AN: Here we are, the last chapter to this piece. I do intend to do more, however, with this family in the future. Thank you to everyone who has offered me name suggestions! I hope you like her name!
I hope that you enjoy! If you do, please do let me know!
111
Seth helped Jessica with all the firsts that came for a new mother within the hours following birth, even though she tried to protest at a few different turns.
There was no such thing as embarrassment between a doctor and his patient, Seth had insisted, and there was certainly no room for embarrassment between a husband and his wife.
Especially, he'd argued, not when the husband was as absolutely besotted with his wife in the way that Seth was. Fortunately, his teasing use of the word "besotted" had entertained Jessica enough to relieve a little of the tension she was feeling.
The bassinet was easily moved, and Seth dragged it into the bathroom with them. He let Jessica help him as they cleaned the baby girl, carefully dried her, slathered her body with lotion, carefully diapered her, and dressed her in the soft, warm pajamas that Jessica had chosen for her. Seth swaddled her and, when she was soothed enough to drift back off after the exhausting ordeal of a bath, he'd placed her in the bassinet and demonstrated to Jessica that she was both perfectly fine and also well within their sight while Seth helped Jessica with all of her needs.
With all of that done, he stripped the bed and changed the linens while Jessica promised him that she was fine and focused her attention on fussing over the newborn that was never at risk, as far as Seth could tell, of being neglected—not while her mother seemed unable to tear her attention away from her for more than a moment at a time.
Content that mother and daughter were clean, healthy, and cared for, Seth had settled Jessica back into the bed with the baby.
"Is that the sun, Seth?" Jessica asked with a sincere and exhausted laugh.
"That it is, Woman," Seth said, tucking the blankets around her a bit more securely—not because she needed it, but because he needed to do it. "It's Christmas."
"I'm afraid that—I may not be able to handle making a traditional Christmas dinner," she teased.
Seth laughed in response. He hummed and leaned to press a kiss to her forehead. She sighed, and he held the kiss a moment, closing his eyes to savor it.
"I'll scrape something together for us," Seth said. "You have the day off. The only supper you have to worry about making is hers."
Jessica smiled and laughed low in her throat. She was struggling to hold her eyes open. Seth smoothed her hair back affectionately, knowing she would probably protest the fact that he'd done her hair all wrong, if she weren't so very exhausted.
She had already protested the few photos that he'd insisted on taking of her and the baby, but he knew that, later, she would want them—and he believed that she was beautiful at absolutely all times.
She had taken a few of him, too, so that they would have them when the baby was older.
"How about—you eat a few bites of this?" Seth said, offering Jessica the snack that he'd prepared for her. "Just a few and I promise not to nag you for a while. You need to eat, Jess. She needs her mother to keep her strength up and, besides, she was fond of her meal earlier. She might want you to make more for her, before too long."
Seth was quickly becoming confident that, at least for some time, he had an ace-in-the-hole, so to speak, when it came to getting Jessica to take care of herself. She might neglect things, sometimes, when it was only her own well-being at stake, but it was abundantly clear that she would do absolutely nothing to risk even the slightest discomfort for their baby girl.
She ate every bite of the light snack that he'd prepared for her, and she drank both the glass of water that he brought her, and the cup of tea that he prepared for her.
As he predicted, not much time passed before the baby had her own needs—a fresh diaper, which Seth was happy to help with and, it seemed, another attempt at getting some nourishment.
This time, Seth noticed that Jessica was more relaxed as he helped her, and she needed his help a little less than the first time, to get the little one situated. They would, he was confident, find their way. The baby, after all, was very new to the world, and Jessica was just as new to the role of being her mother.
"She's perfect, Seth," Jessica mused, while the baby fed.
"Just like her mother," Seth said.
She laughed quietly and looked at him with heavy eyelids.
"You'd better stop being so sweet," she teased, "or I might get used to it."
He laughed.
"Get used to it, Jess," he said.
She sighed, rather deeply, and Seth decided that, when the baby had finished nursing, he would do his best to convince her to sleep.
"We're snowed in," Seth said. "And it's steadily coming down. It'll be at least a couple of days before we can safely get out."
"Will she be OK?" Jessica asked.
