have anyone over while she looked like such a mess.
As this was the fourth baby Reagan (and as every other adult had at least once been where they were), the family knew exactly what distance to keep. As much as they may have wanted to, they didn't swarm the house, and they made sure that they were as helpful as they could be.
One night, Eddie watched Linda easily put dinner together while holding Katherine, and she laid her head down on the table.
"Please tell me that I will reach your expert level of mom someday."
"You changing diapers, kid?" Danny asked, a warning in his voice.
"Of course," Jamie answered. "Eddie has to feed her, so I try to change her most of the time."
"Ooh, good boy," Linda praised.
On another evening, Frank scolded them. "I remember how to take care of a baby. With a bottle in the fridge, we're good for several hours. Go take a nap, you two."
Henry, holding the baby on the couch, offered her his finger, grinning when Katherine held on to it.
"That's a good Reagan grip she's got."
The night before Jamie went back to work, Erin offered her laundry folding services.
"Does it get easier?" Eddie asked her.
Erin smiled. "Eventually."
A/N: Just a heads up—if you're enjoying this for the fluff and the cuteness… this is about where it ends. It's about to get very real.