15
"It'll just be half a day Pipes, I swear," she looks at her asking for forgiveness, "don't look at me like that, I don't want to go, you know that." She fastens her bra behind her back and smooth's her pants over her thighs. She looks around the room for a shirt to wear, something clean, she pulls several that lie around the room, she brings one closer to the lamp searching for stains, "ugh," she shows Piper the shoulder of a shirt with off-white spit up and throws it onto the floor; she holds a new one up to her face smells it and adds that one to the pile as well. She pulls each hanger across the rack looking for anything that isn't full of wrinkles, that doesn't scream I'm a new sleep deprived mother that didn't have time to iron.
Jamie's wails make her eyebrows furrow, she walks toward him stepping over dirty clothes and towels, maneuvering around the drying rack that's overfilled with clothes that have been dry for two weeks,
"what's the matter baby?," she asks him sitting on the edge of the bed and rubs his tummy while he lies along Piper's crossed legs. He continues crying, his chest visibly expanding and contracting between cries as he tries to get more air. She quickly swaddles him on the bed but he continues to freak out, wriggling an arm free and loosening the blanket that held his body in tight. Alex grabs her cheeks and stands shrugging her shoulders.
"See he's completely miserable too, why can't you just call in and say you're sick or something?"
"I can't Pipes! I'm literally just going in for this meeting. I have to help prep it, sit with everyone for an hour or so to make sure were all on the same page before we present. I haven't been there in person in a month and we need to seem together or else we may as well not even try to pass this plan," she pulls on a shirt, zips it up the side and starts doing her makeup.
Piper rests her forehead in her hand, she shakes her head unsupportively but then tries nod in understanding, her head is moving in small circles.
"Once were done, I'm going to HR to sign the papers to extend my leave but the agreement was contingent on me attending meetings that I would've been present for during that time, I have to go to this one, I'm all over this project, I worked on this for months, they need me," she fastens her second earring in place and turns toward Piper, "do I look okay?"
"You only did one eye," Piper says emitting a small laugh.
Alex bends down into their bureau mirror to make sure Piper isn't messing with her and see's she did in fact completely forget eyeliner on her left eye. She draws a line over her lid and turns back to Piper, "now?"
"You look hideous," she says in monotone.
Alex rolls her eyes, flips her hair over and starts blow drying it. Jamie stops crying, and Alex raises her head curiously at her son questioning if she's gone deaf. She turns off the dryer, "did he stop?," she asks as she hears his cries begin again, "nevermind." She continues and he stops again at the constant noise of the hair dryer and falls asleep. Alex turns off the dryer and he starts to fidget, "turn it back on," Piper says through gritted teeth. Alex flips the toggle and loops the cord over the knob on their dresser, brushes her hair out and comes back over to Piper, "you can't leave that on. I'll just be gone five or six hours, you can do this."
"I don't even know what I'd begin to do with five or six hours anymore. Al, I'm so tired, please just let it run."
"I love you," she says kissing Piper's forehead, "I'll be back soon," she squeezes her leg and kisses Jamie, "and I love you, please sleep for mommy."
"I love you too," Piper says almost frowning and Alex leans up and straightens herself out one last time, "good luck today."
Alex forces a smile, and walks out the door,
"...and bring me Shake Shack," she hears from the bedroom as she slips on her coat and pulls her work bag on for the first time in over a month and heads out the door, "you got it!"
Alex's hand lazily roamed for her son's back following the sound of his coos. She cracked an eye open and lifted him from Piper's arms and told the blonde to scoot down and rest. She lay beside him in bed, patting his back to burp him. She curled an arm around him more out of fear that shed fall asleep and Piper wouldn't know he was there and one of them would roll over him. She stared at him in awe, she caught herself frequently just watching him, she was over the moon with this new kind of love, she could finally understand what other people fussed about. He was just perfect, and she knew that everyone felt this way about their own child, but he really was the most beautiful baby in the world. She watched his legs kick and wiggle within his sleep sack and noted that he was especially squirmy, she walked with him around the apartment and looked out the window at the mountains of snow piled along the curb.