"She's just fine, Woman," Seth assured her. "When it's safe, we'll take you both to Augusta, and we'll let Dr. Wilder have a look at things. He's going to be pleased, though. You both did wonderfully. I'll submit the information for her birth certificate."
Jessica perked up slightly.
"When was she born, Seth?" Jessica asked.
"At two thirty-seven, on the morning of December twenty-fifth, Sethlina Hazlitt came into the world," Seth offered. "I already wrote it down, just in case we both get too tired and forget."
"Christmas," Jessica mused.
"Mmm hmm," Seth agreed. "I don't know, but…I think it's going to be hard to top this Christmas gift with anything under that tree down there, Woman."
"That's true for both of us, Seth," Jessica said. "She's the greatest gift that I could ever…ever ask for." She laughed quietly, again, in her throat. She was clearly too tired to do any more than that. "You have to stop calling her Sethlina, though."
"I'll do that just as soon as you give me a name, Jess," Seth said.
"It's not just my decision," Jessica said.
"I have given you no less than fourteen perfectly suitable names," Seth said. "Fifteen, if you want to seriously consider Sethlina among them. We have tried out every order and arrangement of family names and even just names we liked. I would be happy with absolutely any of them, Jess. You're the one who has said, all along, that none of them felt quite right. I'm waiting on you…and so is she."
Jessica looked a little strained. The back and forth about the baby's name had been ongoing. There were quite a few suitable choices, but Jessica had insisted that she simply couldn't find one that felt right for the baby girl.
Now, she might be too tired to make any such decision. Seth softened at that realization.
"Don't worry about it too much, Jess," he said. "There's time to give her a name. She won't know any different right now, anyway."
"But I will," Jessica said.
For a moment, the entire conversation was stopped as Seth helped Jessica to situate their daughter so that she could practice nursing from both of the possible options available to her.
"Seth…what if we thought about a name that we hadn't considered?" Jessica asked.
"You have something in mind, Jess?"
"She's our perfect little Christmas present," Jessica offered.
"That she is," Seth agreed.
"Noelle?" She asked.
Seth could tell, from her expression, that she half-expected him to reject the name, perhaps in favor of any of the others that they'd already tossed back and forth between them. Seth considered it. He liked the name a great deal and, honestly, he hadn't been partial to anything else.
"It's a fine name, Jess," he said. "But—what about a middle name?"
"You choose," Jessica said. "You have fifteen to choose from. You said it yourself."
"You're the one that has a way with words," Seth said. "How they sound and…how they go together…and I don't know what else, Jessica. You're the wordsmith."
"And you're her daddy," Jessica said with a smile. "You should choose. But—not Sethlina."
He laughed quietly at the teasing warning that she gave him.
He drew in a breath and considered it, trying the name out, in his mind, with every other name that they'd tossed back and forth. They'd said the names to each other. They'd said them aloud. They'd called them out, hearing them ring through the house, as though they were calling their little one in from playing in the yard.
He smiled as he settled on what he liked best, and he nodded his head.
"Got it?" Jessica asked, her words sounding just a touch slurred, at this point, by the exhaustion that he knew had to practically be at a point of overwhelming her.
"Noelle Elizabeth," Seth said.
For just a moment, he could see Jessica consider it, and then she smiled.
"Oh, Seth…it's perfect," she said.
"You really think so, Jess?" He asked.
"Noelle Elizabeth Hazlitt," Jessica said. "It's a beautiful name, Seth. Truly perfect."
"It would have to be," Seth said with a playful wink in her direction. "Nothing less would do for our girl."
"For Noelle," Jessica said, putting a little emphasis on the name that was still very new to all of them.
"For Noelle," he agreed. It tasted strange—as did everything that one was entirely unaccustomed to saying—but Seth felt warmed with the realization that it would become one of the most precious words his ears could ever hear and his mouth could ever say.
"What?" Jessica asked.
Seth realized that, perhaps, his face had made some expression to go with the thoughts that had run through his mind. He would gladly share them with her, of course, but he didn't feel like sharing them just now.
"Nothing, Woman," he said. "Everything's fine," he added, when she looked a little concerned. "Now—listen here, Jessica. I know you're going to fight me on this, but I wish you wouldn't. I'm giving you husband's orders and doctor's orders. You have got to close your eyes and get some sleep. At least a little. Now, I can give you something for pain…"
"Please, Seth," she said, and shook her head to indicate that she wasn't asking for the medicine but, rather, that he wouldn't have her take any.
