One Direction | Preferences

First night at home with your baby

Niall: You’re sore and exhausted, but you end up lying in bed, wide awake and staring at the bassinet in the corner, fingers knotted over your stomach, every sense wired, waiting for Amelia to wake up, or cry, or stop breathing, although hopefully not the last one. Niall falls asleep quite quickly, the stress of the last forty eight hours weighing him down, but you’re still listening hard two hours after going to bed, no matter how much your body screams for sleep. The baby snuffles, stirring,  and you jerk up in bed, peering through the dark room to see her lying quietly, breathing evenly, and Niall sits up as well, rubbing his eyes, “Everything okay?” “Yeah, I think she’s fine.” “I’m sure she is,” he reassures, hand warm on your shoulder, and his brow furrows as he takes in your tired, dishevelled appearance. “Have you slept?” “Not really.” “You need rest, babe,” he insists, guiding you back down to the bed, and he wraps his arms around you, kissing the top of your head, “She’ll be okay, I promise, she’ll let us know if anything’s wrong.” You’re asleep within minutes.

Harry: He drags the cot from the nursery into the bedroom after both of you were too antsy to have her sleep in another room, and positions it by his side so as to give you as much hope of sleep as possible. The two of you drift off with you tucked into his side, and his other arm dangling into the cot, his finger wrapped in her hand. The night is disturbed plenty of times, fumbling with your pyjamas to nurse her, Harry walking up and down the hallway to rock her back to sleep, but it’s not as awful as everyone told you it would be, because Harry’s there to help you through it all.

Liam: You’d been warned plenty of times about how tricky it was getting babies to sleep, but still, you can’t really prepare for something like this, so when Nick wakes you within two hours, fussing and crying, it’s a bit of a blur, stumbling across the dark bedroom to the cot to get him, before bringing him back and tucking him up against you with the duvet, Liam hovering over the two of, desperate to help, almost disappointed he didn’t have boobs in that moment so that you could keep sleeping. You’re woken four times over the period of ten hours, the hour between three am and four am spent fully awake as he fussed, only being lulled by Liam hanging over the cot, singing both you and him back to sleep.

Louis: He keeps insisting that you sleep in the spare room, that he’ll deal with the first night, but the first night with a child on your own is an important one, and you manage to calm him down, tucking her up in the bassinette in the corner of the bedroom before the two of you crawl into bed, sharing secret smiles and falling asleep quickly and quietly, exhausted from the last forty eight hours. Louis tries to keep you sleeping on when she wakes up the first time, getting from the bed to the cot in record time, but she’s hungry and won’t stop crying, and you wake almost immediately, reaching sleepily for her. Louis’ apologetic and pulls you sideways to lean against him, kissing the top of your head, but in your haze of sleep, you’re having quite a good time.

Zayn: You’re quite nervous because you don’t have the hospital staff to fall back on now, and spend the good hour after the baby’s fallen asleep watching him, just making sure that he’s definitely still breathing. Zayn eventually drags you to bed, insisting that you need rest, and rubs your back until you fall asleep, and by the time you wake up again, Zayn’s already been up twice, rocking him back to sleep, before he can prolong it no longer and he has to wake you up cause he’s hungry, apologising as he shakes you gently awake. It’s quite sweet, really.