Francisco walks through the front door with Elena and Caroline's hospital bag in tow. After a weekend in the hospital, they are finally home, where they can use the last hours left of the day to care for their daughter before Francisco returns to the plant on Monday.
"I cannot believe that I have to go back to work tomorrow," complains Francisco, as he sets Elena down on the dining room table.
He looks over at the calendar hanging in the kitchen. He's glad that Elena was born on a Friday so that he could spend the weekend with her, but it was spent entirely at the hospital.
Caroline wraps her arms around his shoulders and rests her chin on his head, "Why don't you ask for a few days? I could really use your help with her."
Francisco smiles to hide that he's sort of afraid of how he would be as a parent. He knows that he isn't going to be alone in all this, he has Caroline, his mom, and brother to help him, but that doesn't make him feel better. The two of them are in charge of a little life that's entirely dependent on them, and every decision matters.
"I just started, I can't ask for days now."
"When do you plan on using your days off? You have them for a reason, don't let them go to waste," she reminds him.
"I will," he sighs, "but for now, we need the money, and if I take days off, they'll only pay me for forty hours, not the extra hours that I normally pick up."
Caroline frowns. She understands that money is an issue, especially now that Elena is here, but he talks as though they're going to end up on the streets if he takes a few days off. She knows that he gives his mom some money for bills and their living expenses, but over the last couple of months, they've been able to save some money so that he can take some time away from work.
Francisco notices the look on her face, "I promise, after Christmas, I'll ask for some time off."
"Are you going to do something special?" she asks with a knowing smile.
"Maybe," he says as he looks at his newborn daughter, "but that's my secret."
Caroline takes a seat next to him, "Can you at least think about it? I know that we'd both love it if you could stay."
"I'll try."
Francisco opens the front door, "Welcome home, little man," he tells his son as Lynn walks in with him in her arms.
For nearly a month, Victor has been in the hospital under the watchful eyes of medical staff, who would help the new parents with any problems that came up. Now, they're on their own with their newborn – no machines to beep if he forgets to breathe, no extra pair of hands who deal with babies every day, nothing, they're all on their own.
Alone.
Lynn stops walking and thinks about how she's going to handle her son now that he's home. She looks over at Francisco, who gives her a reassuring smile.
'He's done this before, of course he isn't worried, but what do I know about raising kids? Sure, I can take them to the park, play with them, and teach them about sports, but that's not going to happen for a long time. Not to mention, I actually have to be a good role model.'
Francisco notices that Lynn has been staring at him for a long time. He waves his hand in front of her face, "Lynn, are you okay?"
She looks over at him, "Umm…" she starts, unsure of how to tell him her worries, "yeah, I think so."
As Francisco walks towards the kitchen, he reminds her, "You know, this is probably one of the easiest times we'll have with him."
Lynn follows after him, "What do you mean? He's gonna cry a lot, and he won't know when he's supposed to sleep."
"Yeah, but we're going to be home while he gets used to it," he starts as he pulls out a pop from the fridge, "and there's only a handful of things he needs done - lay him on his back to sleep, bathe him, clothe him, feed him, and change his diaper. He can't crawl or walk away, and if he needs anything, he'll cry, so we'll know."
Francisco knows that he's sort of downplaying how it'll be with a newborn in the house, but he can see the look in Lynn's eyes and she needs a little reassurance that she can handle their own child.
Despite hearing that, it doesn't calm Lynn's nerves. She knows what goes into child care, she's seen it a million times with her own younger siblings, but it's different with her own son. His stint in the NICU already proved how fragile he was coming into the world, and every time that she looks down at him, sleeping in her arms, she is reminded of how much he needs the two of them.
'I can do this. It's just five things! I can do five things. Who can't do five things? Hell, Victor can do five things. Wait, he can't bathe himself or clothe himself or change his own diaper, that's what I do. All he does is eat, sleep, and crap in his diaper. Okay, there's probably a better way to say that. Wait, he's going to cry a lot, so that makes four things, at least until he gets older….'
Somehow that doesn't fill Lynn with confidence.
She knows that she has her parents and Lucy to turn to, and even her other siblings to answer her questions, but she can't do that every time she needs help - they have to stand on their own two feet.
Francisco notices that Lynn has been staring at their son for a long time. He calls out to her, "Lynn, are you okay?"
She looks up, "What?"
"Are you okay?" he repeats.
"Yeah, just trying to remember what it was like when my parents brought my sisters home."
