A/N - Ask and you shall receive. Right, Angela? Lol. This is for your pestering ass, haha! I was going to call it daddy/baby time but thought I'd go for something a little more...significant. I can only hope this lives up to your expectations after all this waiting. Just to clue in everybody else, this is a request based on the quote below, about baby number 3 only starting to sleep during the night. Enjoy...
"This one (Vaughn) just started sleeping at night so….."
(Heavy Muscle Radio Interview. Jan 3rd, 2011)
The faint murmuring and babbling Paul was certain he had heard grew louder as he slowly opened his eyes. He lay still, glancing down at his wife currently pressed against his side, her arm strewn across his abdomen and steady even breaths filling the silent room. That is, until the babbling started to turn into tiny whimpers.
"Ba ba ba….brrrrrr..brrrrrra ba ba."
Silence…and then a loud wail. Stephanie flinched in her sleep and Paul cautiously and gently tried to wiggle his way from under her embrace before the all too familiar crying of their daughter woke them both up. With one final tug, he removed himself from under her and involuntarily shivered as the cool air of the room made contact with his skin. The whimpering continued and he rubbed at his eyes, knowing that he was going to be up for a while. Vaughn was 6 months old and still not sleeping. Needless to say, the little one was driving her parents up the wall. They never had this problem with either of their other two daughters. He finally understood what everybody meant when they told him how lucky he was to have kids who slept through the night. He thought all those people had just been exaggerating. Now he knew. His big hand wiped at his eyes once again as he absently tugged on a stray tank and followed the sound to his daughter's bedroom. They had only just moved her in there last week in the hope that she would sleep better without distractions. They had hoped in vain. Just as he stepped through the door, the wailing turned into proper crying and Paul cringed.
"There, there, sweetheart," he hushed gently as he quickly reached into the cot and lifted her tiny frame into his arms. "Shhhh, daddy's here." His lips absently pressed against her soft hair as he bounced her up and down, praying that she would fall back to sleep quickly. It didn't happen and the crying continued, forcing him to pull her back and hold her up, his hands underneath her arms. All of a sudden the crying stopped and her big watery eyes stared him right in the face. Father and daughter looked at each other for a few moments until the quiet of the room was interrupted by the sound of giggling.
"What the…" Paul could only chuckle himself at the cheeky little grin that had crossed her face while she laughed. Only his child would wake him up crying in the middle of the night only to start laughing when he came to get her. "I see what you're up to, little missy. You think this is funny, huh? Waking your dad up at God knows what time only to laugh at me? I'm hurt."
Vaughn stared at him as if she were actually listening to what he was saying before patting his face with one hand and gurgling against the other with her tiny fist stuffed into her mouth as she gnawed and chewed.
He knew what that meant. "I should have known this would be about food." Stephanie had tried feeding her earlier at her usual feeding time. They both had but little Vaughn was having none of it. More had ended up on the floor than in her mouth. Maybe this time she would actually eat the damn stuff since it was apparently the reason she had woken up in the first place. "Come on, let's get you fed."
Around five minutes later and after checking her diaper to make sure that she was indeed hungry, Paul carried both baby and bottle into the living room. He had already set her bowl of strawberry shortcake mush on the coffee table along with a fresh batch of baby wipes. He'd try her with the bottle first and if she decided not to go for it then he had a backup prepared and ready to go. Usually they only gave out deserts as treats but it was after three thirty in the morning. He wasn't above using trick tactics to get this little one to sleep. Besides, for the past two weeks she had been refusing to take most of her bottles anyways. So long as they mixed the formula into the baby food, she could eat that and she seemed to prefer it. Whatever worked.
The leather of the sofa let out a puff of air as he fell against it and propped her up against the arm rest. She was fully awake now and looking all around her. "There's nothing to see down here. Not at this time of night." Paul quickly flicked on the TV, turning it to the twenty four hour news channel. It didn't matter, it was just for background noise anyways. Taking the bottle into his hand, he brought it to her mouth and let out a chuckle when she pushed it away and practically frowned at him.
"Guess not."