"You see that white fluff?," she asked him, knowing he couldn't really make out anything clearly yet, "that's snow. I'll let you touch it tomorrow on the way to Dr. Samuel's. It's cold and wet and makes getting to work a big pain in the hiney but it can also get you out of school so I'll watch the news with you one day and hope that there's enough to keep us both home kid." She continued into his room and scanned over his little library, she smiled to herself rememberingwalking into several book shops with her list of books that were all imperative to have. She pulled Keats' The Snowy Day, and settled into the rocker while she told James the story of Peter and his snow filled adventures. She caught herself dozing and went back to the room. She watched him sleep, as his mouth pulled at the corners the same way Piper's did when she had a really busy day, she wondered if he was dreaming. She gently stroked over his soft hair and his now slightly chubby cheeks, unable to keep her hands off of him, he was knocked out and shortly after she fell asleep beside him.
He woke his moms with his whimpers, Alex had been lightly sleeping, unable to fully relax with a hyperawareness that James was settled between them. He cooed a few times and she cooed back. Piper absent-mindedly swiped her arm over the co-sleeper causing her head to shoot up and her neck to jerk around when she didn't feel him, "hey relax, he's right here," Alex said squeezing her hand on Piper's hip.
"He's alright?"
"Yeah he's fine, were just chatting, getting the 411 on which pair of baby sweat pants make his butt look big."
Throughout the next few weeks Piper and Alex soaked up every ounce of their son.
"So how are we going to do this tomorrow?, " Piper asked Alex while she kissed the bottom of her son's feet.
"What time does the class end?"
"11 A.M. but will that be too early?"
"No, it'll be alright. Ill take an early lunch or I can go in early and get some extra work done for the morning before I go and meet you there so you have time to eat and wont be late."
"Or I could just forget the class and bring him to you or I could just tell Polly I need more time."
"Pipes it's been three months, you've gotta go back sometime. It'll be good for you," Piper looked over at James with sad eyes, "and him," Alex told her not completely convinced herself that she wanted him around other snot nosed tiny humans just yet.
"I just never thought I'd to have to take him to day care."
"Well your parents offered..."
"It's too much, I cant handle them being here all the time. I'm good with once a week for now, well see."
"Or you could stay home Pipes, I can keep us going for a while."
"It's not even that, I really would take eating canned beans for dinner every night for a few years if we needed to make the money stretch. I... I made a commitment to Polly and I need to go back," she said firmly reassuring herself of her decision.
Alex placed a hand on her shoulder, "Pipes, really though, the place looks uber clean, the ratio between kids and caregivers is great and I'll be right upstairs all the time."
They'd opted for the daycare center in Alex's building, though steeper on their budget, the calm that settled over Piper's heart knowing Alex would be a minute away was the deciding factor.
"I don't know if I can do it Al, seriously. It's unnatural for us to be separated."
"Pipes I know, it really sucked going back, he relies on us for everything and to give that privilege to someone we don't know... it's a big deal. They said I could come and watch him through the mirror as often as I wanted, and if needed step in and spend time with him until we're all okay, or continue with half days until we're ready to progress to full days. They seem well acquainted with...," she wanted to say obsessive but opted for "excited parents. He's going to be fine, really," she said this genuinely.
Piper nodded while she held her son's feet in her hands and moved his legs around as if he was on a bicycle. He let out a squeal. Alex looked on as Piper went through the motions she'd done with him at Mommy and Me class, "slowly, slowly, pedal, pedal," she alternated bringing his knees to his chest and picked up momentum, "harder, harder, pedal, pedal, weeeee."
He screeched loudly and she dipped her head toward his torso, picked up his shirt and blew raspberries on his tummy. He opened his mouth wide as if he was surprised and grabbed her hair while he continued to scream. Alex giggled while Piper kept her head down against Jamie, "oh his noises Al."
"You've got about, oh I don't know nine trillion videos of his noises on your phone babe, this is why I'm gonna meet you after class okay? You'll be giving him to me and it's gonna be like we went out for the day. You're gonna have a long lunch with Polly and then have a short first day back and before you know it, the day will have flown by. Trust me."
She nodded and exhaled, "alright." -
Piper lifted James off the mat and was about to roll it up when Alex crouched down beside her, "how was class?," she asked reaching her arms out to take her favorite little person.
