Hi lovely readers!

Thank you so much for all of the reviews on the last chapter. It means so much that so many of you are still enjoying these stories.

This chapter was requested by a guest, I really loved writing this one. I love writing about that newborn stage where they're still trying to figure everything out. I hope you all enjoy!

As the clock approached 2 am, the city of Pasadena was quiet and still. The sky was black and dotted with tiny stars, in the distance, the moon was full and glowing brightly. Everywhere was silent, everywhere except for apartment 4B. 4B was where Amy and Sheldon now lived with their two week old baby daughter, Emily.

Even though she was tiny, the little baby was making enough noise to wake up the whole building and most importantly wake her already very sleep deprived parents. Having a newborn was a whole new experience for them, they both thought they were prepared, they knew it would be hard, they knew they would be incredibly tired but nothing could have prepared them for the sheer reality of their lives now.

Amy wasn't sure she'd slept properly since welcoming her daughter two weeks ago, she felt as if she was seeing every hour of everyday and eventually all the days blurred into one. Mary had offered to stay with them until they had settled into their role as new parents but they had both politely declined. Naivety and their stubbornness had definitely played a part in that and it was a decision that now Amy had come to regret. She longed to be able to hand her daughter over to someone even just for a few hours so that she could sleep.

"I'm not sure what to do, Amy" Sheldon voiced, Emily was curled up on her fathers chest, her little legs tucked almost underneath her, as she wailed, her face bright red. The uncertainty in Sheldon's tone was apparent, despite him gaining more and more confidence as a father each day, it still completely threw him when Emily cried and would wriggle in his arms.

"Just try rocking her a little bit," the truth was Amy didn't know what to do either. This had been the first time since becoming parents that she felt out of her depth, like she truly didn't know what to do to make her daughter feel better. Normally, it was because she was hungry, needed to be changed or simply wanted a cuddle but tonight all of those needs had been met and she still wasn't happy.

"I have been for the past fifteen minutes" Sheldon muttered. Both of their tolerance and patience levels were pretty low when they were this tired. They were both just hoping that at some point, and hopefully soon, they would get used to the lack of sleep. Sheldon placed his hand on Emily's back, whilst his arm was tucked underneath her, keeping her safe and in place as he moved slowly from one foot to the other.

Emily had led them into a false sense of security, what had started as a gentle grumble from her that her parents thought they could soothe, had quickly turned into loud and cries and wails. Sheldon carefully moved around the room, adopting a little bounce as he tried to rock and soothe her.

"Do you think she's too cold?" Amy asked, searching for anything. Hearing her daughter in such distress broke her heart, she wanted nothing more than to make her better to take whatever it was that was upsetting her so much away and take it all on herself. The deep, unconditional love she felt for her was overwhelming and another experience she hadn't quite fully prepared for. "Or maybe too warm?" she asked again, this time pulling back the duvet and rising to her feet, any attempt at sleep was now a distant memory and she just wanted to help both Sheldon and Emily.

"I don't know" she could tell Sheldon was growing stressed, she was too, what did they do to stop her from crying. For the first time Amy didn't know and the sense of failure that she felt was awful. She was her mother, she had grown inside of her for nine whole months, they were connected and had a bond like no other, how could she not know?

"She does feel a little warm," Amy told him, as she gently pressed the back of her hand to her forehead, "I think that's because of how much she's been crying though," Amy explained. "Sweetie, don't cry, everything's okay" she cooed gently, deep down her hope was that her voice would help soothe Emily but that didn't seem to work. "Do you want me to take her?" Amy offered, holding her arms out. "Maybe it might help having a different person," upon Emily waking up, Amy of course had been the first one to hold her, hoping her mother's touch would calm her, she had switched to Sheldon for the very same reason Amy had just mentioned.

"Sure" Sheldon nodded, handing her over into Amy's waiting arms. Handing his daughter over to someone, even her own mother, made him extremely nervous, still. He was worried he wouldn't hand her over correctly or that he would let go of her before the other person was ready and something terrible would happen. She was tinier than he had ever imagined and all he wanted to do was protect her with every ounce of his being. These feelings scared him, he'd never felt that way about anyone ever. Not even Amy.

"Oh come on darling, it's okay, it's all okay" Amy began gently as she rocked with a little more vigour than Sheldon, clearly much more confident and natural with holding a baby. Although Sheldon was glad not to have the constant screams right by his ear, he missed holding her, he loved nothing more than cuddling her and feeling her chest rise and fall. "Sshh, it's okay, it's okay" Amy continued to whisper as she gently rubbed up and down her back.

