A/N: I've dealt with some writer's block lately and have gone off course of my outline. I'm going to try to get back on here, hopefully it works!
8 Weeks Old
The past week and a half had been hard. It felt like a miracle if Layla slept more than two hours at a time, Elizabeth felt like a cow constantly trying to pump and keep up with Layla's feedings, and Henry had completely forgotten how to adjust to life with a newborn.
Elizabeth had plans to slowly ease back into working by taking on a few projects and phone calls from home when she could and eventually start to attend a few meetings at her office to make it an easy transition on Elizabeth, Layla, and the nanny.
Daisy had sent multiple reminders over the last week, reminding Elizabeth of the big commitment she made before Layla was born - the Vanity Fair interview. Though Elizabeth had imagined spending the last week and a half responding to plenty of emails and making phone calls while Layla slept, the only thing she had actually managed to accomplish was approving the time the photographer and reporter were meeting at the McCord home and approving what she would be willing to talk about and wear for the article.
She had become more productive in the past three days since Karmen had started but she'd be lying if she said she didn't spend the first day unexpectedly catching up on sleep and surprisingly catching a rerun of Law & Order. She had high hopes for getting more done but the nine hours that Karmen was there to help went by too fast.
She rolled over and took a quick look at the clock, it seemed like she had been laying in bed awake for hours. Maybe Layla had slept more than two hours at a time… even an extra ten minutes would have felt like hours of sleep for her.
5:22AM. Layla had slept a little over two hours and gave Elizabeth a little bit of hope that maybe one day her daughter would sleep through the night. She closed her eyes again, debating if she should check on the baby in the bassinet next to her and risk waking her up or enjoy the maybe five more minutes of peace that she had.
For once, peace won. She closed her eyes again but the peace was incredibly short lived, interrupted by the bedroom door knob turning and opening slowly with a noise just loud enough to wake the sleeping infant next to her.
"Crap. I've got her." Henry whispered, hurrying across the room to soothe Layla's cries. He picked her up and cradled her close to his chest with a slight bounce, hoping to end her cries quickly.
Elizabeth slowly sat up in bed. Recovering from childbirth seemed to be much harder this time. Her abdomen was still sore and her body ached like she was getting over the flu. Little things like sitting up in bed in the morning, took a little bit longer than she expected it to.
Henry had managed to quickly soothe Layla as Elizabeth leaned her head back to rest on the headboard. "I just woke up and I feel like I could fall asleep standing up." She half heartedly joked.
"I know. Were they all this exhausting?" Henry asked while still bouncing Layla as she began to quiet.
"I think so?" She responded. "Maybe we just had more energy then so it didn't seem as bad."
She started to get out of bed and walked towards their bathroom as Henry sat down. The outfit that had been chosen for her to wear that day was hung up on the closet door. Elizabeth leaned against the door and slid down it to sit on the floor.
"Think they can make me look human again?" She joked.
"You? No problem! Me, impossible." Henry matched her joke.
She giggled in response. "I don't even know if those jeans will fit… I don't even know if I remember how to button pants." It was true, she hadn't worn real pants since Layla had came home and was surprised that she managed to live in the same three pairs of sweatpants.
Henry turned his attention to his wife who might possibly have already fallen asleep where she was. It didn't matter what she wore, she was always incredibly beautiful to him. Since Layla was born, she had a certain glow to her. He wasn't sure if she always had this new mom glow but he saw it shine now more than ever before.
Elizabeth standing up pulled him out of his thoughts, he watched as she walked into the bathroom and turned the shower on, letting it heat up for a few seconds while she undressed. He was surprised to realize she had taken her phone into the bathroom and more surprised when she began to play a John Mayer song.
The most music they had heard over the past two weeks was from a stuffed turtle that projected a few soft lights onto the ceiling over Layla's crib and played the same three lullabies. Something about hearing music with words that weren't intended to put a baby to sleep, made her feel fully human again.
A sleepy smile had found its way to Henry's lips and as Elizabeth got in the shower, he turned his attention back to the sleeping daughter he was holding. He was sure this moment of peace from her wouldn't last but he soaked up every second.
Elizabeth took her time getting ready and Henry took Layla downstairs so Elizabeth wouldn't hear her crying and feel she needed to hurry.
"Alright girl, you know you've got a big day today?" Henry said to Layla as he began to make a pot of coffee as quietly as possible.
He looked down like he expected a response. "Some people from some big magazine are going to come today and take your picture and talk to mom and dad about how great you are and then all these people will see your picture! But don't worry, you are so beautiful so you have nothing to worry about!" She was still sleeping soundly in his arms.
He poured a cup of coffee and sat down at the table with Layla still in his arms. Using his free arm, he opened the newspaper on the table. It might have been a newspaper from three days ago but he was lucky if he got to read part of an article out of it.