She was too young to remember Lincoln coming home, but by the time the twins came home, she could see what her parents were doing and see what it takes to care for babies. Of course, when there are seven kids to keep track of, there are their own challenges, but if her parents could handle it without a problem, then one baby should be no problem for her and Francisco.
"We got it," he assures her. He takes Victor into his arms and takes him to his room.
As the two walk to the bedroom, Lynn focuses her eyes on the little boy in Francisco's arms. She doesn't hear a thing, doesn't see anything other than the two, despite being close to bumping into furniture.
When they get to the nursery, Francisco sets Victor down in his crib. Lynn can hear him talking to their son, describing the room, like he has everything else since they've left the hospital.
"...and the rocking chair your uncle brought from Mexico, a little elephant blanket for when it's winter. Trust me, if you're anything like your mom, you aren't going to want to get out of it either," he chuckles. "But for now, you can sleep with a thinner blanket."
Lynn walks over towards the crib and notices Victor closing his eyes. She smiles as she pulls the blanket over his body. Francisco turns off the lights and Lynn takes the baby monitor as they leave the room.
The couple walks back to the living room. As they sit down to relax, he notices Lynn staring at the baby monitor, as if expecting something to happen.
The siblings look out the window, waiting to see Vanzilla pull up to the driveway. Ever since yesterday, the children would take turns looking outside to see if their parents come home with their new siblings.
"Do you think that Mom and Dad are coming today?" asks Lynn.
Lucy stands on her tiptoes as she looks out the window. She mutters something, but Lynn can't hear what her sister said, "Wait, whatdya say?"
"...I…"
That's all Lynn can hear as Lucy repeats herself.
"Forget it," complains Lynn, as she turns her attention back to the driveway.
Albert, who is bringing a tray of sandwiches for the kids, notices his two granddaughters looking out the window, "Girls, c'mon, it's time for lunch."
Lucy turns around and walks towards her grandfather, but Lynn doesn't move from her spot.
Albert calls out to her again, but she doesn't move. He walks over to her, and places his hand on her shoulder, "C'mon Lynn, it's time for lunch. You can't spend the day looking out the window, you've got to eat."
He looks down and notices the bowl of cereal from breakfast, surprisingly left untouched.
While Albert cleans up the untouched bowl, Lynn goes back to looking outside, ignoring everything except the cars passing by the street in front of the house.
Lynn is picked up by her grandfather, "Let's go, trust me, you'll hear your parents when they get here."
"But I wanna see them," she says as she tries to squirm out her grandfather's grasp.
Her stomach growls and Albert laughs, "See, you're hungry. Now let's get you something to eat."
"But I'm not hungry!"
"Yes, you are. Trust me, kiddo, a few minutes away from the window will be good for you," he tells his granddaughter as he sets her down in her chair.
Albert calls out to the other children, who stampede into the dining room for lunch. All of them take a seat and begin to eat their meal, but Lynn can't help but glance out at the window. As her siblings chat amongst themselves, she turns her head anytime she hears a car pass by the house, ignoring the sandwich in front of her.
"Lynn, sit down," Albert tells his granddaughter, who got up and is walking towards the window again. When Lynn doesn't listen, Albert sighs, he gets up from his seat and leads her back to the table. "What's got you so worried?" he asks.
Lynn shrugs her shoulders. She doesn't know why she can't stop thinking about her parents and the new baby, all she knows is that it won't stop.
"You're too young to be worrying the way you are. How about this? I answer any question you've got and we'll see if we can make those feelings go away."
Lynn takes a seat and begins to quietly eat her sandwich while staring out at the wall behind him. For a second, Albert thinks that she's forgetting all about the things that were running through her head, but when the sound of a car speeding past the car grabs her attention, he sighs.
'So close," he thinks to himself.
Albert calls out to his granddaughter, "Kiddos, do any of you have any questions?"
"How come Mom and Dad aren't home?"
"Well, giving birth is hard, and your mom is tired, so she's staying at the hospital to rest."
Leni raises her hand.
Albert assumes that Leni is pretending that she's in school, so he calls on her.
"Couldn't Mom rest here? She's got her bed and blanket and we could all help."
The siblings agree with their sister, and as much as they mean well, Albert knows that his daughter could not rest with seven young children running around.
"Well, that's not the only thing, sometimes doctors want to keep moms and babies at the hospital in case something goes wrong."
"Wait…so something could go wrong?" asks Lynn.
