twenty

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thank you for being so patient with me!

***

I can't sleep.

My concentration is solely on the tiny human lying next to me. Her lips puckered slightly as she's swaddled in her personalized blanket.

"Baby?"

Tearing my eyes away from her, I look up at Justin who is rubbing his tired eyes.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

"Staring," I tell him calmly, looking back down to our little girl.

He chuckles, leaning on the bed behind me and staring at her as well. "She's beautiful, I know. But you need sleep."

I shake my head. "No, my adrenaline is still sky high."

He chuckles yet again. "Well, the kids are gonna come meet her tomorrow. Aren't you excited for that?"

"Of course," I reply, laughing lightly. "But I'm a little obsessed with our princess right now."

He chuckles before whispering. "Of course you are. I am too baby."

I grin as he kisses my head.

"But you really do need sleep. So, I'm gonna take the baby over here with me. And you need to close your eyes and go to sleep."

I sigh heavily, watching as he takes her to the other side of the room before forcing my eyes to shut.

Turns out I was more tired than I had thought.

Somehow the next time I open my eyes, the sun shines brightly through the cracks in the curtains.

"Good morning."

Lifting my head, I look over to Justin who's holding our little girl and gazing over at me.

"How long did I sleep?" I ask him, feeling wide awake already.

He chuckles. "Only for about two hours."

"That was enough," I sigh. "How is she?"

"Good. Just sleepy."

"Well, she was awake for the majority of her first hours," I tell him, laughing softly.

He grins.

"I should probably try to feed her. It's important I wake her to feed her for the first 24 hours. She's not used to it."

He nods, bringing her over to me.

After waking her, I help her latch, letting her eat before she falls back asleep.

"While she sleeps, you do." Justin whispers, smirking and kissing my head.

"Fine," I agree, closing my eyes and forcing myself to sleep again.

This time I wake to the sound of my daughter, making my mind awaken immediately as I grab her.

"What's wrong, my love?" I ask. "Are you hungry?"

Helping her to latch, I allow her to eat before burping her and allowing her to lay on my bare chest, wanting to connect with her a little more.

"Alexa, what time is it?"

"It is 8 am."

I sigh, relaxing into the bed and kissing her hair.

"There they are," Justin smiles as he enters the room.

"Hey, where were you?" I ask.

"Getting breakfast," he smiles, holding up bags to our favorite diner.

"Oh my god, I love you."

He chuckles, kissing me. "I love you too."

Being careful to eat while she's on my chest, I soon finish the container of food and moan in satisfaction.

"That was perfect."

He chuckles. "The kids will be here in about an hour but a couple of other people said they'd be stopping by soon. Do you wanna do anything before they get here?"

"Um, yeah. I'd really like to shower and putting our matching outfits on. Then we should probably announce her name online so we can start telling people."

He nods. "Alright. Here, I'll take her and do some one on one."

I grin, handing her over and calling the nurse who would like to be near in case I need help or anything.

Will I? No. I'm sore but not nearly as sore as I was with Brayden. I think I'll be fine. Then again, I understand the protocol.

After my shower, they give me a chair as I wish to do my hair and makeup while Justin is spending his time with her.

Once my hair is loosely curled and I have concealer, eyeliner, and mascara on, I exit the bathroom and make my way back to the bed, sitting in my nightgown and taking baby girl to dress her in an onesie before wrapping her in her swaddle that matches my gown and placing the set hat on her head.

"Look how precious!" I coo, grinning down at her before looking over to Justin.

"You are adorable," he chuckles.

I give him a look.

"Not as adorable as her, but still adorable."

Rolling my eyes at his comment, I begin to speak to her softly before looking over at Justin when a knock sounds at the door.

"Who's that?"

"I um, I hired a photographer to come and take pictures of you and baby girl today."

I grin. "Well then we got dressed at the perfect time."

Justin chuckles, letting the photographer in.

"Hello," she smiles.

"Hi, I'm Justin and this is my wife Elianna."

"Hi," I smile.

"It's so nice to meet you. I'm Amanda." she grins. "Who is this little beauty?"

"We're actually keeping her name a secret until we tell our other kids," I tell her

"Aww, that's quite alright. I love that." she smiles.

"Thank you." I grin.

"Alright, why don't we get started?" Amanda asks.

"Yeah of course," I tell her, nodding and waiting for her to let me know what to do.

After we've done some photos by ourselves, the photographer decides to change a few things and then takes some more, leaving before the children arrive so that we can have that moment to ourselves.

