Chapter 20: Family
Brittany and Aiden both got out of hospital relatively quickly so we barely had any time to adjust to being parents before we were thrown into the deep end and at home alone with a new-born baby. I mean we've both been around babies before but it's nothing compared to having your own child. Even though we had spent a few nights in hospital looking after Aiden, it was still really daunting the first night we were at home with him. There were no doctors or nurses around to help anymore, it was just Brittany and I.
Aiden will officially be one week old tomorrow and to say these past six days have went fast would be a major understatement. They have been the quickest days of my life and parents really don't lie when they tell you you get no time to yourself. I knew raising a baby would be hard and it would take a lot of work but I really didn't expect it to be like this. I thought I would have least fifteen minutes to shower or grab something to eat but really there is no time whatsoever. Any spare minute we have we're trying to catch up on sleep. I read in one of the many books we have that whenever the baby sleeps we sleep so that's what we've been doing.
"Hey" Brittany smiles as she walks into the room with Aiden in her arms.
"Hi" I smile back.
"I need to shower and change now so can you watch Aiden for me?" she asks.
"Of course babe" I say while taking Aiden from her arms.
"I won't be long" she smiles.
"It's fine, take your time. Aiden and I are going to play downstairs anyway" I reply. "Isn't that right darling?" I smile at him but he doesn't really respond, he just looks at me like I'm crazy.
"Anyway, I'm leaving" Brittany laughs while heading to the en suite to shower. Aiden and I meanwhile make our way downstairs.
It's about half an hour later when I'm making Aiden watch reruns of Friends with me when Brittany walks into the living room.
"So how do I look" she asks.
"As sexy as hell" I smile.
"Be serious please. I am meeting one of my professors today to go over a plan for how I'll work things at home so I want to look like I can handle being a parent and a student at the same time" Brittany replies.
"You look perfectly fine honey, honestly" I smile.
"Ok" Brittany nods. "I don't want it to come across that I just threw any old thing on because I was too busy to get ready properly."
"Britt don't overthink things. I am sure you're professor will have kids or at least know what it's like so I wouldn't worry about it" I say trying to reassure her.
"We can handle this…can't we?" Brittany says unsurely.
"Of course we can" I tell her. "I'm going to be here helping with Aiden for the next few weeks so ideally that'll give you a head start on your coursework and when I am back at work then I can look after Aiden all weekend while you catch up."
"We've been so busy with Aiden since we brought him home from the hospital that I don't know where I'm meant to fit in the time to study even with you here" Brittany sighs.
"Honey we're just getting used to things but they'll settle down soon" I say. I'm not entirely sure they will but I can't have Brittany getting worked up about her education. She really doesn't want to defer to next year since she's only got this semester left to do before she graduates so I'm really trying to make sure things go to plan.
"Ok" Brittany nods while taking a deep breath. "I suppose I should be going then."
"Yeah you should, you don't want to be late" I tease.
"I'll see you in a while then and you too Aiden" she says while leaning down to kiss Aiden on the head.
"Um…excuse me" I smirk.
"What?" Brittany asks confused.
"Where's mine?"
"Right…sorry" she laughs before quickly kissing me.
"I'll see you later" I tell her.
"Bye" Brittany replies before leaving the room. No sooner does she leave it that she's back.
"Can we help you?" I smile.
"Are you honestly sure you're going to be ok with Aiden all by yourself while I go out?" Brittany asks.
"Are you kidding, of course I'm going to be ok" I smile. "You know he loves spending time with his mom."
"I know but this will be the first proper time you're going to be alone with him. I'm not just going to quickly run an errand, I'm going to be some time because my professor wants to go through absolutely everything with me" she tells me.
"Take all the time you need babe, trust me we'll be ok" I reassure her.
"But…"
"Honey if you don't leave right now, I will personally push you out the door" I tease.
"Ok-ok, no need to get physical" she smiles.
"Honestly we're going to be fine so please just go" I say.
"I will, I'll text you when I'm leaving so you'll know when I'll roughly be home" Brittany says.