This time he took the bowl and incredibly tiny spoon into his large, fumbling hands. As soon as it was presented to her, Vaughn opened her mouth and took a big mouthful of the pinky mush with a gleeful smile on her face.
"I take it you definitely don't like bottles anymore, huh kiddo?"
"Yaaaaaa! Braaaa ba ba ba brrrrrrrrrrr."
He could only look on in dismay as she practically knocked the next spoonful intended for her mouth all over his hand.
"Ba ba ba mmmmmmmmm."
"Yes, mmmmmmm," he mimicked, successfully getting some of the food into her. "Come on, open up again….mmmmmmmm, that's good isn't it?" Deciding to find out for himself, Paul licked some of the splattered mess from his hand and instantly screwed his face up. "Yuck! How the hell do you eat this crap?" His head shook in disgust as he spooned another mouthful in, catching the bits that fell down her chin and shoving them in too for good measure. "Mmmmmmmm look at you eating it all up. Aren't you being a good girl for daddy? Yes you are. Yes you….." A large drop of pink mush slowly dripped down his cheek as the sound of riotous giggling drowned out whatever the newsman was talking about. He had clearly spoken too soon.
"Braaaaa ba ba braaaaaaaaaaa," Vaughn yelled in glee, thumping her fists against her legs.
Paul could only shake his head as he lifted a baby wipe and wiped his face before wiping hers too. They were both covered in the stuff and it didn't even taste good, not to him at least. "You had better not get any of this on mommy's sofa or she will kill me. Is that your plan? To get your daddy killed? Evil baby!" It took a moment for him to realize what he had just said before he burst into laughter. It was too damn early in the morning for this stuff. With a shake of his head, he continued the stop start feeding routine until the entire bowl was gone. Vaughn let out what sounded like a satisfied whimper before wiping her dirty hands all over her face. Once again, Paul set the bowl down and reached for the wipes. Hands, mouths and faces were soon gleaming and he tried to see if she was ready for sleeping by taking her against his chest and gently bouncing her up and down.
It worked for thirty seconds until she started squirming all over the place. Her little hand connected with his face as she patted and banged against it. He simply propped some cushions together and lay back against them with her little frame sitting on his stomach. "What are we gonna do with you? Not sleeping, not eating your dinner then getting it all over everything, beating me up?" She continued to lightly thump against his chest and he reached up, his index fingers fitting perfectly into her tiny fists as he started to play around. Maybe he would wear her out.
Over thirty minutes later and he was struggling to keep his eyes open. Luckily for him, he wasn't the only one. Vaughn's hand fisted into his hair as she snuggled into his chest. Paul blindly reached for the afghan he knew was hanging off the back of the sofa and tugged it around them both. He wasn't going anywhere. With his hand on his little girl's back and the other practically dangling on the floor, he finally let his eyes slip shut and welcomed the long awaited sleep that descended upon them both.
Stephanie's face lazily morphed into a frown when she ran her hand along the bed and discovered that her husband wasn't beside her. She had been expecting to feel him under her touch, not the cool cotton sheets. Letting out a yawn, she kicked off the covers and sat up, her head looking to the adjoined master bathroom but no lights were on in there. Where the hell was he? If Paul didn't have to be awake, he wouldn't be that much was for sure. That could only mean one thing. With a sympathetic smile, she climbed out of the bed, pulling on her robe as she made her way to her youngest daughter's room only to find it empty. She stalled for a moment until the faintest of noises drifted through the open door and into her ears. It was coming from downstairs so that's where she went next. The noise grew louder until she came upon the living room, the lights of the TV casting a bluish glow on the two sleeping figures lying on the sofa a few feet away. This time her smile was nothing but pure affection. She walked closer and knelt down in front of them, her hand absently reaching up to fix the afghan that had fallen wayward during the night. She wondered just how long they had been down here for. From the looks of the bottle, empty bowl, used wipes and various toys lying all over the coffee table, quite a while. Unfortunately it was time for at least one of them to get up.
"Paul."
He didn't even budge at her calling his name.
"Paul," she tried again, this time giving his shoulder a gentle nudge. "Honey, wake up."
She watched his face and cringed as his bleary, bloodshot eyes slowly started to open. It took him a moment to realize she was there and when he did, a small smile played on his lips.