Per her usual behavior, Layla began stirring and crying by the time he was halfway finished with one article. Henry put the newspaper down and walked over to the fridge to take out a packet of breastmilk. He warmed it under warm water and poured it into a bottle. He was still surprised at how good he had gotten at multitasking with a screaming baby in one arm.
He sat back at the table and began feeding her. As he was feeding her, Elizabeth came down the stairs in a large robe.
"Hey!" He said after she caught his attention.
"Hey" She replied as she got a coffee mug out of the cabinet and poured a cup.
"Robe? Interesting choice… I picked you as more of a sweatpants kind of girl." Henry joked with a smile as she sat down across from him.
"Ha ha, very funny. I figured this made more sense than making more laundry or risking getting milk or spit up on my outfit for later." He smiled at her in response. "What time will they be here again?"
"8:00. So we've got about two hours." He told her quickly switching his attention between Elizabeth and Layla.
"That's when hair and makeup and Daisy and Matt will be here, right?" She asked for clarification even though she knew the schedule just as well as he did, she quickly forgot it with her lack of sleep.
"Yes, the guys from Vanity Fair are supposed to be here at 9:00." He answered.
"Awesome. Just enough time for her to eat, have 10 minutes of extremely upsetting tummy time, and start to take nap numero uno." She thought aloud, partially collecting her thoughts and partially letting Henry know her plan.
"As soon as she's done eating I will get tummy time started in her room." Layla was almost finished with her breakfast and obviously completely unaware of the tummy time she would soon be forced to do.
"Thanks honey." Elizabeth told him while attempting to read the same newspaper Henry had to give up on earlier.
Layla was quickly finished with the bottle and Henry took a very milk drunk Layla up to her room. While she got her tummy time supervised by Henry, Elizabeth headed up to their bedroom with the full intention of just laying down and closing her eyes for a minute or two and then putting on the clothes that it took a PR team weeks to decide on.
As soon as her head hit the pillow, she fell into a much needed deep sleep. Henry quickly got Layla down for her first nap of the day and went in to check on Elizabeth. He looked at the clock when he saw she was asleep. She had 45 minutes until the "glam squad" would be there which meant she had 40 minutes to sleep.
He showered and gathered the gray sweater and jeans he was told to wear. He was thankful there wasn't an entire team picking out what he was supposed to wear but he did hate that we wasted 10 minutes that could have been spent sleeping - on finding the gray sweater and jeans someone picked for him after looking through his closet.
By the time he was dressed, it was time to wake Elizabeth up.
"Hey honey…" He kissed her forehead. "Time to wake up."
She quickly pulled herself together and got out of bed to get dressed.
"I just want to go back to bed…" She whined while putting on a raspberry colored sweater and jeans that Daisy had picked out for her. "Ugh… I still need to pump." She realized as soon as she put the sweater on.
"Well you've got about 10 minutes until they get here, if you aren't done when they're here… I'll keep them distracted until they are." He gave her another kiss on the forehead.
"Thanks babe." She replied as he walked out the door and headed downstairs to wash their coffee cups from earlier.
She went and got her pump from Layla's room and spent the next ten minutes feeling like she was being milked. Henry texted her when Daisy and the team were here and she finished getting dressed and headed down stairs as soon as she could.
"Daisy! Hi!" She excitedly greeted her friend and colleague just before she finished walking down the stairs.
"Hi ma'am! That color looks great on you!" Daisy responded, accepting the hug Elizabeth had offered. "Everyone ready for today?"
"Ready as you can be I guess. Kids know they need to be ready by 9:00 and Layla will hopefully be asleep until about 9:30." Elizabeth responded.
"Great! Let's go ahead and get started!" Daisy said, motioning towards the chair the makeup artist was standing next to, ready to begin working their magic.
Henry continued to periodically check the baby monitor as Elizabeth had her hair and makeup perfected. He listened to Elizabeth and Daisy make small talk about work and the meeting and offered coffee or water to the crowd they were now entertaining.
Jason soon joined his parents downstairs, followed shortly after by Stevie and finally Aly just as the reporter and photographer from Vanity Fair arrived.
"Hi, Henry McCord!" Henry greeted the blonde woman with the black camera bag and older man ready to take notes on his every word.
"Hi! Mackenzie." The woman introduced herself.
"Hi! Nice to meet you sir, Keifer." The man followed suit.
"Madam Secretary, it's an honor to meet you!" The woman said, holding out her hand and turning her attention to Elizabeth who had now appeared next to Henry.
"You too, thank you for coming!" Elizabeth returned the greeting.
"Keifer Love, ma'am, very excited and honored to meet you!" The reporter followed his colleague.
"You too, Keifer!" Elizabeth responded. "I'm sure you all know Daisy!" Elizabeth turned their attention to Daisy.
They quickly greeted Daisy and Henry offered them something to drink.
"Oh I'm ok, thank you sir!" Mackenzie responded.
