Swans Don't Quit

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 The last week and a half have been a whirl wind of activity. Nurses and doctors coming in and out at all hours to check incisions and draw blood or give medicine. Isabella got to go home four days after Alex was born and has locked herself in her room and once again refuses to come out. Dad said that her nightmares are back with a vengeance. She wakes twice a night screaming bloody murder; she's back to refusing to eat, and showing no emotion. I was worried, but I now had someone that needed me more than my sister.

I had helped fill out his birth certificate and gotten the details that we had not been able to know immediately. Alexander Caleb Swan was born 1:56 of January 5, 2007 at five pounds and three ounces. He was small but would grow fast. He had a small tuff of almost black hair on the top of head and lightly tanned skin. He had blue eyes like all babies, but the same chocolate brown that dad and Isabella shared were present around the edges and expected to become prominent.

I finally got to hold him a week after he was born and today I was taking him home with me. The nurses all fawned over him and told me how happy and sad they were to see him go. They were glad that he was healthy, but also had been taken by him. Alex only fussed when he was hungry or needed a diaper change and only cried when he was stuck with needles. The one nurse told me she had been a nurse for twenty years and had never met such a calm baby. I smiled and took the compliments easily.

Leah had come and visited every day before or after he shift at the diner. She made fallen in as much love with Alex as I and everyone else had. She was had even more back in during the weekend to help take care of him. Dad had visited a couple times before Isabella was released and was overjoyed with his grandson finally being here. We are already making plans to take him fishing when he was old enough to hold a pole.

"You ready to go Alex?" I asked as I put him into a small baby snowsuit that Sue had gotten for him.

Alex looked up at me with wide eyes and made a small gurgle before giving a baby smile. I smirked down at him as I carefully picked him up and set him into the carrier. A nurse came in with some paper and smiled as she handed them to me before cooing at Alex giving him her index finger to squeeze. He smiled up at her and she smiled back as she raised and lowered her finger in a hand shake motion.

"We're going to miss you, Alex. You were such a good patient for us." She said before standing straight and turned to me.

"You make sure you come back to visit with him." She warned and I nodded with a smile before handing her back the discharge papers. She took the papers, giving me a smile as she left and walked back to the nurse's station.

Once I had him locked into the carrier, I picked it up and made my way out to my truck. Harry had given me a crash course in car seats. He had ended up installing the base after I had thrown it into the snow bank in frustration. Alex drifted to sleep as we drove to the house. I tried to be as quiet as I could getting Alex into the house.

"Welcome home, buddy." I whispered as I carefully got him out of his carrier and laid him on the changing table. I got him out of his snowsuit and laid him down in his crib to sleep. I stood up and looked around the room. Sue and Leah had done a good job of decorating the room. The walls were forest green with all dark wood furniture. There were stuffed animals that were all creatures you would find in forests here in Washington and even a couple I didn't recognize. Sue had explained that they were creatures from Quileute legends, such as a Phoenix and a wolf.

I realized then how much my life had changed in the last year. I went from a single guy with a crazy ex girlfriend, who couldn't get the girl he liked to give him a second glance, who had a sister that he couldn't stand and was buying a house to get away from to a rookie, a guy dating the girl of his dreams, an uncle, a sister I could stand and cared deeply for. The changes were vast and there were things that I wish I could change, but knew that I would be hoping against hope to change anything.