Piper's eyes instantly started to water as she handed him to Alex and started to roll up the mat. Alex stopped her hand and passed him back to Piper, "you didn't even enjoy the class did you? You were thinking about this the whole time." Alex rolled up the mat and tucked it in Piper's yoga strap and sat along the bench where Piper receeded. "Your mommy's a mess Jamie bug. Can you tell her we're gonna be okay?"
Piper pulled a receiving blanket from the diaper bag and covered herself to nurse before she went back to work for the first time since her life changed forever. "There's three bottles of breast milk in the outside pockets, they're against ice packs, but they need to be put in the fridge once you get there." Alex rubbed her knee reassuringly. "And his name is already on everything, you should be able to give them the rest of the bag without having to do anything." Alex stood up and started wrapping the wrap around her torso and her shoulders, she was now an expert. She placed him in, forward facing so he could see the world and turned toward the mirror. He could see himself and Piper standing next to him and Alex, he smiled and his legs danced excitedly.
"See baby, he's so happy. Enjoy your lunch, we'll let you know when we get there, alright? We'll see you tonight."
Alex walked her outside and made sure she got in a cab so she wouldn't follow her all the way to work, she turned around and headed for her office. She dropped him off and watched him easily settle in with one of the caregivers before going up to her office. She found herself watching the clock more frequently as the day pressed on. It often took forever for five o'clock to come but this was becoming unbearable.
4:35- C'mon Alex you've got this, he's fine, just a half an hour more. She refocused her attention and continued to work on the powerpoint on her desktop.
4:38- 3 minutes?! Seriously? I'm not going to be that parent, no I'm not, I'm not! They assured me if they needed me I'd be contacted as a moments notice. But he's riiiiight downstairs. She picked up her phone to check the dial tone, and checked her cell battery: full. No, you still have 20 minutes and then you have him for the rest of the evening.
4:39- Oh for Christ's sake- she shut down her computer, slid her arm over the desk knocking the contents into her bag, swung the strap over her arm and quickly made her way down to the daycare center.
She rounded the corner almost too excited when she saw Piper looking through the one way mirror. She snuck up beside her and placed her hand on the small of her back.
"Don't," Piper said knowing Alex would be dying to make fun of her for failing to stay away for a single afternoon.
Alex just shook her head, "how's he doing?"
Piper nodded her head toward their son on the floor, "why doesn't he look as miserable as he does when we do tummy time at home?"
"There's more for him to explore here, sounds to listen to, new people."
Piper moved in front of the door, anxious to pick him up, when one of the caregivers looked up and saw them through the window on the door and motioned for them to come in. Alex raised her hands to say no and pointed to her watch indicating there was still time.
Piper looked at her, "are you trying to kill me?"
"Piper I'm twenty minutes early, and you're not even supposed to be here."
The blonde hardened her stare, her chest ached at the sight of him, "I can give you five minutes," she said with a seriousness in her tone, and dug her heels into the carpet.
Alex sucked in her lips and fought the urge to reply. She knew Piper was alright now that she could see their baby but knew that she was still on edge. She'd done well and hadn't called inquiring about how he was throughout the day.
"What exactly did we do before him?," Alex asks as she watches a caretaker turn him to his back and passively move his arms to overly happy music that is just audible through the door.
"I mean aside from sleep in, and have clean clothes and listen to the actual artist of my favorite songs versus some distorted cover version."
"No idea," Piper breathed, "does he look bigger? He looks bigger than he did this morning," she said with certainty.
"He's exactly the same size as he was five hours ago, let me get him before you combust. She walked in with Piper on her heels, "Jamieeeeee," Alex called to him, he turned his head to look toward the familiar voice and spotted Alex, his legs moved wildly and his face broke out into a gummy grin. Even thought he'd done this several times over the last week or so, she caught her breath every time he smiled in her direction or babbled back when she talked to him. She didn't really talk in baby talk, but talked to him as if she was talking to anyone else and he had to understand her right? Why else would he talk back? she always rationalized. She dipped down to sit him up, "how's my boy? how'd he do today," she asked the same caregiver, Beth, she'd left him with earlier that day and stood up, while Piper immediately started stroking his back.
"Great, only fussed if he was wet, he took two bottles so there's still another, we put the date on it so you can leave it here and we can use that one first tomorrow."