"I'm good too, thanks!" Keifer answered. "Want to go ahead and get started?"
"Yes yes right this way!" Elizabeth led the group, Matt and Daisy included, to the living room off of their kitchen where they could have a candid conversation.
Once everyone was sitting, Keifer began. "So, first, congratulations! We'll just have a casual conversation, talk about the baby and becoming parents again, a little bit about work and your dynamic as a couple, and then Mackenzie will take some pictures and we'll be out of your hair!"
"Yea no problem." Henry answered for the couple.
"Great! So, ma'am, what's it like being a mom again after 15 years?" Keifer asked.
"Well… I never stopped being a mom." She began with a little laugh. "But being a mom to a baby again is definitely much different than it was 15 years ago."
Somehow, like she knew people were talking about her, Layla began to cry and Henry quickly excused himself to attend to her needs.
"Just like that! The last time we had an infant in our house, we had a walkie talkie thing that worked as a baby monitor, now we've got something that looks like a sock and monitors her heartbeat." Elizabeth told the reporter.
"Oh yea! I can imagine it's a whole lot different. You weren't a presidential cabinet member last time, how has that made things different?"
"Well, people care a whole lot more about the color of my sweater now." Elizabeth joked. "But seriously it's been a whole lot different, taking calls with world leaders while changing a dirty diaper in the NICU is something I never thought I would do!"
"Speaking of the NICU, how did you manage to handle that?" He followed up.
"I've experienced some extremely emotionally challenging things in my career…" She began. She thought very strategically about how she was going to say what she wanted to say next. "And leaving the hospital without my daughter was harder than all of those. It was a little easier when I was in the hospital and able to spend almost all of my time with her but the first night home was extremely tough. I felt like I held my breath every time I was away from her. When our worst fear happened and we got a call that something major had gone wrong, it felt like an out of body experience."
Keifer had been recording their interview but took some additional notes on the secretary's body language. He really wanted to remember how she delivered the information she just disclosed.
Elizabeth took a breath, fighting back tears, and had a very appropriate distraction as Henry joined the group again with Layla in his arms.
"Hello everyone, our guest of honor!" Henry joked, sitting down with a very awake Layla in his arms. "She insisted on wearing this dress by the way, I had nothing to do with it! He continued to joke, straightening the pink and white checked dress with a bow on the front that she had on.
Mackenzie quickly snapped a picture as the rest of the group oohed and aahed at the little girl. Daisy and Matt had stopped by earlier in the week but still hadn't gotten to see her as alert as she was now. Layla was looking all around and quickly saw Aly from across the room.
"One very nice thing about having older children is they enjoy doing the little things, Aly and Stevie picked out pretty much every piece of clothing Layla has!" Elizabeth told mainly the reporter as he turned to Aly and Stevie to ask them questions about having a new sibling.
"So the name Layla, how did you decide on that?" Keifer asked the couple once he was done asking their oldest daughters questions.
"Jason actually suggested it." Henry answered, drawing everyone's attention to a less than amused Jason as Henry passed Layla to Elizabeth.
"Oh wow!" The reporter started. "Pretty cool that you got to pick out your sister's name, what inspired that?"
"Well mom and dad did ask us for suggestions, they used to play some song about a girl named Layla and it was better than what they came up with." He answered motioning to the girls across from him.
Aly matched his comment with an eyeroll of her own.
"Ha, so would that song be Layla by Eric Clapton?" Keifer followed up.
"Yep!" Henry answered.
"Very cute! So Elizabeth, how do you expect to handle motherhood with a baby and being a world leader?" Keifer turned his attention to Elizabeth who had been caught up in playing with Layla.
"Huh oh… well like all mothers, I will have to figure out how exactly to make it work. I'm thankful to have such an incredible and supportive partner in this so I know that will be extremely helpful but I think in some ways she might be easier… I don't have to worry about her sneaking out or skipping school just yet." She joked.
The rest of the interview went like most of it had, ending with about half an hour of photos of the family and what their new day to day life looked like. They thanked everyone for coming and saw their guests out.
"Great job guys, thank you so much!" Elizabeth immediately thanked her older children. "I know you didn't really sign up for all of this and I truly admire how well you all have handled how much our lives have changed over the past few months."
"No problem mom!" Stevie quickly hugged her mom.
"Yea no problem… but there will be a fee for my services." Jason told him.
"Yea your payment is a roof over your head and everything else we pay for." Henry responded light heartedly.
Aly was enjoying the time holding her little sister and added in "Oh yea no problem!" Only after an awkward silence fell in the room. "You guys realize this is the first time we've actually taken family photos together?"
The statement really surprised the couple… while so much had focused on their family over the last year, they had completely forgotten to document it.
"And this is the first time anyone will see a picture of baby Lay!" Aly added.
"Yea it is!" Elizabeth was stunned but paralized with pride that all of her children filled her with.