Part 16 – Melting
Colby considered himself a tough guy, a man's man, a soldier, but he turned into a pile of goo every time he saw Charlie holding their baby. He'd have been happy with a bald little girl or a blond chubby boy, but a baby looking like a mini-Charlie completely melted him. He wanted to snuggle them both and make embarrassing 'goo-goo' noises. He forced himself to take a deep breath.
"How are you doing?" he asked Charlie, who had been sitting and holding Gabriel for the last hour.
"My arm is numb," Charlie said out of the side of his mouth. "But he's asleep and I'm afraid to move."
Colby chuckled – quietly. "You can shift and he'll probably resettle. Or just hand him to me."
Awkwardly, Charlie handed Gabriel off to Colby, then Charlie grimaced and shook out his hand. Gabriel stirred briefly then snuggled into Colby's embrace. Colby melted just a bit more.
It had been a while since Colby had held a baby, but his arms seemed to remember what to do. With all his younger brothers and sisters, he'd gotten a lot of practice. He wondered if he could still do speed-diapering, a technique that he'd developed when his youngest brother, Mike, had gone through a nasty diarrhea phase.
At the thought of his brother, Colby frowned. He still sent Christmas cards every year but never received any back. He was just as estranged with his family as ever. Could little Gabriel be a way back in? Wouldn't his mother be thrilled with another grandchild, regardless of his origin? Maybe not, since she'd never made any effort to contact Nena, when one look at Nena's picture would show she was Colby's biological child.
He sighed, but that also reminded him of Nena and her less than enthusiastic greeting to her new little brother. Well, he and Charlie had prepared her as best as they could. It was bound to be a shock to her, since she was used to being the only child and total darling of the whole extended family. She'd come around, she was a generous girl at heart. Colby hoped that there wouldn't be much direct sibling rivalry between Nena and Gabriel, since they were such different ages. He remembered the lengths he had gone to show he was better at anything than his sister LeeAnn, who was just a year older than he was. He wondered if she still lived in Connecticut, and if she ever thought about her bratty younger brother.
Tears came to his eyes and he blinked them back. Charlie wasn't the only one feeling emotional. They should at least send out a birth announcement to the last known addresses of all his family. They had a birth announcement design already picked out. It was just waiting for the details of the birth and a photograph. Right, I need to see to that.
"You ready to take him back?" he asked Charlie.
Nodding, Charlie held out his hands. Colby settled Gabriel back into Charlie's arms and Charlie smiled down at the baby. Colby wiped more moisture from his eyes and draped a blanket over them both. Then he went to deal with Day of Birth List, Subcategory 3, Item #18.
Colby kept his face completely free of a smile as he watched Charlie struggle to diaper Gabriel. A birth center attendant was hovering nearby, probably to swoop in if Charlie tried to diaper Gabriel's head.
"It's like origami," Colby said. "You're good at that."
"Origami doesn't wiggle," Charlie said grumpily. "And it doesn't have tabs that stick to everything but what they're supposed to."
"If you think he's wiggly now," Colby said, finally letting himself smile. "Just wait until he starts to roll over."
"Everyone keeps saying that," Charlie snapped. "'Just wait', 'just wait'. I'm still trying to deal with 'right now'."
Colby's smile vanished. "I'm sorry, Angel," he said putting his hand on Charlie's hunched shoulder. "You've just got to lift his butt up a little more to slide the diaper underneath."
"Are you sure I won't hurt him?"
The attendant spoke up, "Babies are pretty darn tough. They may not look it, but they have to be tough to survive getting born."
"True," Colby said with a grimace and Charlie looked a little green at the memory.
"Put tons of diaper cream on him," the attendant reminded Charlie. "You don't want to be scraping meconium off of his skin."
"Maybe I'll just leave those diapers to Colby," Charlie said faintly.
"Wimp," Colby teased gently, with a squeeze to Charlie's shoulder.
"That's me."
"No, c'mon, Dr. Eppes," Colby said. "The baby's first bowel movements where they're getting rid of all that blood and stuff would make any strong man quail."
"You're not."
"I am on the inside," Colby said and kissed Charlie on the head, then looked down at Gabriel. "He's probably hungry now."
"How can you tell?" Charlie asked plaintively.
"I can't really," Colby shrugged. "Just that newborn babies pretty much sleep, eat, and poop. He's awake and just got a clean diaper, so …"
"So, it stands to reason," Charlie completed and then sighed. "How am I going to do this?"
