"Please, Natalie, don't be mad! This is the most important day of our lives!"
Natalie didn't say anything for a long moment, and then the edges of her lips began to curl up into a smile. "Well...all right, but only because of that."
Tootie came to visit Natalie and her new son the following day. "Aw, he's precious!" she exclaimed. "So did everything go OK?"
Natalie and Ralph exchanged glances. "It went fine," Natalie told her friend. "How's Tisha?"
"She's fine! Still doing well in high school. She wants to be an actress when she graduates."
Later Mrs. Garrett called from New York city. "I'm so happy for you, dear," she told Natalie. "I wish my health was such that I could come see you and your new little one, but as it is, I'll just have to be content with sending my good wishes instead."
"I'm so glad you called," Natalie replied. "I always love to hear from you. I'll have some photographs posted online soon."
Later Jo called. "Congratulations, Mommy!" she exclaimed. "So how does it feel?"
"Right now it's pretty painful. My stitches are killing me!"
"Well, that comes with the territory. I've been there twice myself. So, tell me about your new son!"
"He's adorable! He looks just like Ralph! He makes the cutest little grimaces, and he loves to suck his fist. I'm gonna put some photographs online soon."
"Can't wait to see them!"
Much later, Blair came to visit. "Congratulations, girl!" she exclaimed. "I just looked in the nursery window. He's the most beautiful baby there many times over!"
"Thanks!" Natalie replied. "So how's it going with Travis?"
"Great! The kids and I love living in California, and his girls are the best!"
"I'm glad you're all getting along so well," said Natalie.
"Yeah. We're kind of like the Brady bunch, huh?"
"You would be if you had a couple more kids!"
"Oh, no. This baby factory's permanently closed. I got my tubes tied right after Alyssa was born."
Natalie and Luke were discharged from the hospital the following day. Natalie found that caring for a newborn was much more difficult than she'd anticipated, and for the first time, she was grateful for Claudia's presence. Breastfeeding was both painful and time consuming, and since Ralph still had to work full-time at the dry cleaners, the apartment would have become dirty and cluttered and they would have had to eat cold sandwiches for dinner every night if not for her mother-in-law.
Claudia's entire demeanor toward Natalie had radically changed since Luke's birth. Having provided her with a healthy Petronski grandson seemed to have elevated the younger woman's status immeasurably in the older one's eyes. She insisted that Natalie do nothing but rest and take care of Luke, and Natalie spent many hours lying on the divan, feeding her son and watching television. Claudia cooked a hot, delicious meal for the three of them every evening, and Natalie came to enjoy being pampered and waited on.
The royal treatment ended after Natalie's six-week postpartum doctor's visit when Claudia flew back to New York, but a month later, she returned for the holiday season with Jeanette, her husband Clark, and their twelve-year-old son, Connor. "It's great to see you again!" Jeanette gave her sister-in-law a hug. They hadn't seen one another since Natalie had left New York after Ralph's aunt's funeral. "And little Luke is so sweet! Come meet your new cousin, Connor!"
With a nonchalant shrug, the young man walked over to look at the baby. "Isn't he precious?" Jeanette enthused.
"He's all right," Connor muttered. "So when are we going to Disneyland?"
"I promise, Connor, we'll go before we return to New York," Jeanette snapped. "Right now, it wouldn't kill you to at least act interested in your new relatives."
"Want to go for a ride through Beverly Hills and see where all the movie stars live?" Clark asked his son.
"Sure!" Connor exclaimed.
Luke began to cry. "Yep, it's his diaper, all right," Natalie announced after a quick peek.
"This reminds me so much of when Connor was a baby," Jeanette told her sister-in-law as Natalie changed her son's diaper. "I took off work for about a year after he was born. My entire family was shocked. They knew how devoted I was to my career, and they were surprised that I even wanted a baby at all. After he was born, they expected me to take six weeks off tops, but every time I looked at that little face, I thought, what's the hurry?"
"I haven't decided yet when I'll go back to my job," Natalie replied. "I'd like to keep nursing for as long as I can. I'm thinking perhaps after Luke's old enough to eat solid food."
"This means a lot to my Mom, you know," said Jeanette. "For many years she's been wanting Ralph to marry and have a son. You've just made her fondest dream come true."
"Ralph and I didn't really care whether it was a boy or a girl, as long as it was healthy." Natalie wasn't quite sure how to respond. Although she appreciated Claudia's help, the thought that she was valued strictly as the receptacle for the realization of her mother-in-law's dream made her feel unsettled. "I was grateful that I was able to get pregnant at all at my age."
Jeanette didn't say anything, thinking of the many tirades her mother had had on the subject of Natalie's age.