"Ok babe, see you later" I smile. She smiles back before finally leaving this time. "Just you and me Aid, are you excited?" He just looks at me like he did before but I don't expect him to smile or anything yet so I'm ok with it.
Brittany's POV
I've just pulled into the parking lot of the university and I'm contemplating on calling Santana to see how things are. It's not that I don't trust her or anything, I'm just worried because none of us have spent that long on our own with Aiden before. I mean I know I'd be nervous if Santana was to leave the house for more than a few hours and I had to take care of everything myself. Sure I need to do it at some point but I've still got a good few weeks left before Santana will go back to work.
Just as I pull my phone out to call Santana, I notice I already have a text from her.
From Santana: everything is fine babe, you don't need to call x
I can't help but laugh as I type out a reply.
To Santana: how did you know I was going to call? X
From Santana: because I know you babe
To Santana: so everything really is ok then?
From Santana: it's absolutely fine so forget about us right now and go in there and show that professor you're more than capable of getting all your work done at home as well as parenting our son.
To Santana: ok x
From Santana: we both love you and we'll see you later x
To Santana: I love you both too. I'll go now but give Aiden a kiss from me
From Santana: I will x
As soon as we finish texting, I go straight inside to meet with my professor. I haven't been here since before Christmas but surprisingly it feels like just yesterday that I was still pregnant sitting in a boring lecture desperate to get home to Santana.
"Brittany, it's good to see you. In you come" Professor Burke says while holding the door of his office open for me.
"Thanks" I smile politely.
"So before we get started, I just want to quickly check with you about how long you'll be off for" he says and I nod. "I've got it written down here that it was 6 weeks, is that correct?"
"Yeah, ideally I want to do the first 6 weeks at home and then hopefully come back for the rest to end the semester" I say.
"Ok good, we're on the same page here" he nods. "There is one slight problem about that though. Since one of your modules are continually assessed then that means you're going to be getting a few exams throughout the weeks. I wouldn't say every three weeks but it works out about that since your first exam is in week three."
"Oh right" I nod.
"We don't really have the resources for you to sit an important exam at home so what I would suggest is that just for that day in week three then perhaps you could get someone to babysit and you can just come in and sit the exam with everyone else. You don't need to go to any classes or anything, all you would need to do is come into the university for the exam" he says.
"I mean I could certainly do that and hopefully by the time we have the next exam then I might already be back to attending classes etc." I say.
"Ok good, that's sorted then. You'll get your daily emails anyway about all the lectures and tutorials so I will let you know the exact date and time that we'll be doing that" he replies.
"Ok thank you" I nod.
"Your other modules have the main exam at the end and you'll have weekly coursework to do for them so are you still ok for just working on that at home and handing in the finished pieces by the due date?" my professor asks.
"Yeah that's fine" I nod. "Is there any way that maybe every so often I could come in and speak to you to make sure I'm understanding the material ok?"
"Of course, my door is always open. I know you want to be at home as much as possible for the first few weeks but anything you don't understand then just come and see me or even email me about it" Professor Burke replies.
XXX
As soon as I park my car outside the house, I rush inside to see Santana and Aiden. I haven't seen them since this morning and I really miss them.
"Hey, I'm home" I shout as I kick off my shoes. Santana rushes out of the living room looking worse for wear and barely dressed might I add.
"Honey you have to keep it down, Aiden has just went to sleep" she sighs.
"Sorry" I whisper.
"So how did your meeting go, did you get everything sorted out with your professor?" Santana asks.
"Yeah it's all sorted thankfully" I smile.
"Good, that'll be a relief for you" she says.
"Yeah" I nod. "Um…I hope you don't mind me asking but what's going on?"
"What do you mean?" she frowns in confusion.
"You know I like your breasts, like love them" I say perhaps too eagerly, "but why are you standing shirtless right now?"
"Oh right" she laughs. "I just finished feeding Aiden when suddenly he threw up on me so I just had to get that shirt off because it was really gross. I never even had a chance to put another one on because he kept crying and I couldn't get him to settle. I've only just got him to sleep now."