Alex passed him to Piper who clutched him close to her chest and absorbed all his baby particles.
"This is Piper," Alex said turning toward her wife who managed to shut out the rest of the world now that she had her son in her arms.
"Will she be picking him up sometimes as well?"
"It'll almost always be me, but occasionally her, maybe one or two other people, can I add them to our file?" She sorted out some of the logistics and collected their belongings to head home.
The next time she swapped him with Piper at Mommy and Me she saw a flyer for baby massage. They had Saturday morning sessions at 8 A.M."Well I'll already be awake anyways right?, she said to herself. She looked at James through the glass as Piper started to clean up their spot in the room. She pulled a tab from the flyer and walked in, "what do you think about this? You think it's any different than just rubbing him any old way?"
"Probably not," Piper shrugged her shoulders, "but it's half off if you're already enrolled in another class.
"Figured it could give you some alone time Saturday mornings and give me some quality time with him."
"That might be nice," Piper's lip dipped down slightly.
"I think you'd be sleeping in, you wouldn't miss him babe."
"You're probably right."
They parted ways and Alex dropped him off at daycare and went up to sit at her desk when there was a knock at her door, "hey where'd you go, I stopped by here to see if you wanted to go out to lunch... you have something on your shirt," her colleague pointed out to her.
Alex looked over her shirt to see an off white crusty spot on the side of her blouse, "dammit," she said noting Jamie's drool spot on her shirt. "My son's downstairs at daycare, third day. I went to get him on my lunch hour, we're just doing half days for a while, my wife's kind of freaking out at the thought of being away from him all day and...," her friend cut her off when she registered that he was in daycare in their building.
"He's here?! I want to see him, I've only seen him in pictures." As she dragged Alex down the corridor toward the elevators, she stopped to alert two other friends who'd come to the shower, that they passed on the way that they were going to see Jamie.
"You guys are so funny. The daycare lady is going to think I'm nuts with this entourage."
Sorry she mouthed through the door with the three other adults who stood around her jumped around trying to get her sons attention. The attendant waved her off as if it wasn't a big deal, Alex was sure this happened from time to time.
It became a daily routine for Alex to stop into the center during her fifteen minute break over the next few months. She watched him this day as he sat on a mat with two other babies and a caregiver. He could sit up by himself unassisted and Alex watched him for a few minutes before removing her shoes and walking in. He met her eyes, his face lit up and he reached up his arms, opening and closing his hands for her to pick him up.
"Hi Jamie," she said enthusiastically and sat down in front of him. He came onto his hands and bounced on his knees but couldn't come forward. She stood him up and held him up by both of his hands, he bounced up and down in front of her. She sat him back down and played with him for a bit, moving a toy that he was holding in his hand just out of his reach. He was not amused as he protested with a grumble.
"Oh sorry bud, gotta come and get it," she said tapping the toy and scooted back some more. He reached for it and looked at her for assistance before he laid down and rolled toward it, and shoved it in his mouth.
"Well aren't you just so smart," she said to him. He sat up and snacked on the toy some more. "He's gonna crawl soon, hope you have the place baby proofed," Beth said as she walked to move another active baby to a more enclosed space. He dropped the toy losing interest and reached his arms out again for Alex to pick him up.
"Alright buddy," she picked him up, and positioned each of his legs around her waist. He grabbed onto her necklace and laid his head against her chest. He was there the full day now and the days spent apart were long, she took comfort in seeing him as much as he did her.
Beth brought her a bottle and she sat with him at the edge of the room. He liked to sit with his back against her front and watch the other kids play. He'd keep a hand over Alex's on his bottle, and reach his other hand up and hang onto her hair with the other. She figured if he couldn't see her, this was his way of knowing she was there. He'd reach a hand up while Piper nursed him too and while it wasn't the same, she could understand why Piper was obsessed with feeding him every chance she could. She was grateful for this time with him for when she and Piper were together, it was best for him to nurse directly with Piper. She sat while he stroked her hair and watched his friends. She looked forward to this everyday of the week. She tapped the camera button so it could flip and Jamie could see his face, he stared at the boy looking back at him for a while before he smiled with the nipple still hanging in his mouth and Alex clicked the button and sent it to Piper, "yummy breast milk , thanks mom." She let her know she would be stopping at the store on the way home. When he finished his bottle, she held him by his underarms and let him bounce between her knees, he screeched with happiness; she couldn't help but chuckle. His laughs were genuine, he was a happy baby and she felt relieved that he seemed so content with little things. She let him jump until her time was up.
