Beginning. // z.m. au [discontinued]

Chapter 19

24 Hours | Sky Ferreira

Over the past couple of weeks, I'd grown used to how whacky my sleeping schedule had become ever since Lola was born. As a new, first time parent, I'd now come to realize firsthand how demanding babies actually were. And not that I hadn't known that beforehand of course, but hearing about something and living it were two completely different things that I now fully understood. Because babies were a lot of hard work, believe it or not. They were very demanding; they required attention 24/7, no questions asked, no exceptions. They were a lot to handle, that was for sure, and at this point, I was completely convinced that their cuteness was there solely for the main purpose of distracting just to take away from the hassle of caring for them in the first place. And if my assumptions happened to be true, well, it was safe to say that it was a very effective diversion.

Lola had a tendency to cause commotion as soon as everything seemed to slow down around her for the time being. Like the day before, for instance. Zayn had just put her down for a nap once she started to fall asleep after being fed. It hadn't even been ten minutes before she was waking up again, her loud cries booming through the speakers of the baby monitor Zayn had literally just set down. He was in the midst of sitting down at the time, only for that idea to be tossed away the minute it was about to happen. I offered to go check up on her then instead, but Zayn only waved me off with a flick of his wrist and headed on his quick journey back to Lola's nursery for a second time.

She ended up sleeping in our bed after Zayn had brought her in since she refused to go back to sleep once she'd gotten what she wanted it seemed: to be held within her father's arms. And that was the last image I saw in my head before I dozed off myself, Zayn rocking our daughter back and forth in his arms, which was hands down the best thing for me to witness. I swear I'd never get over the image.

She was so spoiled by her dad already, such a daddy's girl and she'd only been on this earth for a few short weeks. Really, though, it was bound to happen. I somehow always knew it would.

Fortunately for now, Lola had been sleeping peacefully and uninterrupted for just a little over half an hour so far. There was absolutely no telling when it came to her, though, so it was best to enjoy this period of relaxation while it lasted. Which, in the parent world, relaxation seemed to be nothing more than a myth. Seriously, I didn't even think the word relax could even be apart of my vocabulary anymore.

Wow – I had never sounded so old in my entire life.

"I'm thinking about getting a new tattoo." Zayn spoke up all of a sudden, his words lazy and sluggish as they fell from upon his lips. Truth be told, I hadn't even bothered to look up once Zayn was finished speaking, just nodded as if what he'd just said had gone in one ear and right out of the other, which, if I was being completely honest, it kind of did. Overall, I was unfazed by Zayn's announcement simply because I'd heard it so many times before. I felt like he was always coming up with something new to ink on his skin and at this point I think it was safe to say that I'd completely lost track. Was there even any space left for him to tattoo at this point? I couldn't be too sure.

"Okay," was how I chose to answer, still not entirely engaged in the conversation.

And even though I still hadn't managed to look up at Zayn yet, I just knew there was a scowl plastered on my husband's face, knew his eyebrows were furrowed to the middle of his forehead, knew there was probably a pout settling upon his lips to complete the look, too. I tried not to laugh at the fact that I knew him all too well, but I couldn't help myself. I caved, snickering into the palm of my hand to try and mask the sound so that Zayn wouldn't notice but of course he did. Of course.