Albert regrets bringing that up. He doesn't want to scare the kids, but he knows that Rita mentioned to him the doctor warned her about some complications, especially with her getting older and having multiples.
He notices his grandchildren looking at him with worry, "Nothing's going to go wrong," he assures them. "Trust me, kids, your mom is going to be fine. I promise."
"What about our baby sisters?"
"I'm sure she's going to be okay too."
"You promise."
With a smile, he looks at all of them, "I promise."
As the sun sets, Lynn continues to stare out the window. A whole day of playing, gone, but it doesn't matter to her. She doesn't understand why she's so fixated on looking out the window for her parents and new sister. Everyone else seems to be happily going about their day, and she's stuck thinking about what's going on at the hospital. Even with everything Pop-Pop said, she can't stop.
Lynn spots Vanzilla approaching, "They're here!" she yells, so that her siblings can hear, "They're home!"
The siblings run to the front door, all of them anticipating their parents and their new baby sisters. Lynn Sr. and Rita open the door. All the siblings look over as their mom walks in with one baby and their dad with another.
One thing that Francisco can appreciate about having some time off from work, is how slowly he can get his day started. No worrying about traffic, or whatever leftovers he's going to heat up for breakfast or trying to rush his morning routine - just a slow tranquility.
Of course, it's a little dull after about four days.
During his little leave away from the restaurant, he's done any little task that he can squeeze in during his son's naps, but at some point, he knows that he's going to run out of things to do. Usually, he could count on Dutch breaking down or something breaking around the house, mostly due to Lynn's negligence, but with her attention entirely on Victor, there hasn't been a single issue.
That sort of has Francisco worried.
He understands that first time parenthood can be scary, and he'd be a liar if he says that he wasn't scared years ago when Elena first came home, but he can't recall being as scared as Lynn seems.
Then again, it's been nearly sixteen years; looking back at anything that far away doesn't seem so bad.
He decides not to dwell on it, sure that Lynn will go back to normal before he knows it.
Francisco pours himself a cup of coffee and heads to the backyard for some fresh air. As much as he craves something to do, he should enjoy the little moments of silence before he has to head to work.
He takes a seat on the lawn chair and lays back, closing his eyes as he listens to the sounds of birds chirping, cars passing by the house, and a strange echoing he can't quite figure out.
"What is that?" he asks himself.
Francisco gets up from his seat and notices Jackson sitting in the grass with some bowls in front of him, "Good morning, neighbor. How are you doing today?"
"Not bad," says Francisco, "What are you doing?"
"A little meditation to start my day."
"What's with the bowls?"
"I received them a few years ago. They were a gift from some of my monk friends in Tibet since I wasn't able to join them."
"Why not?"
"My family and I were moving, and it was a shame too, they were the coolest kids in town."
Francisco nods his head, "I bet," he says, unsure if that's the right way to respond.
"Did you want to join me?"
"No," starts Francisco as he leans back into his chair. "I think I'm good right now."
Jackson looks over at his neighbor, "All good since you and Lynn brought home your little bundle of joy?"
"Yeah. You know, I was sort of nervous. I haven't brought home a newborn in years, but it doesn't feel the same. Then again, a lot of changes were going on when Elena was born. Between dropping out of school, starting a new job, being very dependent on my mom to keep a roof over our heads, it was a lot more stressful than it is now."
"I bet it also helps to have some experience too, right?"
"Yeah," nods Francisco. "Though I think Lynn is a little nervous."
"Has she mentioned something to you?"
"No, but what parent doesn't have first-time jitters?" asks Francisco. "I mean, the only experience with kids she has is helping with siblings, niece and nephews, and I think she babysat as a teenager."
"Well I'm sure she'll relax in the coming days. She needs some time to build up her confidence."
Francisco nods his head, "Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too. Before I know it, she'll have a good grasp on this parenting thing."
Caroline looks down at her sleeping daughter. She's sort of jealous of the girl, happily sleeping the day away without a care in the world, all while worries plague her mind. She pulls out her phone and looks at the first photo that she took of her newborn daughter, and the 'seen' message displayed on her phone. She knows that her mom saw the photo, but she isn't sure what to make of it. Days have passed since then, and while she was hoping that the photo could have been used as some sort of rapport, it appears that it was for naught.
'Maybe she saw it to get rid of that little notification…'
It's been going through her mind for months, ever since she told her family about the pregnancy. She knows that they're disappointed that she had to quit school and that she moved in with Francisco and his family, but she didn't have a choice. Francisco's family opened their home to the young couple and their soon-to-be child, while her family didn't want him around. However, that doesn't mean that she doesn't miss her family.
