A/N: Glad to see you all enjoyed that bit of cuteness. Here comes some more!
6 ½ Weeks Old
"Today is a big day baby girl!" Henry said to Layla as he picked her up from the NICU crib that had pretty much been her home for the last six and a half weeks. "We're going home today!"
"Did you pack the diaper cover that came with this dress?" Elizabeth asked, looking through the gray diaper bag full of items that at some point would be necessary but were totally useless now.
"Yea I packed the entire outfit and the extra one you picked out." He answered, bouncing Layla as she was laying on his chest.
"Ahhh there it is!" She said a couple seconds later, pulling the white diaper cover out of the bag. "This is going to be so big on her!"
"Everything is big on her." Henry agreed as he continued to bounce the baby.
"I remember how little Stevie seemed…" Elizabeth thought out loud. "Are we really ready to do this again?"
"Ready or not, here she comes!" Henry slightly laughed.
The last six and a half weeks had been hard, they had been a type of pain neither had ever experienced before. As they tried to balance bonding with Layla in the NICU, they also tried to prepare to bring a newborn home in a few weeks.
"Are we really prepared for the late nights and the nights with no sleep and then potty training and pre-schools?" Elizabeth was rambling but it was expected with as nervous as she was.
She didn't actually verbalize her nerves to anyone but Henry knew. There was always some level of nervousness when it came to bringing your baby home but bringing a baby home after nearly a decade and a half and one that was 10 weeks premature at that was enough to make anyone's nerves go wild.
"How about we get through tonight and then we can think about potty training and preschool tomorrow." Henry gave her a smirk.
"I don't know… I think we needed to have her on a waitlist for preschool a couple months ago." Elizabeth half joked.
"I don't want to name drop but I think we could get her into Diplotots tomorrow if we wanted just by saying your name… or her name… I think either one would work." Henry matched her half joke with another half joke.
This time Elizabeth gave him the smirk. "Come on, we need to get her dressed."
Henry laid Layla back down, knowing it was the easiest way to get a baby dressed. She immediately started to squirm and whine upon being put down.
"I know, I'm sorry!" Henry apologized to the baby. "Just remember, mommy is doing this because she loves you and daddy will rescue you from this outfit as soon as we get home."
"Why do you always have to make me the bad guy?" Elizabeth asked with her attention still on the baby she was attempting to put a little white dress on.
"I'm not! Where did I make you the bad guy?" Henry asked.
"When you said you would rescue her from the outfit I was putting on her." Elizabeth told him as she adjusted the collar on the dress and attempted to put a navy blue cardigan on Layla. "Just look at how cute she looks in it!"
Henry continued to gush over his daughter while also taking in the look of love that hadn't left his wife's face since Dr. Patel confirmed Layla would be able to go home just a couple of days ago.
"Do you think we should go with the bow?" Elizabeth asked, holding the navy blue bow headband over Layla's forehead to try and judge how it would look.
"Well of course! How else would anyone know she was a girl?!" Henry responded sarcastically.
"Ha ha very funny." She shot him a look. "No bow it is."
"I thought we had decided on the white bonnet anyway." Henry said.
"We did… then I second guessed it one too many times." She answered.
"Let's go with the bonnet…" Henry reassured her.
"Yea, you're right… you know the one good thing about her deciding she was going to be born two and a half months early was how unnecessary it made a big ordeal of us leaving the hospital." Elizabeth thought aloud.
"I agree! It's almost like you aren't a head of state or something like we're just normal parents!" Henry added.
"Ha normal, I don't think I know what that word means anymore." Elizabeth said before picking up Layla and holding her against her chest.
Henry took a moment to think about what she said. Normal. It really wasn't something they had known for a very long time. Since Elizabeth had become Secretary of State, nothing had been normal and having another baby only added more chaos to the fire but they were learning to live within the flames.
His thoughts were interrupted by a subtle knock at the door. "All ready?!" Jen, the nurse they had met shortly after Layla was born, asked excitedly.
"Yep!" Elizabeth excitedly replied as she finished swaddling Layla in a white knit blanket.
Henry grabbed the car seat and brought it over to Elizabeth and Layla. It was hard to believe that they were parents to a newborn again in their late 40s but it was really setting in as they adjusted the straps in the car seat.