"You guys have a bouncer," the caregiver said in a way that Alex didn't know if she was making a statement or asking a question.
"Him?," she lifted him up some.
"No," Beth laughed, "at home. He just loves to bounce, I thought you had one."
"What kind of bouncer?," Alex asked while he stood on his feet and rocked back and forth smacking his lips.
"You know, they have these kinds that have elastic bands you can hang from the doorway." "I think I know what you're talking about, ill look into it thanks."
Heading to the baby supply store was at the top of her priority list now. She returned to work for the remainder of the day and at five o'clock she picked him up and ventured to the store for some baby proofing materials and the bouncer.
She clipped the shopping bag to her backpack with a carabiner and adjusted the weight between James and all the supplies. She stepped onto the sidewalk in the blazing heat, "feels like were in a dragon's mouth, huh kid?"
She adjusted her glasses while they stood behind the crosswalk, and waited for the little white man to say they could go. She rubbed her hands over his thighs, down to his feet and squeezed them gently. "I still give your mom credit for schlepping herself on the subway and walking everywhere as long as she did," his thrashing feet hit against her hips distracting her, "well aren't you happy, are you trying to run? Should we take the subway or walk it?" He babbled back and snacked on his hand. Alex felt guilty at the prospect of him spending anymore time that day indoors. She endured the sweat puddle that was forming between the two of them, while she strolled the eighteen blocks home.
Her phone alerted as she was walking up the stairs to their apartment when she stopped for a breather and looked at her phone,
where's my kid?!
"Rut roh," she said after looking at how long it took her to get home, "better look extra cute kid." She typed out "look through the peephole," and completed her ascent before she hit send. She adjusted the wrap some and boosted him up toward the peephole and Piper opened the door, "I come in peace," Alex said from behind him and Piper smothered him in kisses.
"Um hello? What am I a damn donkey?," she asked as the blonde head continued her smattering of love for their son and neglected to acknowledge her existence. "I just carried this fifteen pound sack of potatoes and all this baby crap, eighteen blocks, in the blistering heat and I don't even get a kiss?!," she said and noticed the washcloth coming out of Piper's tank top.
"Was this treacherous trek in the blistering heat also accompanied by hail and fifteen feet of snow too?," she asked mocking Alex.
"Wise ass."
"Foul mouth."
"Make it pure," she said snarkily and pressed her lips forward awaiting her kiss.
"As if, no amount of tonsil hockey could ever make that mouth pure," she said while popping a smooch on Alex's mouth.
Jamie reached up and grabbed Piper's hair, "no grab," she said and pried his fingers from around her hair.
"What's with the washcloth," she said tugging the cloth hanging out of Piper's tank top, "new fashion statement? Can I have one? He slimed me when I went to see him on my break earlier," she said trying to locate the stain on her shirt.
"My tit's are leaking everywhere, I thought you'd be home sooner so I held out on pumping and I was low on breast pads so I wanted to save those for work so I just shoved this in."
"You should've told me, I was just at the supply store."
"Well how was I supposed to know what store you were going to?"
"I'll stop again tomorrow and if I'm gonna take a while ill let you know alright? Can you take him?"
"Well hang on let me get this," she pulled off Alex's backpack as the brunette rolled her shoulders back, "what did you get anyway?"
She pulled him out of the wrap and handed him to Piper who took him over to couch and started nursing him immediately.
"Okay so check this out," she pulled the bouncer from the bag, "so we supposedly hook this up in the doorway so he can use his legs to push off the ground and continue to train for his gold medal as a Mexican jumping bean." Piper chuckled and nodded approvingly, "very cool, okay."
"And this," she dumps out dozens of plastic containers, "is because apparently crawling,"
"what?," Piper interrupted with a look of worry, "he crawled?" "what? no, can I finish?"
She stroked his head once before she fondled the ends of her own hair embarrassed to have allowed her neurosis to once again take over, she nodded.