While Alicia and Chuy have done their best to make things comfortable, it doesn't change that she misses her parents and her sister.
'What's wrong with me? They don't want anything to do with my daughter or her father.'
It would probably be easier if she wasn't attached to them, or if she could understand Alicia better, but it isn't her fault, for most of the day she feels so alone. Before, she had plenty of people to surround herself with or find new people to befriend and spend time with, but that has all come to a stop. She can't go out on a whim; she has to plan around her daughter.
She has Alicia's help, but she can't ask her every time she wants to get out of the house for no reason. As for her own mom, that's not even an option until she decides she wants to talk.
It definitely isn't how she imagined motherhood was going to be like as a child.
All those years ago, it was easy to picture it like playing with a doll. Then she learned about some of the difficulties after her sister was born and after a few videos in health class, but even that wasn't the worst of it. No, that would be choosing between her own family and what she firmly believed was best for her daughter. She couldn't keep Elena away from Francisco, but she also hates that her parents don't want to be involved in her life.
The door opens and Francisco crashes on the bed, exhausted after a long day at work. His back aches in pain, and he wonders how much longer he can do this sort of work; it's physically exhausting and wreaking havoc on his body. It would be so much easier if his job didn't force him to push himself every day, but there aren't many options that pay well with few skills. Hopefully if he proves himself to be a good employee, that his superiors will see his value and offer him a more lax position.
Caroline takes a seat next to him. She places her hand on his shoulder, "Another long day?"
"Yup…" he says through his teeth.
She hates seeing him work himself as he does, but he refuses to let up. He told her why he does it, but despite how much his body aches, it won't stop him until he gets what he wants.
Caroline watches as Francisco pulls out his medicine bottle from his pocket. He pulls out his water bottle from his lunch bag and swallows the pills, hoping for some relief.
"Don't you think that that's a pretty good reason to slow down at work?"
He looks down at the amber bottle, then back at her, "I know, but it isn't like any other job isn't going to aggravate my back. I'm still young, I can handle myself, and hopefully by my thirties, I'll be able to relax."
"That's still years away," she reminds him.
Francisco sighs, "Well, it's realistic. With a few years of work under my belt, I can shift into a well-paying supervisor role."
"If you say so."
From the crib, the two parents hear Elena crying. Francisco rolls off the bed and gets to his feet. Each step is painful as it radiates from his back to the soles of his feet. It isn't far, but after a long day he is going to struggle to get back on his feet after resting for a short time.
Francisco picks up Elena and rocks her. Her cries stop and she looks up at her dad, "You're such an easy baby," he tells his daughter.
Caroline lets out a chuckle, "She's hardly awake when you're home, of course you think she's easy."
Francisco taps his pen against the edge of the spiral notebook. He's had a month to think about how he would write Victor's birth story and any other tales worth jotting down, but there aren't many. When he spends the entire first month of his life cooped up in a hospital room, there isn't too much to say. At the moment, it's filled with basic information such as what time he was born and how much he weighed, but he figures that it should include more.
The book has several pages to chronicle his son's first year, but with less than half a page filled in for the first month, it seems like a daunting task to fill in the rest of the pages eventually.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Loud showed him Lynn's baby book. It included what they were doing before Rita's water broke, their thoughts and feelings as they held their 'last little Loud', even that she cried whenever she was alone for too long. It felt like a lot of silly, little information, but it sounds nice to be able to look back and remember a detail that could easily be forgotten.
"Let's see," he starts. "I could mention what happened to your mom or will that make you feel bad? Well, I can't ignore it, it happened. Well, this book is more about you, so maybe I don't need to include it? No, I will. I guess I could add some photos, but aside from the ones that your grandpa took the day you were born, there aren't many."
He tries to think of what happened in the NICU. It was mostly watching, holding his hand, and patting his back. About a week ago, they were able to take him out of his incubator for a bit so that they could hold him. Victor still had tubes attached to him, but compared to the first day, he was faring much better.
"I think whenever I talked to you, you would turn your head towards me," he says as he writes down the memory on a page. He starts talking to himself as he tries to remember how that happened, "Your grandpa told me how he would talk to each baby while your grandma was pregnant, so that each of your mom's siblings would recognize his voice. That sounds pretty good," he says as he begins to write.
