When I walked into the room, Beca was sitting with him in her arms. She was babbling and cooing at him. Beca Mitchell, cooing. She stood up and handed him to me. I swear to God, I could feel my life change. All the sudden, everything was about this little boy in my arms.
"Hi Caellum. Hi! I'm Mama Chloe. You sure are a handsome little man, aren't you?"
We spent most of the day in that hospital room with him. Once the two of us felt comfortable enough with him, my mom and Jesse came back to meet him. Jesse was more careful with him than I knew was ever possible for Jesse.
My favorite thing to watch though, was Beca. Every time someone would move with him, or transfer him to someone else... Beca was right there watching, assisting, protecting. I had thought my life changed, but everything about Beca was hypersensitive now. When he coughed she grabbed him and checked on him, if he burped she had a receiving blanket ready.
After around eight at night, Beca was rocking him to sleep when the doctor came in.
"We've been monitoring him all day. I highly doubt there's anything here that he needs that you can't provide for him at home. He's healthy and his vitals are clear. If I can have Miss Mitchell? Just need a couple autographs for the discharge." Beca handed Caellum to me and went with the doctor.
After checking the car seat about seventeen times, and asking the nurses to make sure, Beca strapped Caellum in. Jesse rode in the back with him and Beca took her bike. I was never a nervous driver, but now all the sudden I was terrified. Anything could come out and hurt my baby boy. I drove at least ten under the speed limit the entire way home and Beca followed me to make sure nothing happened.
When we got him upstairs, Beca laid him in the cradle in our room and pulled out the foldaway couch/bed for my mom. She mumbled something to me about needing a bowl or two.
"Hey ma? Can you keep an eye on Caellum for a few? Beca and I just really need to have a smoke and frankly, Jesse will probably follow us." my mom just beamed.
"What are Grandmas for? Take like twenty minutes, go talk. This has been a huge day for you guys, separately and as a couple. Just be with each other for a minute. If he fusses I'll get him. Okay?" I hugged her and whispered a thank you.
We went up to the terrace and Beca grabbed her favorite bong. After a couple hoots each, she snuggled in and kissed my cheek.
"We're moms now Chlo, can you fucking believe that? I just know that I was scared, until that baby was put in my arms. Then everything seemed really clear to me. Caellum matters. Above everything that could matter, there's my fiancee and my son. I would do anything for you guys." she lit a smoke.
"It's kind of like gravity is holding you to him, you know? Like even if you wanted to let go, or walk away from him it would be impossible. He's a part of you now and nothing you can do will ever change that. It feels like something is a bit more complete because he's here." I said and she nodded, passing me the cigarette.
Jesse came up and sat down with us.
"I'm really happy for you guys. He's amazing. And he's so lucky to have you guys as parents. Don't stress about doing it the "right way" because as far as I'm concerned, you guys will do it right your way. The fact that he has two beautiful mothers who love him like he's the only thing on the planet, is more than he will ever need. Remember that okay?" I wiped away tears.
"Don't forget his bitching uncle Jesse, who's going to need to show him all the man stuff, like fixing cars and getting girls!" Beca piped up, laughing.
"Pssh. You always brought home more girls than I did. Then you found this one. Two and a half years later and I'm still behind." he pouted
"I didn't find Chloe, Chloe found me. She stole my heart, and never let it go." Jesse made gagging sounds.
We all stayed up there and smoked another bowl. When we went downstairs, my mom had fallen asleep cradling the baby monitor. Beca turned it off and we went into our bedroom. Beca woke him up to give him some formula, then let me rock him back to sleep. Once he was down, we went to bed too. About an hour later we woke up to him screaming.
"I got it." Beca croaked, climbing out of bed. She changed him, fed him and put him to sleep in his cradle. As she crawled into bed he woke up again. This time I peeled off the blankets and picked up our screaming son.
So was the pattern until about five in the morning. Beca finally managed to get him to sleep. For three beautiful hours, there wasn't a sound in the loft except breathing. At eight he screeched again.
My mom came into the room. "Go back to sleep girls. I've got him." Beca was determined to get up one last time though.
"Momma Beale I got this. You go back to sleep. He must have kept you up all night." she yawned to my mom.
"Beca, really, I slept just fine. You look exhausted though. Please, get a couple hours more sleep. I'm more than happy to get up with him for a bit. It'll give us some bonding time." Beca conceded the battle. Good thing too, cause she was barely standing. She laid back down. We passed out in about fifteen seconds.
Around eleven, Beca shook me awake. "Get up gorgeous. I made you breakfast. Also your mom's going to show us about the bathing of our child and how to do it right." I reluctantly got up.
After pounding back some bacon and eggs, and smoking a quick cigarette with Beca, we gathered in the bathroom with my mom. She showed us how to sit him in the bath, the water temperature, how to wash him... It was a process. I was almost considering never doing it, and making that a Beca job, when I saw the smile on his face. That gravity feeling came back, and suddenly I couldn't wait to be in charge of it.
Beca impressed me so much with him. I had kind of expected her to take a backseat , 'I make the money, you raise the child' kind of approach; but she was very into being a mom. She diapered, fed, bathed, and got up with him twice as much as I did.
After two months, Caellum needed his first immunization. So the two of us loaded him into the car and Beca drove. We had Beca's latest playlist playing and Caellum was babbling in the back.
"See hun? He's going to be a musician like you! He loves listening to this stuff!" I teased her.
"Maybe he's just going to talk lots, like his other mother." I playfully punched her arm. Apparently she wasn't expecting that though, because she swerved. Hard. I felt the car hit a guardrail, and everything went black.