A Miracle Starts With a Beat of a Heart

Chapter 13

It had been just a little over a couple of weeks since Nadia was born. 

As expected, things weren't exactly as calm and relaxed as the day she was born. Returning to their own quarters two days after Nadia's birth seemed to go off without a hitch for both baby and Daisy, but that seemed to be when the shift happened. It seemed to be harder for her to go to sleep at night, causing Daisy's sleep schedule to work around Nadia's. The only time she found open to sleep for herself was during Nadia's daytime naps, and even those were very minimal as the little girl seemed to only like sleeping in Daisy's arms.

Nadia's feeding schedule also seemed to be too much sometimes. It felt like she was hungry more often than not. This had worried Daisy at first, scared that she may be overfeeding her baby, but she read articles upon articles telling her that the schedule she was on now was completely normal. If there was one thing in terms of feeding Daisy hated, it was the fact that Nadia seemed to not want to keep her spit up down when being burped. 

Daisy had her moments where things felt like they were falling apart and not working out in her best interests. She questioned herself constantly, wanting to make sure she was doing what was right and best for her daughter. She didn't want to fail Nadia the way many foster parents of the past have failed her.

One particular night stood out to Daisy just barely a week after Nadia was born. A couple of nights before that had been difficult, but she was able to get Nadia to go to sleep nonetheless. Tonight, however, the baby girl continued to cry as her exhausted mother tried to calm her.

Daisy tried everything she could. Nadia had just eaten and been burped. She had on a clean diaper as well, so everything Daisy could physically see was good and taken care of. Daisy had feared that maybe she had gotten sick already and was crying due to a fever or something, but her temperature came back normal. She had even just resulted to trying to calm her using a pacifier, but that didn't seem to do the trick either.

Daisy rocked Nadia back and forth in her arms, humming softly to calm the crying baby. She walked around her room a few dozen times, seeing if the movement would help a bit, but everything she tried just didn't work. Daisy felt for Nadia. The poor infant was barely a week old, and had no idea what was going on and had no way to properly communicate what was wrong to her mother.

"I know, baby," Daisy whispered. Her own emotions were beginning to bubble up as the stress of being awake this late was starting to get to her, but she suppressed it to the best of her ability.

After a few more round trips around her bunk, Daisy walked out into the halls. The walls in the Lighthouse were pretty thick - it was built to withstand the literal Earth cracking apart after all - but the walls weren't exactly soundproof. Daisy felt bad for the agents trying to sleep having to listen to her baby cry, but Daisy was running out of ideas, and she felt like if she stayed in her room any longer with no progress, she was sure her head would explode.

Every couple of minutes of walking back and forth down the hallway, Daisy would successfully get the pacifier into Nadia's mouth, and her cries would be silenced for a little bit, in which Daisy prayed was the final blow she needed to get Nadia to sleep, but it would never be long before Nadia's cries started up again, and the pacifier served no purpose.

"Come on, Dia," Daisy said, using the little nickname she had come up with, "Mommy needs her sleep too." Much to her dismay, Nadia continued to whine and cry.

Daisy could feel her tears beginning to well up. She's had pretty sleepless nights in the past, even before Nadia was conceived, but tonight, she felt as if she was on her last leg. She looked down at the newborn, her eyes screwed shut as the tears escaped her little eyes as her toothless mouth let out high-pitched wails. Nadia squirmed in Daisy's arms, probably feeling just as tired as her mother.