Francisco is startled when his phone rings. He looks at the caller ID and answers, "Hello, Mr. Loud."
"Francisco, how are you doing?"
"Not bad," he sighs, "trying to figure out what to write in Victor's baby book."
Hearing that has him excited, "What have you got so far?"
He doesn't want to say that he hasn't written much, especially since he's had Victor home for almost a week, but he isn't sure what information is worth writing.
"Well, I got his birthday…and his height, and weight, that thing you told me about talking to him in the womb."
"That's it?"
"I'm getting there," he chuckles. "We only brought him home a few days ago, it's going to take some time to add to it."
"Have you guys read him any books? I remember when Lana was around that age, she would smile whenever I would read Good Night, Gorilla."
Francisco lightly sighs so that his father-in-law doesn't hear him, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."
"I'm glad I could help, and speaking of help," he starts, "I know that I said that you and LJ could take some time off now that Victor is home, but…" he struggles for a second before asking, "would you be able to come in on Monday to help with some of the paperwork? I'm starting to get a bit overwhelmed with everything and could really use your help."
Francisco thinks about it. After he was offered the time off, he jumped on the opportunity to get away from work for a bit, especially with Lynn struggling to get back to full strength and the two of them adjusting to Victor being home. However, he is growing bored at the idea of having nothing to do.
"Sure, I can go in Monday."
"Really? That's great! And I promise to make it up to you. It's only going to be a few hours, but I really need help catching up with my paperwork."
Francisco chuckles, "That's fine, I understand. I'll see you Monday."
"See you Monday."
He hangs up the phone, then looks back down at the baby book, "Dang it, what am I gonna add to you?"
Francisco begins to scribble some notes down on the notepad, when Lynn walks towards him with Victor in tow.
She takes a seat next to him and looks over at where Francisco is writing, "Why aren't you writing in the baby book?"
"I didn't want to mess it up with scratch marks and if I write it in pencil, it'll fade. Don't worry, I'm gonna write it in the book, I just wanna make sure that it's good."
"Just don't be like me."
He smiles, "Don't worry, I won't forget. You can sic your dad on me if I don't get something in there by the end of the week," he jokes. "Speaking of, he asked if I could go back to work on Monday. It's only a few hours, but I think that he needs some help with the paperwork."
That does sound like her dad. He hated doing it, and while he did manage the paperwork at one point, Lynn knows that he would much rather be in the kitchen than sitting at a desk making phone calls.
"Wait," she starts, realizing something, "that means that you're going to be gone for hours?"
"Yeah, but just for a little bit. I'll be home before you know it."
"Okay…"
Francisco notices the lack of emotion in her response, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she says, hoping to convince him that she'll be fine. "I can handle it. It's just a little baby. It's no big deal."
Lynn, Lincoln, and Lucy stare at their new baby sisters. Mom and Dad told them that this could happen, two babies that are going to look alike and be difficult to tell apart. If it wasn't for the little booties and mittens that the two were wearing, the three children were sure that they were going to mix them up.
Lincoln whispers at the twins, "Lana…" He looks hoping to get a reaction from said twin, but both of them squirm at the same time. "Wait, which one is Lana?" he asks his sisters.
The two shrug their shoulders.
Lynn Sr. walks into the room, exhausted. The kids can tell by the look on his face that he hasn't slept well in days; he hasn't shaved, his eyes are mostly closed, and he is still dressed in his pajamas despite it being afternoon. This happens to Mom and Dad every time a new baby is born, at least that's what their older sisters told them.
"What are you two doing?" yawns Lynn Sr.
"Looking at the babies. How do you tell them apart?" asks Lynn.
He looks down at the twins, trying to remember what outfit Rita put on each twin, but his memory is failing him. He continues to stare at them, unaware that his eyelids are closing more and more with each blink.
Lucy calls out to him, "Dad."
He jumps, startled after she snuck up on him. He is close to screaming but doesn't want to wake the girls; at least he's awake now.
One of the twins turns towards the other, and Lynn Sr. smiles at the sight of the two girls cuddling up to one another, "I have to put that in the baby book. I also need the camera."
With renewed vigor, Lynn Sr. runs into the hallway. The siblings peek out from the door frame. They spot their dad pulling down on the cord that releases the ladder leading up to the attic. He runs up and the three look at each other before following after their dad.
It isn't often that they get to play in the attic, or even see what's up there, so they are not going to miss their chance.
Lincoln notices his dad searching through all the boxes, disappointed after opening each one, "What're you looking for?"