"I was saying that crawling is around the corner apparently and the lady at daycare said to continue moving things for him so that they're just out of reach because he's almost there. But she said the fact that he rolls so much and can push himself up onto his hands means he can already get around to stuff, even if our backs are turned for a second and to start baby proofing now."
Piper did a once over around the room, "so we need to pad all of the corners, lock the doors of all the cabinets, put safety covers on all the outlets." Alex left a hand on her hip and moved her arm around the mess she made on the floor, "right so essentially alter our lives entirely, as usual," she laughed.
A week later, Piper is mid-rant about impossible customers while she rearranges the food on her plate as Alex pours them each a glass of wine but out of experience with the speed racer that sits on Piper's lap, keeps her wife's drink closer to her side of the table.
The blonde picks up the blue rubber block that was dropped on the floor, and rinses it off in the sink and hands it back to her son that's resting on her hip, while she continues to tell Alex about her day.
She sits back down and talks around a forkful of orzo, when he drops the block on the floor again. Piper is completely wrapped up in her tale and Alex purses her lips just slightly as the blonde bends down to pick up the block again to rinse it off, unsure if their son is playing his own game. She returns to the table and adjusts him on her lap, he doesn't even bother putting it in his mouth this time, but blatantly throws it on the floor. Piper sucks her teeth while Alex laughs, "it's not funny Alex. Jamie, no," she scolds him and waves her index finger back and forth. "Don't laugh at him, it's only going to encourage the behavior," she dips her head down to Look at him, "can I please finish talking to your mother?" She takes the block and sets it on the table away from him. He starts wiggling restlessly, failing to get the rubber block and starts fussing. Alex reaches for it to rinse it but Piper raises her eyes at her, "can I finish my story?"
"He's going to go crazy."
"You have an attention deficit."
"I don't, and you're being cranky, it'll take me two seconds," she rinses it off and rolls the block across the table. He swipes his arm across the table and knocks it off; Alex starts cracking up amused with his antics.
He starts squirming again as he can see the blue block on the wooden floor below him and tries to wrestle free from Piper. He shimmed down to where his back was flat on her lap and she re- adjusted him into her right arm so he couldn't see it and was forced to eat with her left hand.
"Want me to take him so you can eat?" "No I'm fine," she said irritated.
James flailed his arms and scooted around her lap, straining his neck around trying to focus on the block and started babbling louder in frustration.
"Um, your son is freaking out," Alex says observing their son who is slowly losing his mind. "My son?"
"Yeah don't you hear him, he's getting louder."
"Is he not your son now?"
"Not when he's throwing tantrums and being like that. When he's funny and adorable and cuddly, he's mine," she says with a sarcastic tone and smirk.
Piper places him in his walker, cleans the block and gives it back to him. He holds onto it with both hands and bites on it as he walks around their table as they finish their dinner.
Piper continues her venting session, they hear him knocking into the legs from underneath the table, Alex looks like she's going to cry from trying to hold in her laughter while she tries to be serious and listen to Piper.
Piper is about to scold her when she feels James' wet hand across her knee. She dips her head under the table and is met with a toothless grin. She sits back up, "he gets this from you, this... this sour-patch kid charm, throwing stuff around and then trying to be all lovey, coating my body in slobber."
"Hey my charm cannot be learned, it's something you're born with. He has a gift, don't question the gift."
He scoots out and looks up at Piper talking to Alex and starts coughing. Piper's attention is immediately broken from her complaining and she crouches beside him. He stops but she swipes a finger through his mouth to check for small objects and finds nothing. She pats his back some, "are you okay baby?," she asks him and lifts him up to sit him on the table and looks at him.
He seems fine and she keeps an eye on him; Alex sits down from the other side of the table and continues talking. After Piper stares at him for a minute or two she finally breaks eye contact, "so then he's going on about how this other store has this entire line of aromatherapy products and I tried to explain to him that we have a similar line, it's just not called that," she stops abruptly as James starts coughing again.
"Oh my God, what's wrong with him, Al?," she looks at her worriedly. She pulls both of his arms up over his head despite knowing he's put nothing new in his mouth as Alex reaches over the table to pat his back. He settles quickly and Piper places her lips to his forehead, "he feels fine, if anything he's cool." She holds down one nostril and he breathes quickly out one side and pulls away. She tries to repeat this on the other side and he thrashes back refusing to comply with such shenanigans.