"Ok well I'll keep an eye on him just now if you want to go and tidy yourself up a bit and put a shirt on" I say.
"Thanks babe" she says while quickly kissing my cheek and leaving the room.
I just sit quietly in the living room while I wait on Santana coming back. I really want to pick Aiden up and hug him but I don't think it'd be nice of me to wake him plus I don't think Santana would take too kindly to that either since it sounds like she had a hard time getting him to sleep in the first place.
"Is that you all tidied up then?" I ask as Santana throws herself to the couch next to me.
"Yeah" she says letting a huge sigh of relief out.
"Hard day was it?" I ask.
"It wasn't too bad" she shrugs.
"Be honest with me babe" I tell her.
"Ok yes it was hard today. I mean I knew it would be by myself but I didn't think it'd be quite like that. He really does demand my attention a lot" Santana sighs.
"Maybe I should just defer to next year and finish uni then" I say.
"No we're not doing that" Santana shakes her head. "I am not making you do that because you've worked so hard and it's only one semester left."
"I know but if we can't cope then it's the best option" I say.
"Brittany I have my career so I'm not making you wait another year and a half to have yours. We're just going to have to power through these next six months" she tells me.
"But how can I study as well as look after Aiden. You found it really tough today and you weren't even studying so how am I meant to do that?" I ask.
"I'll just need to start working weekends and take a few weekdays off or I'll start working from home one day a week and hopefully you can study that day and I'll look after Aiden" Santana suggests.
"You working from home and looking after Aiden is the same as me studying and looking after Aiden" I point out.
"Look let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'm still off work for the next few weeks so I'll take care of Aiden and you can just study" she replies.
"It's not as easy as that. I'm still breastfeeding Aiden so I'm going to be interrupted every so often to feed him. Plus I feel incredibly bad for not being there for him all the time" I say.
"You are there for him though. I'm not saying you stay away from him; I'm saying you can take a few hours out and just study and I will be here for all the feedings and changing his diaper. You just need to make sure you make up some bottles for me. I mean you've got a breast pump so just use that and when you're done studying for the day then you can do the rest of the feedings or whatever" Santana says.
"That's all good in theory Santana but what about money as well. Maternity leave doesn't pay nearly as much as normal pay so are we going to manage in that respect" I say.
"Brittany this is only for 6 months until you graduate and then you'll get a full time job and I'll be back at work normally" Santana replies. "I mean I'm not saying I'm off for six months but I'm certainly off the next few weeks to help."
"You seem so positive about this" I sigh.
"Look we'll make it work. It won't be easy and we might not get to spend much time together but like I say, you'll be graduating in 6 months so we're going to be ok" Santana reassures me.
"Ok" I nod.
"The most important thing to remember here is that we're finally a family. We've got a beautiful son and we're both really happy together. If it ever gets tough then we just need to remember that and it'll help us through it" Santana says.
"You're right" I nod. "It might be stressful but the important thing is we're a family just like we always wanted to be."
"Exactly" Santana smiles while leaning over to kiss me.
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Monday 3rd February 2020
"Hey" Santana whispers in my ear as she wraps her arms around my waist from behind.
"Hi" I smile, quickly glancing at her before turning my head back around.
"I just got Aiden off to sleep so I thought we could spend some time together since we barely got a minute on your birthday the other day. We could watch a movie or something just now and just relax" Santana suggests.
"I can't babe, I'm busy" I say regrettably.
"Oh come on, it's just dishes. We can wash them later" she says while spinning me around to face her.
"It's not that" I reply. "Once I was done here I was going to get started on an assignment. I figured with you keeping an eye on Aiden then that would give me time to sit down properly and get to work on it."
"Ok that's cool" Santana nods sadly.
"I am sorry babe but this is the perfect opportunity to do some studying" I say.
"I know and I understand" she smiles. "Hey how about I help you?"
"You don't need to do that" I say.
"I know but Aiden is asleep anyway and it'll give us time to spend together" she smiles. "I don't know a lot about your course but I can always research things for you and format your assignment if you just write the bulk of it."