"The baby books I bought for the twins. I said that I was going to bring them down so that I could have them ready in case I got inspiration, but they ended up in a box up here months ago. Maybe they're with the rest of your baby books."
"Our baby books are up here?" asks Lynn.
"Of course," Lynn Sr. continues to look through the boxes, "I usually put them all together so that I won't lose them."
"So where are they?"
Lynn Sr. quietly mutters, "I lost them… but I'll find them. Do you think you kids can help me?"
Lincoln and Lynn nod their heads. Lucy pops out from a box behind them and spooks her two older siblings.
Lynn Sr., who was also scared a bit by his daughter, catches his breath and takes her out of the box, "Thank you for trying to help, but don't get in the boxes, sweetie. We don't want to lose you."
He scratches the back of his head and looks around the room. One of the boxes should have what he's looking for, but it's going to take forever even if the kids help. He looks down at them as they look through the piles of old clothes and toys, each time getting excited as they find something 'new' or something they thought they lost.
Lincoln walks between the stacks of boxes. The further he strays from the light, the more scared he gets. He's tempted to turn back, but Lynn tosses a box towards him, knocking down the stack near him and exposing more light.
A stack of books falls to the ground, Lincoln runs out of the way. When he looks over at where he once stood, he notices pictures of his sisters when they were babies, "I found them!"
The three others run towards him and spot him looking through all the books. Lynn Sr. knows that it's useless considering Lincoln and Lucy don't know how to read, but that doesn't mean that they won't notice when the pages are blank.
Lincoln hands his dad the book, "Can you read mine?"
Lynn Sr. gets nervous. He didn't write anything for his son's birth story, the Secret Service was very clear about not leaving behind paper trails of the President's visit. However, he's more worried about opening the book. When the kids see it, they'll notice the blank pages and ask so many questions that he might not be able to answer without getting flustered.
From the floor below them, the four can hear, "Lynn! Can you come down here?"
Lynn sighs. She doesn't know what she did, but it's probably something about cleaning up some toys or balls that she left somewhere.
Lynn Sr. places his hand on his daughter's shoulder, "I think your mom means me," he tells her as he struggles to get up from the hard attic floor. He groans, "I am too young to be feeling this old," he tells himself.
The kids look over at their dad as he steps out of view.
Lincoln looks around and notices something is missing, "Hey, Dad took my baby book."
"You can read it another time," reasons Lynn, as she tosses a bunch of clothes at him and their younger sister, "Snowball fight!"
Lincoln is knocked down, while Lucy gets draped in a few clothes, standing perfectly still.
"You need snow!" complains the boy.
Lynn taunts him, "That sounds like loser talk!"
Knowing that their older sister isn't going to go down without a fight, they decide to humor her and grab whatever clothes they can find in the boxes and throw it at one another.
Lynn Sr. walks back up, "Sorry, kiddos, I didn't mean to… leave you…" he stops talking upon seeing the mess that the three kids made after only being alone for a few minutes. None of the kids say anything, all three of them sure that they are going to get in trouble.
He takes a deep breath and sighs. He can't get mad, it is his fault that he left them alone up here, but definitely didn't want to add cleaning up the attic to his list of things to do after such a long day.
"C'mon kids," he says as he leads them back down to the hallway.
The sound of the alarm wakes Francisco up. He doesn't feel like going to work, especially after spending a week at home with his wife and son, but he did promise Mr. Loud that he was going to show up for a few hours to help take care of the restaurant's paperwork.
He turns over to Lynn so that he can remind her that he's going to work today, but instead sees her side of the bed empty. He can hear her snoring, but she isn't under the blankets. His eyes turn towards the source of the sound – the baby monitor.
Francisco slowly stumbles out of bed and drags his feet to his son's room, where he spots Lynn asleep on the floor.
"Lynn," he whispers, as he approaches her, "Lynn," he repeats, but she doesn't wake up.
He crouches down and hisses in pain. Lynn opens one eye and notices Francisco trying to crouch down next to her, "Why'd you have to wake me up so early?" she complains as she makes an attempt to go back to sleep.
"I'm going to work today. Remember?"
Lynn's eyes snap open and she looks at him, "What? Today? Now?"
"Yes, today. We talked about this," he reminds her, "Look, it won't be long. You can handle a couple of hours, just do what you've been doing, and you'll be fine."
She looks up at his eyes, behind the pain, she can see that he has faith in her ability to be alone with their son. She can do this. Heck, she doesn't even know where all this self-doubt has been coming from.
