Take Me to Your Paradise

Chapter 4: Dreams to Remember

Natali finished dressing the baby, picked her up, making funny faces at her and smiling widely. "Hello, angel. Who's the cutest little girl in the whole wide world, hey? Is that you? Yes, it is!"

Stefani snorted with laughter, drawing a glare from her sister. "What? Do you disagree?"

"Absolutely not." The blonde chuckled, lowering a pile of freshly laundered onesies onto a rocking chair, folding a few. "You're just so amazing with her; maybe it's time for you and Mike to have one of your own. Thanks for changing her."

"No problem. And nah, not yet; I'm focusing fully on adoring this princess for now." Natali kissed Francesca's forehead; the baby was very close to starting to properly smile now, staring at her aunt and making plenty of cute little sounds. "Yes, I absolutely adore you, little girl. You know, Stef, I'd be more than happy to babysit if you and Bradley want to go on a date or something; you must be eager to get out of the house for a bit by now."

"I've been surprisingly okay with staying in." She picked up the pile of baby clothing, placed them into a drawer. "But now that you mention it, we've been asked to present an award at the Oscars together and I think we want to do that, so... and Bo's birthday party is coming up soon too. I'm just still not very comfortable with the thought of bottle feeding her so early on."

"I know, but don't you think it would make things a lot easier?" Natali shrugged, followed her downstairs and sat down with Francesca, handing her a colourful, fluffy stuffed bunny the baby was very fond of. "I mean, I'm no expert but I don't see how it would be a problem to give her a bottle every once in a while; it doesn't mean you'd have to stop breastfeeding."

Stefani sighed, knowing her sister was right; she really wanted to go to Bo's dinner party in a few weeks and the Academy Awards were a tempting prospect too as she had so many amazing memories of them, especially from the ceremony two years ago. And as much as she would have wanted to, she couldn't really take the baby with her to either event; the birthday dinner might have been doable, maybe, as it would take place in a private Bel Air restaurant where she was sure she could tuck Francesca to a quiet back room to sleep and feed her when she needed sustenance, but she didn't really want the baby anywhere near people drinking and partying and there was always the risk someone she didn't know would take photographs of the little girl.

So a few days later, after a lot of thinking, reading, discussing things with Bradley and her doctor and going back and forth, she finally decided to try bottle-feeding. The Oscars were a week and a half away; if they started practising now, the baby should be accustomed to the bottle on time and Gloria had already volunteered to babysit whenever they needed help, along with Natali so Stefani knew there was really nothing to worry about. In fact, Francesca would probably get used to the new feeding method a lot faster than her still quite unenthusiastic mother would.

After a couple of failed attempts, she managed to get the milk expressed; now it was in a carefully sterilized bottle and Stefani looked at it with a wrinkled nose, sighing. Damn it, she wanted to personally be her daughter's only nutrition source for far longer than this; after the initial struggle and slight pain, she had fallen in love with breastfeeding, loved sharing that private, close moment with Francesca. Clearly she was losing her mind, being jealous of an inanimate object.

Bradley chuckled, arriving into the kitchen and seeing her expression. "She'll still prefer you, don't worry; we won't be using the bottle that much. Mom is always the best."

"I hope so." She leaned to kiss the baby, resting on her father's arms; she had just awoken from a nap and was starting to make little hungry whimpers. "Will you still agree to spend lots of quality time with me and not the ugly bottle, hmm?"