Once Layla was securely in the car seat, Henry picked it up and offered a smile to Elizabeth. She was trying to take it all in, every moment. She returned the smile and received the hand Henry had lovingly held out to her.
"Let's go!" Elizabeth told Jen as they walked out the door. She took one quick look back, so many sweet memories had happened in that little room and so many more were about to take place.
As they walked to the elevator, Jen reminded them that if they needed anything that they would always be there. They were part of the NICU family now and the NICU nurses hoped to get many updates on Layla.
Once they were safely in the elevator and watching the doors close, Elizabeth let out a very nervous sigh. "Oh my god. This is happening."
Henry couldn't help but laugh to himself. "It is!" He responded and offered her a smile.
She managed to get another nervous sigh out before the elevator door opened and the couple stepped out together.
"Will you check and see if she's still ok?" She asked Henry nervously as they approached the doors of the hospital.
"She's fine!" He reassured her with a smile.
They nervously approached the doors together and she managed to match his smile as the doors opened. She was happy that there wasn't any press there so they could actually enjoy taking their daughter home. Like a normal couple, they walked to the car which was parked close by and adjusted the car seat into its base.
Elizabeth sat in the back seat like she had done with all of her children. Like her older siblings, Layla would have her mother's undivided attention for the short ride home. Though the ride was only about ten minutes, Elizabeth felt like she was holding her breath the entire time. Would a bump in the road be too hard and hurt her? What if she stopped breathing? A million and one thoughts raced through Elizabeth's head before they finally pulled into the garage.
"We're home!" Henry declared happily, turning around to look at two of his favorite girls in the back seat.
"Yay!" Elizabeth tried to respond excitedly but it came off more nervously than anything. "We're really home! Aren't we?"
Henry laughed to himself again "yep! We're home!" He got out of the front seat and went over to Layla's side of the car to get her out and carry her inside.
He got the carseat out of the base and walked over to Elizabeth's side. She had just finished getting out of the car when he held out his hand. They walked into the house together, just as they had left the hospital.
Once they crossed the threshold, Elizabeth broke the awkward silence she had started. "There's not going back now, huh?"
Henry laughed again. "There was no going back a few months ago honey, welcome to reality!"
While Stevie, Aly, and Jason enjoyed entertaining and taking care of their new sibling, Elizabeth tried to make this reality feel normal. She had been preparing for this for months but there was still no way this was really happening.
Henry suggested they make dinner together in an attempt to reassure her that their new normal was very similar to their old normal, just with a newborn. They made the stuffed french toast that Stevie had suggested a couple of days ago and figured out how to eat a meal with a newborn again.
They were thankful for older children, especially at this time, because of the girls and their desire to research all the newest baby gear on the market. They had suggested some crazy contraption called a "Mamaroo" which thankfully swayed Layla and kept her asleep for most of dinner.
Though Elizabeth had been pumping way more than Layla needed, she had decided it wouldn't be her main form of feeding. She always enjoyed the bonding time she had while feeding her children and didn't want to miss out on that this time around either. When Layla started to cry just as they finished eating dinner, Aly rushed to pick her up.
"I've got her!" Aly exclaimed excitedly rushing over to pick up the baby out of the bouncer.
Aly picked her up and tried to cuddle her but Layla only cried more. Maybe it was mother's intuition, maybe it was knowing her children's cry, but she knew Layla was hungry.
As Aly continued to bounce and cuddle Layla with no relief, Elizabeth finally cut in. "Hey baby, I think she's hungry." As she finished speaking she began to sit up to take Layla from Aly.
"I'll go make her a bottle!" Aly had been preparing for the days when her little sister would be home for a while now. "Four ounces, right?"
"I think what mom means is it's her time to feed her." Henry cut in softly.
"Ok…" Aly walked over and handed Layla to her mother.
"Thank you honey!" Elizabeth told Aly as Aly passed Layla to her mother.
"No problem!" Aly said walking out of the room.
"I'm going to feed her upstairs… I guess we should probably start trying to get her into some sort of routine… Did we put the kids to bed this early when they were this little?" She was walking out of the room and up the stairs as Henry followed closely behind.