Lynn gets up to her feet, "Yeah, I can handle it."
"Good," he tells her, but before she is able to stray too far from him, he calls out to her, "Hey, Lynn."
"Yeah?"
"Can you help me up?" he asks in a strained tone, trying to get back in an upright position.
Lynn offers him her hand and pulls him up, "There you go." As she watches him struggle to stretch, she tells him, "You know what I'm going to say, right?"
"Yes, I'll do some stretches tomorrow."
"How about today?"
"Fine, but after work."
While Lynn makes breakfast, Francisco finishes getting ready for work. Shortly after, the two of them watch Francisco drive away, leaving Lynn to wonder about what she's going to do all day. It shouldn't be any different from the other days, she has a grasp on Victor's schedule, the only difference is that it'll be one less adult.
Suddenly doubt begins to creep up again.
"I'll be fine. Why am I freaking out? Keep an eye on him, feed him, naptime, and change his diapers - nothing to it," she reminds herself as she walks into the house.
Once inside, she looks around for something to do. She's seen her mom get housework done with babies strapped to her, but that was when they were older. She tries to think back to when her younger siblings were babies and what her parents did with newborns, but most of it is a blur of playtime and running around the house.
She looks down as Victor sleeps, "I guess there's no point in keeping you out of your crib."
Lynn takes him back to his room, but as soon as she sets him down, she begins to stare at him. He's so still, that if it wasn't for his nose moving or his chest moving up and down, she would assume that he stopped breathing.
At the hospital, it happened a few times. Each time, they were able to get him breathing again, but now whenever he is out of her sight, she thinks about the machines going off, her heart racing and thoughts of losing her son before they got to take him home.
She takes a deep breath, "It's fine," she whispers to herself. "I'm being stupid. The doctors wouldn't let him go home if he wasn't okay. I don't need to watch him, he can sleep, and I can do something."
Lynn steps out of the room, but immediately is drawn back in.
She looks over at the crib and figures that maybe there's a way to keep an eye on him without disturbing his sleep. Luckily, Lola's baby shower gift is about to come in nice and handy.
Lynn picks up Victor and places him in the bassinet, "Sorry this thing's a little creaky and it's a pain to go over bumps, but we'll figure this out," she tells him as she pushes him out towards the living room. "Can you believe I thought this gift was dumb? Well, I guess you were kinda there, so you know."
There's not much to clean up, which is great since she's not the greatest at doing so.
That's part of the great thing of having a husband that's a bit organized, he can help her out and keep her on track. Which is great, because if she finds something she thought she lost, it's going to take her down a rabbit hole she doesn't want to wander into, even with hours to do a boring cleaning task.
Hours…
That's a lot of time.
"Now how are newborns entertained?"
At the moment, Victor is sleeping, so he doesn't need much, but she still needs something to do. She looks over at the dishes left in the sink but walks away settling on doing them later. Maybe laundry? Nah, it doesn't seem necessary unless she can get a load full of clothes.
A walk around the park seems like a good idea, but she isn't sure if she wants him out of the house when he just got home a few days ago. There isn't much reason to leave him inside and she's going a bit crazy being indoors, but it's still, taking him out becomes a big hassle, especially if she leaves something behind.
"He's asleep and there's lots of time to get this place cleaned up. What do I do?"
She takes a seat on the couch and turns on the tv. With most of her time spent taking care of Victor, she hasn't had a lot of time to catch up on Tigers games or any of her other shows. Luckily, with him napping and a decently clean house, she's able to kick back and relax. Lynn notices that he is moving around a little in the bassinet. All she has to do is keep quiet and he should soothe himself back to sleep. A minute later, she is sure that he has gone back to sleep, so she grabs a new bag of chips and opens them, but the sound is just enough to wake up the newborn.
Victor begins to cry.
Lynn gets up from her seat and takes him into his arms. She tries to rock him, but it doesn't seem to soothe him. She looks inside his diaper - nothing. She tries to feed him, but he won't latch on. It's times like this that she wishes that Lisa would make a machine that translates baby talk into English. Well, there's no point dwelling on what's never going to happen
"Do you like rattling keys? I think we've got some for you," she says as she takes him to his room to look for the colorful pieces of plastic. "Where the hell did I… I mean, where the heck did I leave them? This is what happens when your dad organizes things, and I don't pay attention."
