Danny had called Sandra's parents, Rafe and Evelyn and his parents as well as their friends from their Pearl Harbor days to tell them about the birth of his daughter.

Neighbors and colleagues from Wheeler came by continuously after Sandra had come home from the hospital to bring food, help with the baby and keep house while Danny went to work. Sandra was touched by their thoughtfulness, but it got to be a little like living in a gold fish bowl.

Her mother put a stop to that.

Margaret O'Connell came out to Pearl within days of being told about her new granddaughter and she politely but very firmly told the well meaning crowds after her arrival that she was taking over. She also requested that anyone who wanted to come visit wait for a couple of weeks while her daughter got her strength back because it seemed all Sandra wanted to do was sleep.

Having a baby wasn't what she thought it would be. She'd been trained as a nurse so clinically she knew what was supposed to happen, but when she found herself in the position of actually having a baby, it was harder than she thought it would be and wondered if she could do it again. But as hard as it was, it was worth everything she'd gone through to have her own daughter in her arms. The baby that she and Danny had created together was a picture of her father, though he insisted that she looked like her mother.

When Danny asked his mother in law what she thought, she told them that it didn't matter what she thought. She was just grateful that her daughter and granddaughter had come through the experience in good health. Sandra smiled because she knew her mother had no intention of getting involved in deciding whom the baby looked like.

To have her mother there was something that Sandra was grateful for. It was such an odd thing to realize that it wasn't just her and Danny anymore and her mother helped make the transition from newlywed to new parent a smoother one.

"You worry too much honey." Her mother told her one evening as she watched her daughter give her own daughter a bath. "You know exactly what you're doing and Danny is catching on. And I think it's time that I leave you and your husband alone with your new baby."

Sandra was in a panic. "You can't leave yet Mom. I need you to help me figure all of this out."

Margaret put an arm around Sandra's shoulders. "I'll be a phone call away Sandra. Besides, I've been here for nearly two weeks and I know that there are others who are champing at the bit to see that baby of yours. It's time I go home so I can tell Dad how beautiful his granddaughter is."

"You can call him from here. I know that you talk to him every night to tell him how we're doing and I don't think he'd mind if you stayed another week, at least."

She laughed softly. "Sandra, you know as well as I do that if I don't leave now you'll never fully get used to this. You and Danny need to get to know your daughter and learn what it is that she needs from you. As long as I'm here, you'll be asking me what to do and what you need to do is listen to her."

Sandra took the baby out of the water and wrapped her in a towel and walked with her into the bedroom. "I'm being silly, I know. I just can't help but think that when Ev had her kids, she had all of us to help. Red is here and has made us promise that he can baby sit, but it's not quite the same."

"It sounds to me like someone is feeling a little sorry for herself." Her mother commented.

She smiled at her mother. "Someone is and she doesn't like it."

"It's quite understandable." Margaret told her. "You and Danny made the decision to put off any question of marriage until the war was over. Evelyn and Rafe didn't have that luxury, as you may recall."

Sandra smiled. "And that was their decision. It was hard watching her sometimes because she was so lonely for Rafe. I think having Danny and Sarah all the time he was gone made her even more lonely for him."

"And it was something that neither you nor Danny wanted because you saw what being alone with children was like. You did the right thing."

"And look how we were rewarded, with this little angel." She felt her face flush as she put Ann down on the changing table. As her mother had shown her, she took the diaper from the pile next to the baby and folded it into a triangle. She slipped it under her daughter's small bottom and brought the three corners together before she pinned them.

"Danny does that almost as well as you do." Margaret commented from behind Sandra. "It's time for me to go home honey. Between the two of you, Ann is being fed, changed, burped and rocked. It's going to take some time for the three of you to get used to each other and as I've already said, it will be easier without me here."

"I know. I can't tell you what it's meant to me to have you here because I couldn't have done this without you." And she put Ann down in her bassinet that rested next to her side of the bed.

"Yes you could have Sandra and you know it. It's your turn with the baby tonight?"

Sandra nodded. "I keep telling him that it's my job as Ann's mother to look after at night so he can sleep. But he insists on taking turns so that we can both sleep."

"He's a very considerate young man because not a lot of husband's would do that for their wives. Times sure are changing."

"That's just the way he is and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"You wouldn't have married him otherwise." Margaret told her.

"No, I wouldn't have." She said as she took one last look at her baby and wound up a small music box that had belonged to Danny's mother. Sarah McCawley had sent it to Hawaii after Danny had called them and told him the baby should have something of his mothers. She set it down on her nightstand and it played a soft tune. "She's really ours."

"It takes a while to get used to it, but once you do you wonder what you ever did without her in your life."

She smiled at her mother before she turned out the bedroom light. Margaret walked ahead of her down the hall and after watching her own daughter sleep for another moment, Sandra followed behind.