"Can you get the thermometer?," Piper asks Alex as she pushes her chair back from the table and heads to the bathroom to start steaming up the room.
Alex comes from his room and sits on the toilet as Piper sits on the edge of the tub while Alex sticks the thermometer in his ear. Moments later it beeps "98.2," she says biting her inner cheek. They sit with him in the bathroom for close to an hour and he doesn't cough at all. They settle in to sleep, Piper lays him on his back between them and dotes over him, sweeping his hair back from his face and moves him to the co-sleeper once he's asleep.
He sits undressed down to his diaper on the exam table in Dr. Samuel's office the next morning. Piper keeps a hand on his back while she explains, "and he seemed completely fine, his temperature was normal, he didn't seem congested, and he didn't cough at all throughout the night but then this morning he started to again."
The pediatrician took his temperature again, listened to his heart and lungs, looked into his ears, quickly palpated his abdomen and reassured the worried parents that he was fine.
"Are you trying to say my baby's not sick? Because he coughed several times." "Ms. Vauseman?"
"It's Vause."
"Alex!," Piper cut her eyes surprised at the tone she was taking with their pediatrician, "Dr. Samuels, if he's not sick what would cause the cough? Could it be an allergy? Because I could
clean more but our living space is cleaner than most and I only use hypo-allergenic products around our home."
He shakes his head, "what were you doing while we was coughing?"
Alex wrinkled her eyebrows she shook her head recalling their activity over the last two days to be insignificant.
"Nothing," Piper said also trying to recall anything significant. "We were having dinner last night when it started and we were washing and putting away dishes this morning when it started again."
"And where was he?"
"We don't leave him unattended," she said now becoming defensive herself.
"Sometimes, no matter how much time you spend with them, they do it for attention."
"What? You're saying he's doing it on purpose?," Alex asked.
"Yes, they do it for absolute undivided attention, so it's almost always when they can see you but you're doing something else."
They both turned their heads toward him.
Piper looked back at their doctor, "you're sure he's not sick? Because he did drop a toy on the floor a bunch of times last night but I washed it off before I gave it back to him. Maybe I didn't wash it well enough and there was something small on.."
He continued to shake his head no, "he's a perfectly well, thriving baby. He's doing well," he said while grasping Jamie's hands and moved his arms. Alex smirked as she looked at their son.
"Well you were due to come in within the next week or so for a well visit, do you want to just take care of those things now?" Piper silently nodded her head still in shock. Their pediatrician asked many questions, did a few assessments, ensured their home was baby proofed, and gave them anticipatory guidance to pending milestones like crawling, starting on solid foods and teething. He told them that they could dress him, just to leave his shorts off for some vaccines and stepped out.
"This is unbelievable," Piper said looking at Alex.
"He's brilliant."
Jamie sucked on his bottom lip and repeated "babababababa."
Piper looked at him irritated for having made her so nervous for no reason, "he's cheeky."
"Why are you so upset? Arent you glad he's not sick? We were coming here in a week anyway for a check-up and now it's done," Alex said trying to focus on the positives.
Piper raised her arms up and opened her mouth but it took her a moment to find her words. "He tricked me! I'm getting all worked up over nothing and he's making us look bad like we neglect him." She rubbed a hand over her head and covered her mouth, "maybe I should stay home with him."
"Pipes this isn't the fifties, people work. He has to learn to deal with multiple things occurring around him at the same time. We don't neglect him, we barely put him down!," she said holding up the fabric from their Moby wrap. She shoves the material into their diaper bag and looks around for her pack of gum that she threw among the other dozen objects floating through the bag. "He's just smart Pipes, he knows how to get what he wants."
"He's you!," Piper says to her and exhales a single annoyed puff of air. "Do you think he learned this?"
"Yeah we get together while you're sleeping and plan our high jinks," she says slightly insulted at Piper's obvious annoyance of her and their son's similar characteristic. "No, I think he's really freaking smart and saw how much we freaked out at the first cough like typical inexperienced parents and had a field day."
Piper frowned slightly and shook her head, unimpressed. "What are you looking for?" "Your big girl panties." She pulled out her pack of gum and offered Piper a piece.
