Forever with His Edith

Blue-eyed Beauty

AN: Thank you to  Foxylady_76   for suggesting that I write about Eden's new family meeting her biological family. I didn't exactly want to write about them meeting Gabriella or Gabriel because of how badly they hurt Eden, so this is what I came up with. I hope that you enjoy!

This is an extremely long chapter-like 11,577 words long so I hope that you enjoy.

Five weeks after Lydia's birth

A piercing cry jostled me awake and my heart raced at the sheer volume. The digital clock read 3:24 a.m. Noah groaned beside me, his arm draped over his forehead dramatically. Even after almost a month and a half, my baby girl woke up almost every hour needing us to take care of her somehow.

I watched her for a moment, my beautiful Lydia. I'll admit, I was worried that my baby would look just like most babies right out of the womb, wrinkly and unattractive, but Lydia was different. Maybe it was a motherly thing. Every mother had to think their baby was the most beautiful being alive, right? Sure Lydia was a bit red and had flaky skin, but she wasn't ugly by any means. With a full head of curly, brown hair and her father's endless blue eyes, Lydia Elizabeth was already painfully gorgeous, even with her face scrunched up in an extremely loud wail.

I now knew what Momma had meant all those years ago as I climbed into her SUV for the first time. When our daughter grew up, Noah would need to buy himself a shotgun to ward off the many suitors that would undoubtedly come our way. Lydia was just that pretty.

After adjusting my nursing bra, I took my tiny baby into my arms and nestled her where she wanted to be. She latched immediately, extremely eager for my milk even though she had just eaten two hours before. Noah sat up beside me, a huge yawn escaping his lips. He was exhausted, we both were. It was taking Noah quite some time to get adjusted to waking up at ungodly hours of the night to take care of the baby. It didn't help that he would need to be awake in a couple hours to prepare for work.

While I stayed home with the baby and cared for her every minute of the day, Noah still had a classroom to teach and a team to coach. He had to be at work around seven every day and couldn't return home until much after seven at night because it was football season. Even still, Noah came home every day, eagerly taking Lydia from me and caring for her while I took a minute to rest. He was still as kind and caring as always and his baby was his pride and joy. Although we hadn't had the chance to take Lydia out of the house much, out of fear she would get sick, Noah spoke about me and our baby to anyone that would listen. We had our tiffs every once in a while, more than usual due to our exhaustion, but he remained as my constant companion, my best friend, my backbone.

I was still struggling to recover from giving birth. Maybe it was my gait problems that caused back discomfort, or my small body adjusting to pushing out a human, but I was in constant pain. My breasts were still as big as ever, swollen beyond belief and extremely sore. All I really wanted to do was sleep and hold my baby 24/7. Noah understood and tried to help me whenever possible, but I would need to return to work and I had no idea how I could leave Lydia.

I had horrible anxiety when I was without my baby. I could tell from the beginning that it was hard to be without her in my arms. Noah would give me stretches of time to nap or clean up around the house and I'd feel stressed wondering how Lydia was or if she needed me to feed her, to hold her, to love on her.

When Lydia was three weeks old, Noah and I went to have dinner together, leaving the baby with Momma, in an effort to "keep our love alive" as all the books recommended. Almost as soon as we left the house, I felt a huge wave of guilt and nerves at being without her, so much so that it felt as if butterflies were trying to escape my mouth, leaving me unable to eat or do anything but take deep breaths and try not to cry. I was a nervous wreck, worried that I'd get home and something would be wrong with my baby. Noah concurred with me, admitting that in the first few days of returning to work, that was the reason he checked in so often.