Amy had now moved into the living area, the slightly more spacious setting gave her a little more room to move around and pace round the apartment. She was so busy, rocking and singing to Emily that she hadn't noticed Sheldon disappear until he came back into the room with a cuddly toy elephant. The animal had been gifted to Emily by Penny once she had been born, it was one of those toys that already Emily absolutely loved.

"Do you think this might help?" Sheldon asked, holding up the elephant. Amy nodded, with a smile, pleased that his brain was in a much better place for thinking than hers.

"Emily, look what daddy's got" Amy cooed, "what has he got for you" her tone and pitched changed hoping that Emily would pick up on the excitement. As Sheldon stood behind Amy, waving the elephant in Emily's face, her cries began to ease. Gone were the cries that were starting to ring in their ears and in its place were gentle sobbing breaths. Both parents held their breath not wanting to stop what they were doing or utter another word. That was until a car alarm started ringing loudly on the street, directly underneath their apartment, causing Emily to cry all over again.

Amy groaned. She wasn't sure how much longer she could cope with this. It hadn't been very long at all but it felt like hours, how long did they give her before it was deemed something serious, babies didn't just cry like this for nothing. She didn't know for sure, she'd really only had this job for two weeks but she was sure babies only cried when they wanted or needed something.

"That's it" Sheldon announced, he suddenly looked more alive and awake than Amy had felt in weeks. She was just about to open her mouth to ask him what he was talking about when she saw him heading for the front door, taking their car keys from the bowl. "The car" he said excitedly, "she always falls asleep in the car, it's got to be worth a try, right?" They had to at least give it a try, going on like this all night, simply didn't feel like an option.

"Are we not both too tired to drive?," Amy worried, even though it was the early hours of the morning and they probably wouldn't even pass another vehicle, they were both exhausted and if he was half as tired as Amy was, concentrating on the road was the last thing she wanted to do.

"I'm okay" he nodded. "I feel quite awake now anyway,"

"Okay, I guess it's worth a try" she nodded. Amy was a little hesitant to take Emily out of the apartment when she was like this, the last thing she wanted was to wake up the whole building but she figured little Emily had already done that. As they left the apartment and headed for the car, it only occurred to the both of them that they were in their dressing gowns once they were out on the street.

Amy carefully lowered Emily into her car seat, she knew it was important to not let her tiredness interfere with her daughters safety and made sure that she double and triple checked all of the straps properly. Satisfied, she made her way round to the other side of the car and slid herself up next to Emily's car seat, by the time Amy was strapped in, Sheldon had already started the car. The gentle rumble of the engine already seemed to be doing the trick.

"Ready" Sheldon asked, wanting to make sure everything was okay before he set off. He looked in the mirror and saw Amy nod. "I'll just drive a few blocks and back again."

"Daddy's taking us for a little drive" Amy told Emily, as she reached forward and wiped her cheeks. "It's all okay, mummy's right here," she smiled as she placed her finger in Emily's hand and she clung on tightly. "I'm not going anywhere, don't you worry" she was gripping her finger as if she never wanted her mother to let go and in that very moment all of the exhaustion Amy felt was suddenly worth it. Worth every single second.

"Is it working?" Sheldon asked after a few moments of quiet. Although still new at this, he was starting to understand the beauty of those rare, silent moments.

"Yeah" he could hear the smile in Amy's voice as she watched her little girls eyes gently flutter between being opened and closed as she fought sleep.

—

"We did it" Sheldon whispered, as he sat down next to Amy on the edge of the bed. They were both staring at their daughter, lying peacefully in her bassinet. She looked beautiful, so content and tranquil it was hard to believe that just 15 minutes ago she was screaming the place down.

"We did" Amy flopped her head onto her husbands shoulder, relief overwhelming her. "I can't believe how hard that was" she laughed gently but Sheldon knew it was masking how emotional she felt. No one had really prepared him for Amy's emotions after giving birth, she cried at everything when pregnant and that seemed to be the case now that Emily was here, her emotions were naturally, still all over the place.

"Look at her now though, she's like a little angel," he was well and truly besotted with her, Amy knew she would always have her daddy wrapped round her little finger.

"I know, I love her so much Sheldon. It's scary isn't it. How much you can love them"

"It really is."

Thank you so much for reading. As always your reviews are always welcome and so incredibly appreciated! I love hearing your thoughts! I have one more prompt left to write (I think) and then I'll open them up again for a little while. Hope that's okay.

Stay safe.

Lots of love.