Jade expected her first night and many nights after having the baby, sleep would be as rare as Filch washing. She was a bit thrown off at how many times she had to change the diapers for the little being. It was marvelous to witness such a tiny being eat so much and poop as fast. Jade admired Draco's ability to handle the child. She thought that both of them would have no idea what to do with the baby but Draco seemed to know what he was doing, as if he had been doing this all his life.
The first time Jade had to wake up, she had no clue what she was doing or why the baby cried so much. Irritable from the lack of sleep, she tried to hush the baby from sleep but Draco got up and handled the baby, walking back and forth, calming her down until she fell asleep again. Jade felt horrified for not being able to handle her own daughter the way Draco did. It was clear that Draco was the better parent, Jade just felt so useless. She sat on her bed, watching Draco gently place Jenita back into the crib, stare at her for a few seconds until he turned around to see Jade sitting on the bed.
"What's wrong?" he whispered.
"You're so good at it." Jade said trying to smile, instead her mouth twisted and her eyes welled up in tears.
"Good at what? What's wrong?" Draco asked, taking her hands in his.
"Good at parenting. I'm not a good mother. I can't do anything when she starts crying! I just get so…frustrated. That's horrible isn't it?" Jade asked seeing him shake his head.
"Who told you I'm good at parenting? Who told you you're not a good mother? We're new parents Jade, we can't be perfect with parenting, no one is perfect when it comes to raising a child. That's a daunting task. It's normal to be frustrated, that's what every parent goes through when they have a new child. Do you think every parent is prepared to what they're going to be expecting from their kids? I don't think I can find anyone in this world that has not been frustrated with a child. What you're feeling is normal Jay. If it helps, I had help from those pregnancy and newborn books that Hermione gave us to read before the baby was born. If you gave those books a glance, I'm sure it would have helped just a tiny bit. It worked for me at least." Draco said seeing Jade smile and lean her head on his shoulder.
"You always know how to make me feel better. I suppose you've read a book for that?" Jade asked as he closed the lights and pulled her on top of him.
"Nope. I had nothing to prepare myself for you." he said.
Jade opened her eyes to hear Jenita cry softly. She looked over at the clock reading 5:12 in the morning. She looked at Draco who was in deep sleep. He woke up during most of the night and forced Jade to go back to sleep whenever she got up with him. He didn't want to further upset her, but right now Jade knew he needed a break. She swung her legs off the bed and walked over to the crib seeing Jenita wriggle her arms and legs around, her face puckered up and her mouth wide open for another cry.
"I'm here honey." Jade said, feeling a strange effect from calling Jenita 'honey.' She detested words like 'honey', 'sweetheart', 'sweetie' or anything else. She felt a bit strange, but at the same time, she felt quite natural to say it.
"Hmm, isn't it strange? The effect you have on me, you should be proud." Jade said cradling Jenita in her arms. She walked over to the rocking chair and made herself comfortable, seeing Jenita watch her curiously with bright eyes.
"What are you looking at?" Jade asked smiling at her. Jenita rolled her head around and wrinkled her face up to cry.
"Merlin, hold on! I'm getting your food already!" Jade said unbuttoning the buttons on her maternity nightgown. Jenita was soon drinking and Jade watched her in amazement. She touched the soft crop of blonde hair on Jenita's head and traced her fingers down to rest on her chubby little cheek that moved from her rapid sucking.
"If I ever knew you were going to be this beautiful…" Jade murmured her vision blurring from the tears. She loved little Jenita more than her heart could carry. It was hard for Jade to bond with people and even harder for her to love them, but the few people who she did love and care about were her very few exceptions. Jenita was one of them. Jenita stopped drinking and Jade realized that she was finished.
"Full?" Jade asked lifting her to her shoulder. She patted her lightly and felt extremely satisfied, as if she had fulfilled a lifelong achievement when she heard her burp. "That's my girl." Jade said taking her to check if her diapers were dirty. Relief washed over Jade when she found that she didn't have to change Jenita's diapers. Jade walked around with Jenita in her arms until she fell asleep and put her back into her crib. With that, Jade slipped back into bed, next to Draco and fell asleep.
"How was the first night?" Hermione asked cheerily as she got to hold Jenita. Draco stretched himself on the couch and placed his legs on Jade's lap.
"I'm exhausted." Draco said.
"So am I, but I didn't really do much. Draco was doing most of the feeding, changing diapers and burping." Jade said seeing Hermione smile and shoot a playful look at Ron who squawked a 'what?'
"I called him my 'Rock'." Hermione said sitting next to him.
"Aw Mione, don't start with that please." Ron protested, the tips of his ears turning red.
"Your 'Rock'? Why?" Jade asked as Hermione grinned.
"He slept like one and when you tried to push him to wake up; he'd actually feel like one." Hermione said as they started laughing. There was a knock on the door and Draco opened the door to let Harry and his children in.
"Sorry I'm late. I had to go to the Ministry to speak to my lawyer. Hey Ron, Hermione." Harry said seeing them get up to greet him.
"Where's the new baby?" James asked, looking around frantically until he saw Hermione bend down to introduce him to Jenita.
"Oh Gryffindor! She looks the same!" James said feeling upset.
"Pretty." Albus said touching Jenita's small and slim fingers. The children marveled over Jenita and Lily was set down to crawl around and bring herself to watch Jenita and Hugo sleeping. She nudged them, curiously wondering why they wouldn't wake up to play with her. As Jade and Hermione looked over the children, Jade looked towards Harry, who spoke about his trip to the Ministry with Draco and Ron. Ron looked extremely uncomfortable for Harry to speak about his failing marriage with Ginny and also that Harry was openly talking about it in front of Draco Malfoy, their former nemesis and Ginny's ex-boyfriend in Hogwarts.
Usually, these days Draco and Harry would spend more time speaking to each other and getting used to each other. Harry was a frequent visitor to Jade and Draco's flat, much to Ginny's dismay, and he would spend hours talking to Jade and Draco. Sometimes when Jade excused herself, she'd come back to see Harry and Draco in an intellectually deep conversation that she never bothered to interrupt. She hoped that they were friends now and it seemed like they were, at least that's what Jade thought. They never really scheduled for a man's night out or anything of the sort, but whenever Harry would come over, they'd usually kick off their shoes, throw their legs on to the table, drink Firewhiskey, watch muggle sports and talk.