It's been a few days since Ella left and Aria's emotions are still a little heightened. It's around 3 AM and Aria and Ezra have already woken up with Daisy multiple times each tonight. Once they're fast asleep again, as if on cue, Daisy's shrill cries come from the baby monitor again, waking Aria instantly, as the monitor is on the dresser on her side of the bed.
"Ezraaaaa." Aria whines, barely awake.
She nudges him repeatedly, but Ezra is so exhausted he doesn't wake up a bit.
When Aria realizes there's not a chance her husband is waking up right now, she musters all the energy she can to get out of bed and calm down Daisy.
"What's wrong, baby girl?" She whispers through a yawn, picking up Daisy from her crib. She knows she can't be hungry or have a dirty diaper, because she had just been fed and changed.
She sits down in the rocking chair beside the crib and begins rocking and singing lullabies to Daisy. Finally, after a few minutes, she gets Daisy to fall back asleep. She lays her down in her crib and goes back to get whatever sleep she can. Aria walks back into the bedroom to hear Ezra snoring, still sound asleep. She's amazed, and honestly a little annoyed, by how heavy of a sleeper her husband has become in his exhaustion of being a new dad of two. Aria sighs and curls up next to Ezra, finally getting some sleep of her own.
Only a few hours later, Daisy woke both Aria and Ezra up bright and early around 7 AM. Aiden woke up an hour later, after they had already gotten a chance to feed Daisy and change her into a fresh diaper.
Around noon, Ezra had just laid Daisy down for a nap and Aria is downstairs playing with Aiden while Ezra gets some work done in his home office down the hall. Exhausted as she may be, and as much as Ezra protested, Aria insisted on keeping the baby monitor with her so Ezra could catch up on some work in peace. After a while, right as Aiden is rolling on the floor, his face flushed from laughing with his mother, Daisy's cries come loud and clear from the baby monitor beside them on the living room floor.
"I'm sorry, sweetie. Daisy needs me. I'll be back." Aria says, ruffling Aiden's hair, about to stand up and check on the baby.
"Mommy." Aiden stops her in her tracks, his voice quivering.
She turns around instantly, scared to see the sight in front of her.
"Honey, what's wrong?" She asks, concern and heartache filling her eyes and voice as she instinctively pulls Aiden into her arms.
"W-w-why don't you and Daddy love me a-a-anymore li-i-ke you love Daisy?" Aiden asks through increasing sobs, quickly matching his baby sister's, still coming from the monitor.
Aria's heart drops instantly. Tearing up herself, along with her two kids. Hearing shrill cries simultaneously surrounding her from both her kids, her worst fear has now been realized. Her fear she told Ezra weeks ago. The harsh reality of having a newborn and another young child. Her and Ezra were just not able to give Aiden the same attention they could before Daisy was born. Not while she was still so brand new. She thought having her mom stay for a while helped, and it did, while she was there, but ever since she left Daisy had been taking up most of her and Ezra's time and energy. Aria felt so dumb and foolish to ever think it could be like it was when her mom was here, that was too easy. The reality is that her and Ezra are the parents, and they have to juggle a newborn and a toddler, together, just the two of them. Like the adults they are.
"Aiden, honey. That's just not true. Mommy and Daddy love you just as much as we always have. Daisy is just so little right now and she needs us for everything. It'll calm down the more she grows up, but me and Daddy never want you to feel like we love Daisy any more than we love you. You're our first baby. And you'll always be just as special to us. We love you both the same. We love you so much they don't have a word to say how much. Okay, sweetie?" Aria says through her tears.
"Okay, Mommy. I love you." Aiden says, calming down.
"I love you too. So, so much." Aria says, squeezing Aiden tight and kissing his head. "I have to see what your sister needs. I'll be right back. If you need me I'll be right upstairs in her room."
"Okay, Mommy." Aiden says, returning to his toys.
Later that night, when Aiden and Daisy are both asleep, Aria plops into bed next to Ezra, letting out a deep sigh.
"Ezra, I need to tell you something."
Hearing the sadness in her voice, Ezra's eyes fill with concern as he slides closer to his wife.
"Aria, what is it?" He asks, pulling her into his side, wrapping his arms around her.
"This afternoon, Aiden asked me why we don't love him anymore the way we love Daisy." Aria says, sobs quickly finding her again. She buries her head into Ezra's chest, soaking his shirt with tears, shaking in his arms.
"Shhh, shhh. It's okay. What did you tell him?" Ezra asks, running his hands up and down her arm and back in a soothing manner, trying to calm her down.
"I told him we love him just as much, and that Daisy just needs us for everything now. But I still can't stop thinking about it, Ezra. My worst fear came true. Our baby thought we didn't love him anymore." She says, her voice muffled into his chest, her sobs increasing despite Ezra's calming efforts.
"Aria, honey, please calm down. It's okay. He knows we love him. We're just still getting used to juggling our time between both kids. We'll get better at it. We'll learn. Just like we did the first time around. I'll talk to him. It's going to be fine." Ezra assures her, continuing his soothing motions.
Aria's sobs begin to soften.
"I know. It's just...that broke my heart into a million little pieces. I did everything I could to try and prevent him from ever thinking that. And I just felt like I failed." Aria says, holding onto Ezra tighter and curling up even closer to him, practically making herself another part of his body.
"Aria, you didn't fail. It happens to all parents with two kids their ages. He's only three. He doesn't understand any better. That's what we're here for, to teach him that just because Daisy needs more attention right now doesn't mean we don't want to spend as much time with him, and we certainly don't love him any less. You did exactly what a mother is supposed to do." Ezra reassures her.
"Thank you. Thank you for always loving me and being there when I need you the most." Aria says softly, grabbing Ezra's face and kissing him softly.
"That's what I'm here for, Aria. I'll always be right here." Ezra says softly, kissing her forehead. "You get some sleep. I'll keep the monitor right next to me and get up with Daisy all night. I promise." Ezra says, running his hand through Aria's hair and slowly drifting off to sleep along with her.