"Something safe for the baby, Jess," he said. "I wouldn't give you anything that you could pass to her—not if it would hurt either one of you."
"I know that," Jessica said.
"Nothing more than I'd give you for a headache, Woman, or a backache."
"Fine," she agreed.
Seth had several options of pain medication in his bag. He often made sure to have a few choices, in case he was called away in an emergency and didn't have time to gather supplies. He would have preferred to give her something a touch stronger, just to give her a bit more relief from anything she must be feeling, but he ceded to her wishes and offered her something only slightly stronger than what she would have in the medicine cabinet.
She swallowed it down, obediently, and finished the glass of water. Seth was glad that she was drinking water, so he didn't say anything. He couldn't help thinking, though, that her nap might be cut short by the need to go to the bathroom—even shorter, perhaps, than it would be by the newborn that she very reluctantly passed over to him.
"We will be fine, Mama," Seth said.
"I know you will," she said.
Seth smiled. He wasn't offended by the hesitation in her voice. He knew that, really, it had nothing to do with her belief in him or any sort of doubt about his abilities to care for the baby girl. It had only to do with the fact that Jessica was afraid to close her eyes and lose sight of the baby girl that, finally, was here and a part of their lives.
Even if she didn't say it, Seth knew that she was afraid to wake and find that everything had only been a dream.
"The first nap's the hardest, Jess," Seth said softly. He was teasing, and he made sure to make that clear, but he was also being honest, and he knew that she knew that.
She nodded her head and reached a hand out to touch the baby once more. Seth allowed it, of course.
"We'll be right here," he said. "The farthest I'll go is just to walk the floor with her a bit. She's always liked movement."
"Wake me if you need me?" Jessica said.
"Without a doubt," Seth said. "Sweet dreams, Jess. We both love you."
"I love you, too," Jessica said. "Both of you. Immensely."
Seth considered staying in the room with the baby, but he knew that Jessica wouldn't rest. She would struggle, he was sure, to rest no matter what. He left the door cracked, so that she could be confident that, should she be needed, she could hear what was going on.
Seth burped the baby girl rather easily, and settled her comfortably into his arms. He made his way to the nursery that Jessica had worked so hard on preparing and perfecting. The room, he knew, had once held the ghosts of broken dreams. Now, the air in the room felt entirely different. Jessica had practically painted every inch of the room with her hope and love.
Seth walked around the room with the baby in the crook of his arms. He wouldn't put her down—not until her mother woke. It was hard to tell, for the time being, what ideas Jessica might have about the little one, and Seth wasn't going to do anything that might upset her. Besides, the baby was satisfied and, being put down, she might grow upset. Her cries would, without a doubt, rouse her mother and ruin any chance that she would get at least a thirty-minute nap.
Seth needed her to rest, so he was determined to walk the floors with the baby girl for as long as possible.
He paused by the window and looked out. The snow had made everything white, and crisp, and new. It was beautiful, even though Seth grew very tired of snow and ice, at times.
It was a perfect white Christmas.
It was, arguably, the best Christmas of Seth's entire life.
He looked down at the baby in his arms—not yet committed to sleeping, but content enough in her swaddle. Her features would change, he knew, but she bore some very clear resemblance to her mother. Seth smiled at that.
"You're as beautiful as your mother, Noelle," he said, testing it out on his tongue. She didn't seem bothered by his voice. She likely knew it, as Jessica had said, since he was sure that she'd heard plenty of it throughout the months, even though it must sound differently without the barrier of her mother's body between them. "Merry Christmas and happy birthday," he offered. "Your Mama loves you more than life itself…I hope you know that."
He raised her up, slightly, and she shifted a little in her swaddle. He pressed a kiss to the baby's forehead. She whined at him, but she didn't launch into too loud of a complaint. He bounced her, gently, to soothe over whatever inconvenience she'd suffered from the unwelcomed change in her position.
He smiled at her, his heart flooding with affection for the little thing that he'd only just come to truly know.
"Your Mama loves you more than life itself," he repeated. "And your daddy does too. Don't doubt for a second, Sweetheart, that we're so happy you're here."