"So you're not at all annoyed by this?"
"There are worse things. We just have to not play into it all the time."
Piper held onto both of his legs while they waited for the nurse to return. He rubbed the bracelets on her wrists and babbled looking up to her.
"Mmm, hmm," she nodded with tired heavy eyes and exuded a soft laugh, "you're too much," she said kissing the top of his head.
"Alright here we are," the nurse said as she brought in two syringes with a multitude of vaccine vials. "He's getting two?," Piper questioned eyeing the two syringes.
"It's about six today, but I can draw several of them up at the same time so it's still just two injections."
"Is that necessary?," Alex asked standing up, "Sorry, we weren't expecting to do this today, we didn't have a chance to read up on them."
"That's alright, so these," she separated some of the vials, "are boosters or additional doses of vaccines that he's already gotten, and these are new."
"Can he just get the one injection of vaccines he's already received and the others another time? He just gets really fussy after shots and with potential reactions and stuff, I'd like them spaced." Piper rubbed her hands over his back appreciative of Alex's ability to voice concerns over whatever she'd read in the past.
"That's fine, you're his parents. I'll just let Dr. Samuels know and ill put a note in his chart that you'll return at a later time to get the remaining vaccines."
The nurse gave him his shot, he opened his mouth and inhaled while his bottom lip quivered before he let out a loud cry.
"Oh its okay kiddo. I hope he doesn't think when he coughs his gonna come here and get a shot now. I don't want to stunt his creative genius," Alex said while Piper rocked him in her arms.
Alex strapped him into his car seat while Piper started the car and adjusted the mirrors. They were mid-conversation on the drive home when he started coughing again. Piper naturally started to slow the car down but then picked up speed again, "no, I'm not even going to look at him, not encouraging it."
He started to cough again, worry took over her face so she looked into the rearview mirror and tried to see him in the baby mirror that faced his rear facing car seat. Alex reached a hand back, making contact with his head as she felt his head tip back to look up. She sat up some to look over her shoulder to make sure he was alright and saw him smiling up at her. She bit her lips together, "he's fine." Piper bit her tongue between her lips and nodded knowingly.
They got home and placed him in the bouncer and watched him bounce up and down, alternating his feet like he was tap dancing and swing from the cushioned seat. After a while he lets his legs go limp and hangs lazily until he sees Piper looking at him. He sits up and reaches his arms out to her. She scoops him out and he paws at her chest excitedly, "this is all I'm good for now, I'm a human cow." He starts nursing and starts playing with her hair, she looks down and he's stares right into her eyes. She lets the multitude of feelings consume her.
She feels taken advantage of, naïve at how clever he already was. She felt saddened that some milestones were about to become old news but excited for the new ones that were about to come. More than anything, no matter how overwhelmed she felt or the level of frustration that took over, when he grasped her hair for comfort and looked into her eyes like he did like this with every feeding, she was melting with love.
Alex sat down beside her and made a list of vegetables to puree for him to try over the week. "It says not to introduce them to fruit too early because once they taste it they don't want anything else," she says as she adjusts her glasses, "well I don't know if I should be insulted or flattered."
Piper peers at her, not amused, now convinced that he'll pick up all of Alex's bad habits. She looks at Alex lovingly stroke their sons head and snickers. He'll pick up the great characterists too; her wife was right there were far worse things. She moved down to the floor with him and lays on her back with her hands clasped behind her head. He sits beside her and grabs her shirt while she supervises any pending mischief while Alex continues to read out loud the latest parenting advice on solid food introduction.
He leans up from his tummy and rocks back and forth on his knees, but comes down back onto his tummy and army crawls towards Piper. She excitedly leans her neck up and whispers to Alex, "he's crawling, well sort of." Alex looks up from reading and Piper backs away from him another foot and he continues to slither across the floor toward her. She claps her hands together quickly, "oh my God, you are a genius," she lifts him up and kisses his cheeks and his neck and looks into his eyes. He leans into her with a wide open mouth and screeches while he sucks on her face.
"Mine," Alex says as she leans over them.
"What you're gonna fight with him now?"
Alex looks at Piper like she's full of herself, "no," she says with a hooked eyebrow and a wicked smirk. "When he's like this," she waves her hand over them and points to herself, "he's my son."