Cigarettes [Bennoda] ✔

Chapter 75

Chester's POV
The next week came pretty quick, and Max was just under four pounds. We were set to take her home a few days after that third week mark. Both Mike and I were so excited and nervous.

When that day finally came, Mike was a nervous wreck. He had been panicking that whole morning making sure we had everything in her diaper bag and made sure we had her carseat in the back the right way.

"Dude, it's fucking happening." He said, buckling his seatbelt when we got into the Jeep. "Dude? Dude don't call me dude." I said with a little laugh. "You're a dude right? Why can't I call you dude?" He asked. "I'm not one of your bros, Mike. It's like when you call me "man". Like yeah I'm a man, but don't call me that. I like when you call me baby." He stared at me with a "really?" look and then spoke again. "Dude stop being picky about pet names. We're bringing home our baby today." He said. I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Whatever you say, bro." I said. He rolled his eyes then and smiled.

When we got to the hospital they told us about things we should look out for because she was still small and things could still go wrong. After all that we got to check her out and leave with her. It was an amazing feeling walking out the front doors with our baby.

We put her in her carseat and I sat in the back with her. Mike drove of course. When we got to the house, neither of us wanted to put her down. I knew we shouldn't get her spoiled to being held every second, but I didn't know how we'd avoid that. She was just so perfect and beautiful.

The first thirty minutes or so of being home, she was awake and taking in everything. She stared at the chandelier on the ceiling shining for a bit and then moved her eyes from there to Jasper sitting on the chair to the side. She looked very curious about him and our dogs looked very skeptical about her. They were no longer the babies in the house and I wondered how they'd feel about it.

Of course, it wasn't all fun and games for long. She eventually had a dirty diaper, and neither Mike or I wanted to be the one to change the first diaper.

"Rock, paper, scissors." He said. "You're like 32 and you're wanting to play rock, paper, scissors to see you has to change her?" I asked. He shrugged. I sighed. "Okay." I said. We did it and he lost. I laughed. "Haha! Here ya go, baby." I said, handing her off to him. He rolled his eyes and smiled. He carried her upstairs to her room and put her on her changing table. He grabbed a diaper and wipes and changed her.

"Boom. Done. You're doing the next one. We're taking turns." He said. I laughed. "Maxlynn you are one stinky baby. Yucky." He said as he tossed the diaper in the trash. "But you're so damn cute I don't even care." He picked her up and held her against his chest. I smiled at him holding her and swaying on his feet. I knew he was going to be the best dad ever. He still had that nervous look in his eyes, but I thought it was cute. I think it was good that he was nervous, because that meant he cared a lot. I was a bit nervous too, but also, I had helped out when Annie was born and when Ryan's sister was born. I was a bit more confident in my parenting skills than he was.

"Oh no. She's falling asleep." He said. "Yeah. That's what babies do ?" I said. "I wanna keep looking at her pretty eyes ugh." He groaned. I chuckled. "You'll have enough time to do that, Mike. Let's put her in bed." I said. He gently laid her down in her crib and put his arm around my back and stuck the other hand in his pocket.

"She's so fucking beautiful. I can't get over it. What a perfect human being." I smiled. "I know we should do some chores or something while we have the chance, but I don't wanna take my eyes off of her. I feel like I'm gonna miss something." Mike said. "I know. Me too." I said. "I guess I'm gonna go feed the dogs and take out the trash real quick. Then I'll start making us a late lunch." I said. I looked at the clock on the wall and it said 4pm. I chuckled. "Late lunch? More like an early dinner." I said. He laughed and nodded. "Guess you're right." He said. He kissed my forehead and walked out of the room. I sat in the rocking chair we had in her room, watched her and waited for Mike to finish cooking. She woke up after about thirty minutes, so I picked her up and took her down stairs. I figured she was hungry because the last time she had eaten was an hour before at the hospital, so I made her a bottle.

"Hey, Maxey." Mike said when I walked in with her. He walked over and kissed her cheek. "You're gonna give her beard burn with all these cheek and forehead kisses." I said as I made her bottle. "Hey. Love hurts." He said with a shrug. I just smiled and shook my head. When I was done with her bottle, I went to the living room and fed it to her. Mike brought us both a plate of food from the kitchen into the living room, so we could eat and watch her in her bouncer.

After we ate, she soon fell back asleep. Then woke up again a few hours later, just long enough for us to give her a bath, change her, and feed her again. She hated her bath so much. Mike was freaking out thinking she was hurting or something.

"Mike she is perfectly fine. It's just water." I said. "What if it's too hot for her?" He asked. "Mike, it's luke warm water. Not too hot or cold for her. She's fine. She's just pissed." I said with a little laugh. He just rolled his eyes and shrugged. We finally got her washed, dressed and fed. Then we got her back asleep and put her in her crib in our room so we'd be able to hear her better if she started crying.

"I'm already worried about her becoming a teenager." He said once we got in bed. I chuckled. "Why? That's not for another 13 years." I said. "First of all, I'm already worried about all of the boys I'm gonna have to fight off. Or girls. Whatever she's into. I don't want anyone to hurt my baby girl." He said. I smiled and snuggled into him more.

"Also I'm just worried that it'll be hard when she's older because she won't have a mom, ya know? I mean, there's Kat obviously, but we're her legal parents. It's our names on the birth certificate. We can't make trips to arizona every second when she needs to have girl talk. So I'm scared about her thinking that she can't talk to us about things because we're dudes and I'm scared about her becoming a teen and going through those awkward things girls go through, that we don't know how to teach her about or explain. You feel me?" Mike asked. "Yeah I get it. But that's a long time away. She's just almost a month old. Let's focus on now and we'll worry about that other stuff when we get there. Baby steps. Literally baby steps." I said. Mike chuckled and kissed my head.

We fell asleep, but we're woken up at two in the morning by Max. I started to get up but Mike stopped me. "It's okay. I got her." He said. I nodded and watched him from the bed. He gently picked her up from her crib and swayed with her to calm her down a little.

"You hungry?" He asked. "Come on. Let's go get you a bottle." He left and came back a few minutes later with a warm bottle.

"You wanna feed her, or want me to?" I asked. "I will. I'll feed her and you can go back to sleep, love" He said. I nodded  and laid my head back down. He sat on the edge of the bed to feed her. I just laid on my side and watched. Just the sight of my new family in front of me made my heart so full and warm.

After he fed her, he burped her and then got up and started swaying with her to get her back to sleep.

"You're so beautiful." He whispered at one point before kissing her on the cheek. My heart just about gave out from the sweetness.

After she had went back to sleep, he put her back in her crib and then came back and got in bed with me. He laid on his back and I scooted up against his side and rested my hand on his chest.

"I love seeing you with her. I love my little family." I said. "I love my little family too." He said before kissing the top of my head.