Rather than continue searching, Lynn takes each toy and presents them to her son in an effort to calm his cries. With each fail, she tosses the toy aside until she is out of things to entertain him with.
Lynn carries him out of his room and continues to rock him back and forth. She tries to think back at any sort of trick that her family has used on their own kids, but she can't concentrate with Victor crying. With Nick, she would rock him, but that clearly isn't working, and with Lucy's twins, she'd just hand them back to their parents, which is not going to work, so she's back to square one.
"Do you like puppets?"
She grabs a sock off the floor and pretends to make it talk like a puppet, but he doesn't stop fussing long enough to bother. She even makes an attempt with random household items that she can pick up with her free hand, but he keeps on crying.
She tosses the junk mail to the side, "What about a warm towel? I bet that'll calm you down," she tells him as she grabs a clean dish rag and runs it under warm water. She lightly glides it over his face, and it stops him from crying.
Lynn looks down at him, waiting to see if he's going to start crying again, but it appears that he's calming down, "What happened, Rookie? Did the chip bag freak you out? You know, one day you aren't going to be afraid of chip bags. Wait, were you just upset that I woke you up from your nap?"
She nods her head and decides that that's probably the reason.
"You probably could have gone back to sleep after I tried to rock you, but that's fine. You're stubborn like me," she chuckles. "Let's try this nap thing again."
Lynn places him in the bassinet, but as she lets go of him, he begins to whimper. Rather than suffer through another crying ordeal, she takes him back into her arms and tries to go about her day with a baby in her arms.
Which is much easier said than done.
She can't cook on the stove without the pans moving around too much, she can't clean up anything on the floor without thinking that she's going to drop him, and she can barely cheer on her own teams without a whimper. At least she has some cold cuts, but that's hardly a meal.
Lynn looks down at Victor. As much of an inconvenience as this day was, when she looks down at him, snuggling up to her, she can't help but smile.
"When the heck did I become such a softie?" she asks herself.
She's smiled at babies before, helped take care of them, and even played around with them, but when it's her own kid, it's a different story. All her fears are raised, but at the same, so are her sappy moments where she looks at him as he's the best thing that ever happened to her and Francisco.
It's like she never wants to leave his side.
For the rest of the afternoon, she mostly stays seated on the couch, watching tv and taking care of her son, completely disregarding anything else that she needed to do for herself.
Francisco opens the door and is taken by surprise, "What the…?" he asks himself as he notices how messy the house has gotten since he's been gone. Without moving from the door, he notices the clothes and toys strewn everywhere, pans in the sink, plates on the table, if he didn't know any better, he'd think a tornado passed through the house.
He walks inside and notices Lynn looking over and muttering something to Victor, "Lynn, what happened?"
She snaps from her trance and notices that Francisco is home, "Oh good, I can finally go to the bathroom," she says before handing their son to him, and bolting out of the room.
Francisco looks in the direction that she ran in and asks, "Why didn't you go before?" He looks down at Victor, "You can't walk or crawl or anything, where were you going to go?"
Lynn returns, but as soon as she walks into the kitchen and pulls out a leftover meatball sub. She takes a giant bite before asking him a question that he can't understand with her mouth full.
"I'm sorry, what?"
She swallows and asks, "I said, how was work?"
"Fine. I caught up on some paperwork that wasn't done while we've been gone," he starts.
Lynn grabs some chips and a pop from the fridge, "What else happened?" she asks into the cabinet. Before Francisco is able to answer, "What're you in the mood for dinner?"
"I don't know. I'm fine with anything."
As Lynn eats her pre-meal snack, she grabs some ingredients from the fridge to make them dinner. Francisco notices that Victor has fallen asleep in his arms, and as he takes his son towards the bassinet in the living room, he tells her, "Well, your dad hired a girl for her stage. He said that it will only be a week, but I think-"
Lynn looks up, and notices Francisco setting Victor down in his bassinet, "Why are you leaving him alone in the living room?"
"Lynn, he's asleep."
"So?"
"So what? He isn't going anywhere, and we can see and hear him from here."
Lynn doesn't care. She walks over towards the bassinet, lifts it so as to not wake Victor and sets it down next to Francisco. He notices the glare aimed in his direction, but he doesn't say anything, instead choosing to take a seat next to Victor while Lynn cooks.
It's an unfortunate thing that I won't be able to maintain the once-a-week schedule that I had for most of the last story, but I do believe that every other week will work without making the waits a month long
Thank you, everyone for your patience and see you next time