Roommates & Soulmates

Tessa's Sleep

Tessa was getting sick of doing laundry. It seemed like no matter how much laundry she did, there was still something more to wash. True, the amount of laundry in the house had gone up significantly since Lucie had been born, but the last few weeks had seen a major increase in loads of dirty baby clothes. Lucie was drooling on everything. This alone wasn't much to worry about, but when Lucie stopped sleeping through the night Tessa had put two and two together. Her daughter was teething.

"I miss sleep," Jem whined as Lucie started crying. Tessa groaned, and covered her head with her pillow.

"I'm up," Will sighed, and Tessa felt him move on her left as he got out of bed. Through her closed eyelids, Tessa saw the light of the door open, and Will leaving. She wasn't sure if she dozed off again or not, but she saw the light again when Will returned. Tessa felt his weight return to the bed, but she also sensed someone else.

"Why isn't she crying?" Tessa asked, turning and opening her eyes. Lucie was laying on Will's chest with his fingers in her mouth.

"She's chewing on me," Will replied, his eyes half closed. Tessa didn't even want to check the time, but she knew from the level of fatigue in her body it was some ungodly hour of the morning.

"My hand is soaked," Will said. Tessa knew he was too tired to laugh, but sensed he might if he'd had the energy.

"That won't last long," Jem said. "I have some grapes in the freezer that might be frozen by now."

Tessa's whole body begged her to sleep, but instead she moved, lifting herself and moving down the bed to exit at the bottom since Will and Jem were on either side of her. Feeling a bit like a zombie, Tessa walked to the kitchen, opened the freezer, and pulled out what she needed. Placing a few grapes in a small child's bowl, Tessa went back to bed. At the moment, she couldn't even care if their bed was covered in grape mush in the morning, so long as they got to sleep in it uninterrupted until then.

Crawling into bed, Tessa placed the bowl of grapes on Will's chest before collapsing back down onto her pillow. Tessa's eyes shut instantly, and she was asleep in seconds, only to be woken by her daughter once again.

Opening her eyes, Tessa saw Lucie laying on her tummy on her father's chest. Will's eyes were closed and his breathing was even, so Tessa suspected him to be still asleep. How he could sleep through his daughter crying literally on top of him, she hadn't a clue. Leaning over, Tessa scooped up her daughter into her arms and pulled her close. Lucie settled down on Tessa, and started pulling on her mother's nightshirt.

"Sorry sweetheart," Tessa told her. "All dried up, but you can suck on my fingers if your gums hurt."

Lucie happily substituted Tessa's fingers for nipples, and the room fell silent as Tessa felt her hand slowly cover with drool. With the secure feeling of her daughter against her skin, and the silence now blessing the room, Tessa's eyes closed, all her focus on the feeling of Lucie's gums gnawing on her fingers. She wasn't sure why it was so calming, or maybe she was just too tired to care. Either way, Tessa woke up awhile later as the sun streamed in through the window.

Taking a deep breath, Tessa could sense her daughter still asleep on her chest. She opened her eyes, and just looked at Lucie for a moment. She was so quiet and peaceful, which had been rare this last week. The more Tessa looked, the more she saw. Lucie was a beautiful baby, with a soft patch of light brown hair, a round face, and soft skin. As she was getting older, more of her character was taking shape, more details and distinctive features could be seen now than when she'd been born. Tessa reached her hand up to gently stroke her daughter's head while she slept.

As it turned out, this was exactly what Tessa shouldn't have done since Lucie promptly woke up. Lifting the baby, Tessa sat up in bed, trying to rock her back to sleep, but Lucie was having none of it. Will was still asleep beside her, and Tessa didn't want to wake him. Moving quickly, she got out on Jem's empty side and made her way out of the room. As Tessa walked up and down the hall trying to get Lucie to settle down, she found Jem in the kitchen preparing a bottle.