Falling Backwards

We Got This

Month:  Mid-January

ALYSON’S POV

The telephone rang loudly and Rocky groaned. “What?” He answered as I lay almost dead on our bed. Kadence had been home for 2 weeks and we were absolutely exhausted. He put it on speaker phone, “Good morning Alyson!” Rydel sang through the phone. “Mhm,” I mumbled my eyes closed. “Rocky, we were wondering if Ratliff and I could come over and see you guys and Kadence!” He sighed loudly, “By see all of us, do you mean come over and look at our adorable baby for an hour?” She laughed, “I guess, yeah.” Rocky turned to me, “We could put them on baby duty and we could sleep,” He suggested. I nodded into my pillow, “I like this idea,” I mumbled. “She’s into it,” He said into the phone. “Great! What time should we come by? Do you two need to shower or anything?” Rocky paused.

“Rocky?” She said. “What, yeah, yeah, um, Rydel It’s really hard to shower with a newborn, so I apologize for our physical state.” She laughed, “It’s fine, we’ll be over this afternoon, okay?” “Okay, bye,” “Bye bro, love you,” “Love you too,” He said, setting the phone down, “How dare she call at this hour,” He whined. “What time is it?” I mumbled. “Hah, 11:30,” He sighed, laying back down and wrapping his arms around mine. “At least we have a little time…” He said, kissing my cheek. “Mhm,” I nodded. The baby monitor beeped and we heard crying immediately. My eyes flew open, “Damn it, babe, you jinxed us,” I groaned, sitting up with him.

****

Rydel held Kadence, who slept soundly in her arms. “Hey,” She said to Ratliff, “I’m not too bad at this baby stuff,” Rocky shook his head, “Not yet Rydel, not yet,” I leaned my head on his shoulder, shutting my eyes. “Guys,” Ellington said, “If you want to go to sleep we got her,” Rocky stood up right away, pulling me with him, “Thank you,” I smiled, walking up the stairs. The next thing I know, Ratliff is tapping me on the shoulder, “I’m sorry to wake you Alyson, where are the bottles?” I stared up at him, “We haven’t started bottle feeding yet.” He looked shocked, “Then how is she eating?” “She’s breastfed you idiot,” I snapped, sitting up. “Sorry,” He said. “No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t expect you to know this stuff, and I’m tired, I’m not being very kind lately,” “It’s okay,” He said, leading us down the stairs, “You’ve got a lot going on,”

I shook my head, attempting to wake up a bit, “Hi baby girl,” I said, taking my crying baby out of Rydel’s frazzled arms. “I tried to help,” She whined, “I’m sorry we had to wake you,” I nodded, “It’s okay, you couldn’t help that she was hungry. I put my blanket over myself and adjusted Kadence to eat. “Do you want me to leave or?” Ratliff looked uncomfortable just standing there. I laughed, “I mean, I’m covered, you can stay,” “Okay,” He spoke, sitting down. He looked at the blanket for a solid 15 seconds before I spoke.

“Ratliff, are you okay? Do you have a question or something?” He looked at my face and nodded, “Does it hurt?” I laughed, “No,” “Okay,” He sighed, “I’m good now.” He sat back and began to pay attention to the news that was on TV. Rydel looked around, “Where’s Ross? I haven’t seen him all afternoon.” I smiled, “Ross had a meltdown four days after she came home and said she cries louder at night, which I now believe is true,” Rocky came down the stairs, “I think she just has hearing issues, Kade cries loudly all day and night,” I rolled my eyes, watching him sit down next to me. “Anyways, he takes the night shift now. He and I, or on rare occasions, he and Rocky, watch Kadence at night time, then Ross sleeps most of the day, usually only coming down for dinner and then he’s up all night.” “That’s sweet!” Rydel said, “It’s part of his ‘living here’ deal isn’t it?” Rocky nodded, putting his hands behind his head, “Oh, yeah, and he pays for diapers.” “Sweet deal,” Ratliff said, nodding along with Rocky.