"I think we just let them sleep whenever they would!" Henry responded with a smile thinking back to all the memories they had of their oldest children and their nighttime routines.
"Good point!" She said with a smile as they turned the corner and were at the door of Layla's room. She quickly opened the door and made her way to the upholstered rocking chair in the corner.
She quickly adjusted Layla and got her to latch and begin eating. She stroked the side of her daughter's face as she ate. These were the moments she would always cherish.
"Do you want some water?" Henry asked. He remembered how thirsty she would get while feeding and pumping but the memory just brought itself to the forefront of his memory.
"Yes please!" Elizabeth answered, looking at him and giving him a smile.
As he left the room and quietly shut the door, Elizabeth turned her attention back to her daughter. She studied her facial features like she had so many times before.
"You're going to keep me up all night, aren't you?" She whispered to her.
"Here you go, babe!" Henry said, walking into the room and handing her a glass of water.
"Thank you!" She happily took the glass and took a couple of big drinks.
"To answer your question, she's going to keep us up all night." He said as he sat down on the ottoman in front of her.
"You heard that?" She asked.
"I hear everything!" He joked.
"Everything but cries at 3:00AM!" She joked right back.
"Hey! That was like 15 times…" He continued to joke with her.
She shook her head and laughed at him. "So once she's done, I'm thinking reading a book and putting her in bed for the hour or so that she'll sleep."
"Sounds great!" Henry responded. "What book were you thinking?"
"The classic!" She answered.
"Oh The Places You'll Go, again?"
"Of course!" She smiled.
Elizabeth finished feeding Layla and changed her into pajamas after realizing she still hadn't changed her out of the dress she was wearing when she came home.
Once Layla was in cozy pajamas, Elizabeth settled back into the rocking chair and Henry handed her the book off the book shelf next to him. He settled back onto the ottoman as she read the classic book to the sleeping baby girl.
When she was finished with the book, she took a moment to admire Layla's feature's again.
"You're so beautiful." Henry said softly, interrupting her thoughts.
He was met with a smile and a tear from Elizabeth.
"I love you so much." He told her, reaching out to grab her hand.
"I love you too." She matched him.
They took a moment to bask in each other's presence and enjoy this quiet moment with their youngest child.
"Let's get that ankle monitor thing on her and go watch a movie with the kids." He said.
"Ankle monitor, that's what that thing is called?" She responded half jokingly.
He wrapped the small piece of fabric around Layla's foot and put her in her bed. Elizabeth placed a loving kiss on her forehead before they turned the light off and went downstairs to join their older children.
The five of them somehow settled comfortably on the couch and watched a movie the girls had picked out. Though Jason and Henry argued hard for a WWII movie, the girls eventually won the right to watch a new romcom.
Maybe it was exhaustion from all the emotions they had felt that day but they all had managed to fall asleep where they were before the movie was over. They were all awakened by a high pitched, shrieking cry coming from the baby monitor.
"What is that?" Jason said quickly and confused as the noise woke him up from his slumber.
"I've got her." Henry quickly replied and rushed up the stairs.
The damage had been done. Everyone was already awake.
"What was that?" Jason asked again, looking for an answer this time.
"That was your little sister." Stevie answered walking upstairs to head to bed herself.
"Get used to it, you're going to be hearing a lot of it." Elizabeth told her son as she pulled him in for a hug and kissed his forehead.
The remaining family members all got up and said their goodnights before filing upstairs and into bed.
Elizabeth walked into their bedroom to find Henry sitting up on the bed with Layla in his arms.
"I think she's hungry." He said drawing his attention first to Elizabeth in the doorway and then down to Layla who was sucking on her fingers.
Elizabeth giggled. "I agree."
Elizabeth got in bed and quickly adjusted herself and her shirt so Layla could latch on and begin eating one of her many midnight snacks.
"I'm gonna go get the bassinet." Henry told her after realizing they had set it up in Layla's room but never moved it to their bedroom.
"Thank you." She told him as he leaned in for a kiss.
He quickly got the bassinet and carried it into the room. "My side or yours?"
She brought her attention to him and gave him a smirk. "Yours!"
"I'll take care of it coming out if you take care of it going in." He offered.
"Deal."