"By doing it," Colby responded simply, then gave Charlie a small shake. "Now, where's my confident, superstar genius husband?"
"I think he's back at the hotel," Charlie mumbled but his shoulders relaxed a little.
"Then why don't we take Gabriel back to the hotel to meet him? We can pick up some milk from Mary now, then come back this afternoon for more milk and our lesson on giving him a bath."
"More wiggling, and with a wet baby," Charlie said with a shake of his head. "Is the car seat all installed?"
"Installed so tightly that we're going to have trouble getting it out of the rental car again."
Charlie frowned. "Are you sure? Should we go to a fire station to have it inspected?"
"Positive. We can get it checked after we install it in the car at home."
"We have to make it through the plane flight first."
Colby put his cheek against Charlie's hair. "One thing at a time, Daddy Charlie. That's all you can ever do."
"Not according to the latest theories of physics—"
"I meant in the practical world," Colby said quickly.
"Stupid practical world," Charlie grumbled, but it was with a smile.
"How about I finish with Gabriel's diaper and swaddle him, while you go track down Nena and Evie?"
Charlie nodded and quickly stepped back to let Colby take over. Colby held on to the baby while he watched Charlie scoot out of the room. The attendant then moved away, obviously confident that the baby was in good hands.
Colby leaned over Gabriel and murmured, "Don't worry, buddy. You and me will train him yet."
After checking in on Mary – she was sleeping but a bottle of pumped breast milk was waiting for him – Colby found Charlie, Nena, and Evie in the waiting room. Nena was trying to explain percentages to Evie using M&Ms and Fruity Bears. Charlie was gnawing on one knuckle but managing to stay quiet.
"Good job not interrupting," Colby said quietly while pulling the knuckle out of Charlie's mouth. "But you're breaking the skin."
Charlie frowned in surprise at his bleeding knuckle and Nena looked up.
"Did I do it right, Charlie?" she asked.
"Well, you left out—" Charlie started then cleared his throat and put his damaged hand behind his back. "Yes, yes, excellent job."
Nena beamed at him.
"I'm afraid you'll have to go through it again, dear," Evie said. "I'm a little slow."
"Later," Colby said as Nena began to gather up her candy props to demonstrate again. "Would you like to help me feed your little brother?"
"Okay," Nena said with little enthusiasm. "He just eats milk, right?"
"Right, for the first few months."
"'Few months'?" Charlie asked. "But the AAP states that—"
"We'll talk about it later, Charlie," Colby said automatically and reached out a hand to Nena. "C'mon, honey, Gabriel's hungry."
Nena scooped the rest of the candy and dumped it into her pocket then took Colby's hand. Her small hand felt so big after just holding Gabriel's tiny one. Colby swallowed against more 'moisture' in his eyes. He really was mush right now, but decided to give himself a little bit of a pass, just for today.
When they got to the nursery, Gabriel was still awake and waving his arms. He'd broken out of his swaddle blanket already.
"You're going to be an active one, aren't you?" Evie said warmly, putting her finger in Gabriel's palm so that his tiny hand gripped it.
"I'll do the bottle," Nena said, taking it from Colby's hand.
"Hang on," Colby said quickly and took it back. He unscrewed the cap, opened the package with the sterile nipple, and attached it. He made sure it was tight, then motioned with the bottle towards the rocking chair. "First, sit down."
Nena sat down and Colby gave her a cloth to cover her shirt. He then picked up Gabriel and laid him in Nena's arms.
"He's heavy!" Nena said.
"Much heavier than your baby dolls," Colby agreed. "Now support his head better, there."
When he was happy with the way Gabriel was situated, Colby held out the bottle to Nena. "He'll do the drinking, but you'll need to hold the bottle."
"Can't really do much, can you?" Nena said to Gabriel, but her tone was thoughtful rather than accusatory.
"Not yet, but he'll be learning things every day." Colby adjusted the bottle in Nena's hand and Gabriel began to suck on it. Gabriel opened his eyes and looked up at Nena.
"He's got blue eyes," Nena said in surprise.
"For now," Colby said. "That might change."
"Right, right," Nena said. "Of course."
Colby silently hoped that they'd stay blue. He was already helpless against one pair of big, brown eyes, he didn't need a second. Though I doubt the eye color will make any difference.
He smiled down at Nena feeding Gabriel, then he suddenly dug in his pocket for his camera. There were many images he was going to want to capture over the next few days, months, years, but this one, he hoped, would be a picture of the start of a wonderful friendship.