"Hey."
"Somebody's had a long night."
"Tell me about it," he mumbled in response as he lifted his hand to rub at his tired eyes. Fuck, he was exhausted.
Stephanie caressed his face before letting her gaze trail to their still sleeping daughter dead to the world on his chest. "Why didn't you wake me up? We could have taken turns."
"There was no point in us both being up all night. It's fine."
"All night?" She immediately felt guilty and looked at him with concern as he continued to rub at his eyes and forehead. "You OK, baby?"
Paul dropped his hands and smiled at his wife. He felt like a zombie but she didn't need to hear that. He'd catch up on sleep later. "Yeah. I just need to throw some water on my face is all. Where are the girls? They up yet?"
"They will be soon. I woke up when I realized you weren't in bed beside me."
"Missed your human pillow, huh?"
"You know it." Her smile was soft as she got to her feet when he started to shift from his position. His movements were slow and deliberate so as not to wake their sleeping daughter as she passed from father to mother. Stephanie pressed an absent kiss to her soft golden locks and looked down at the sofa in amusement at the sight of her husband still lying there as if he were actually dead. She didn't blame him for a second either, even if he was acting like a drama queen. "Look at your daddy. I think you killed him, sweetie." The deadpan dirty look she got in response was enough to let her know that she probably wasn't far from the truth.
Paul let out a groan as he slowly sat up, took a moment to stretch, stood up and then stretched some more, his grey tank riding up his tanned abdomen. He couldn't stop the yawn that escaped him either and simply spoke through it. "Next time I'll be sure to wake you up too so we can both sit up until all hours of the morning."
Immediately feeling bad, Stephanie closed the short distance between them and ran her free hand along his chest. "How about you wake me up so we can stay up late for a different reason entirely later tonight?"
He let out a brief chuckle and shook his head at her before looking her in the eyes, his own even managing a slight twinkle despite the tiredness behind them. "Trying to ply me with sex I see."
"I absolutely, positively am trying to ply you with sex."
"Well I have it on good authority that sex is the sure fire way to man's heart, especially sex with you. I mean, how else could we create such wonderful non-sleeping babies together?" He wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her close, careful not to squash their sleeping child now nestled between their joined bodies.
Her face crunched up into a cute frown. "I thought food was the sure fire way to a man's heart?"
"Whoever said that was a liar!"
"Or whoever said it just wasn't a horny bastard like you!" she whispered the second half of her sentence. Even though Vaughn was sleeping, it was still important to her not to swear in front of any of the children. She couldn't, however, hold back her laughter as he nuzzled her neck and mumbled how much she loved that little fact into her ear. And she did love it. She wouldn't have him any other way.
His head slowly pulled out of her neck and he stood upright again, running a hand along his daughter's tiny back and taking comfort in the steady rise and fall as she slept. He had no idea what the hell time it was but he was sure Aurora and Murphy would be up pretty soon and they all had to get ready for work and school. Since he was up so early, he figured a nice long shower would do nicely to kill the extra time. Giving his wife a lengthy peck on the lips, he grinned at her amused expression and started making for the stairs after kissing his daughter too. "Batter up, baby. I'll just be in the shower while you do…whatever it is you're gonna do now."
Not missing a beat, Stephanie turned and walked towards him. "Maybe I was planning on getting in that shower with you?"
"That would be fun. Me, you and the baby here. You know when I imagine us having a threesome this isn't exactly the wa…"
"Just stop right there!" she said, holding her hand up in his face and giving him a prompt shove towards the stairs. "I do not want to hear the end of that sentence." His laughter followed him up the stairs and she simply shook her head, glancing down at her sleeping child and pressing another gentle kiss to her head as she rubbed her back. "Your daddy is a pig!"
Having finally stepped into the hot stream of water some five minutes later, Paul let out a long, deep sigh. His eyes were almost burning with exhaustion but it was the price of fatherhood and no matter how tired he was, he wouldn't change that for the world. He had plenty of time to sleep. Spending the night feeding, comforting and then falling asleep with his baby daughter in his arms, well, that was time well spent.