"Like I say you don't need to do that but I won't say no to some help if you really want to" I smile.
"That's settled then" she smiles back. "I'll grab my laptop and start researching the topic you've to write about."
"Ok" I say while quickly kissing her cheek before she leaves.
XXX
Santana and I have been working on my assignment for 3 hours now and I think I may have the first draft done. Even though Santana had to go and check on Aiden a lot throughout I still think we got a really good start on it.
"So do you want to continue with it or do you want to take a break and you can look over it again tomorrow?" Santana asks.
"It's a good enough first draft just now so I'll leave it until tomorrow to make changes. I've got the majority of it done, I just want to tidy it up and maybe tweak a few things tomorrow once I've took a break" I reply.
"Cool" Santana smiles. "So is there anything else you want to start on?"
"There is an online quiz I need to take for another class so if you're still ok keeping an eye on Aiden then I can do that now. It's timed so we're only allowed 50 minutes on it" I say.
"Don't you want my help?" she asks.
"I should be ok doing it myself because I can use all the notes and books I have" I reply.
"But it's timed though so you want to make sure you have enough time to look and type in the answers to all the questions" Santana says.
"Honestly I think I'll be ok" I smile.
"Look at least just let me sit next to you and I can find the right chapter in the book for you for the next question. When you're typing up the first answer I'll just get the book ready for you for the next question" Santana shrugs.
"Ok" I smile. I know Santana really likes it when she helps me so it's best not to argue even though I feel bad for making her do this with me.
"Hey do you remember I used to come over to your house and help you with your school assignments when we were younger?" she asks.
"I do" I smile at the memory. "Or I'd be sitting at work on my break doing homework and you'd come and keep me company even though you had more exciting things to do that day."
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Tuesday 4th February 2020
It's 6am and I'm lying awake in bed waiting on Aiden wakening up. He got into a routine really quickly so he often wakes up at 6am so my body has been kind of programmed into waking up at that time every day. Don't get me wrong, he wakes up many times throughout the night as well but the 6am wake up seems to be the only one my body seems to remember so sometimes I'm awake before Aiden.
"Someone has awoken early" I smirk when I feel Santana roll over and press against me.
"That's what happens when I dream about my beautiful wife" Santana replies while pressing a kiss to my cheek.
"Don't you want to get some more sleep?" I ask. Usually I like to get up with Aiden at 6am and let Santana sleep because she always seems to be up with him at 4am.
"Not really, I'd rather have you than sleep" she smirks while leaning in to kiss me again.
"You know that can't happen right now" I say regrettably.
"I know you want to wait until you're 6 week check-up before we have sex but it doesn't mean we can't do anything" she smiles.
"I know but I just thought you would be tired right now" I smile back.
"So did I but apparently I'm not" she smiles while gesturing down to her crotch.
"I could always take care of that for you" I smirk.
"I was hoping you would say that" Santana smirks back while leaning into me and kissing me. I slowly kiss her back and move so I'm straddling her hips. I gently slide my hand down past the waistband of her pyjamas. "Uh…" she says as I wrap my hand around her extremely hard member.
"Wow you weren't lying when you said you were hard this morning" I point out, slightly surprised.
"I did tell you that I was dreaming about you" she replies.
"I thought you just meant in general, I didn't realise it was like a sexy dream" I smile.
"Well it was, like really sexy" she smiles.
"Ok" I nod and then lean down again to kiss her before beginning to move my hand. I barely move it an inch when Aiden suddenly screams.
"Damn" Santana groans.
"I should go and check on him" I say while getting off of Santana and out of bed. "Sorry babe."
"It's fine" she sighs.
"Why don't you take care of that in the shower and I'll feed Aiden" I tell her.
"I wanted you to do it" she playfully whines.
"Just think of me when you're doing it baby" I smile.
"Don't worry I will" she smiles back before getting out of bed.
I know the chapter is short but I wanted to get something out since it's been so long since I updated this. I already have a few ideas for the next chapter so ideally I'll update again soon and it'll be a little less boring.