Within ten minutes of the photographer leaving, Justin receives a phone call letting him know that his mother, father, siblings and the kids have arrived.

"I'm gonna go get them," Justin announces.

I nod. "Okay."

He leaves, allowing me to look down at the baby.

"Are you ready to meet your brothers and sister?" I grin, cooing.

Before long, Justin arrives with the children, his parents and siblings staying out of the room for a few moments while they meet their little sister.

"Hey, guys." I smile.

"Mommy!"

"Mommy!"

"Mama!"

"Hi, babies." I grin. "Do you wanna meet your baby sister?"

They nod, running over excitedly.

"Alright, alright. Be calm," I tell them lightly. "She's very little."

Kameron and Elena stare at her, squealing in excitement while Brayden has trouble, not yet being tall enough to see.

"Hey babe, can you put Brayden up here?" I ask, looking over to Justin.

He nods, putting Brayden up onto the bed to meet his sister.

"This is your little sister," I tell him.

"Sister?" he asks, pointing at her.

"Yes baby, your little sister." I grin.

After a few moments of them squealing and being excited, I calm them.

"Alright, alright. Who wants to know baby sister's name?"

They all gasp, nodding.

"Yes, mommy!" Kameron says.

"Please!" Elena says.

"Okay, baby sister's name... is Abrielle."

(A.N: Pronounced Abe-ree-elle)

"Abrielle?" Brayden asks.

I look over, surprised. "Yes! You said it right!"

He grins proudly.

"Abrielle." Elena smiles.

"Yes, baby."

"Kam, what do you think bud?" Justin asks.

"I..." he pauses. "LOVE IT!"

We both laugh at his excitement as he begins dancing around.

*

The next morning, Justin and I are excited to learn the baby and I are being released.

So excited, in fact, that by the time they get us the papers an hour later, we're completely packed up and ready to go... aside from putting Abrielle in her car seat and quick things of that such.

Once the papers are signed and Justin has taken rest of the things down to the car, I place Abrielle carefully in her car seat and I'm put into a wheelchair, placing the car seat on my lap as Justin grabs the last bag and a nurse wheels me through the hospital and out the front doors.

Arriving home a short while later, we walk into an oddly quiet house.

"I'm so thankful your mom took the kids tonight. I don't know what we would've done without their help the past few days.

"Call Mama Lee." I joke.

He chuckles, nodding as he sets Abrielle's car seat down and picks her up gently out of it. "You're not wrong."

I giggle, sighing heavily. "I am exhausted."

"I told you that you would be."

"I know. But thankfully she's only eating every like, two hours right now. So we can all be zombies and sleep all day to try and catch up."

He nods. "I like that idea a lot. But..."

I give him a look.

"She needs a diaper change first."

I laugh. "It's your turn."

He chuckles. "Yeah, I know. I got it. Go ahead and get into some even more comfortable clothes."

"Will do. I'll also get the snoo set up next to my side of the bed so I can breastfeed her when I need to."

He nods. "Alright cool."

I still can't believe we bought a snoo. I've heard so many mixed reviews about them that we both couldn't help but try it and didn't want to. In the end, we obviously couldn't help ourselves and thought it would be a good idea to at least try. If it doesn't work out, we can always sell it or even give it away.

Getting to our bedroom, I take the snoo out of the corner we had put it in, setting it up next to my side of the bed and plugging it in. I then go to the closet, picking out one of my maternity nightgowns and changing into it. My next stop is the bathroom, brushing my teeth and using the toilet before meeting Justin in the middle of our bedroom.

"Do you wanna feed her before we try to sleep?" he asks.

"Yeah, definitely."

He hands her over, taking the time while she eats to change and get ready for some sleep as well.

One Abrielle has finished eating, I look over to Justin.

"Can you get the owlet? I know she'll be right next to us but-"

Before I can finish the sentence, Justin has brought it to me, a grin on his face.

"Me too," he agrees.

I grin, taking it from him and putting it on her foot before securely strapping her into the snoo.

The owlet was a lifesaver in the hospital too.

Within minutes of being in the snoo, Abrielle falls soundly asleep and the owlet shows her levels as normal, giving us enough peace of mind to fall asleep quickly ourselves.

Needless to say, today wasn't quite as peaceful as I had hoped.

Cluster feeding being the culprit of course.

But honestly... I wouldn't change a single thing considering I got more sleep than I have in the past three days. Even with Abrielle wanting to eat almost constantly every few hours... those few hours in between were heaven.

***

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shan:)