December 18th - 5 Days Old
Rebecca was cleared by her doctors to go home, Ella had passed her carseat test, her blood work was as normal as it could be, she was breathing completely on her own with no help and the last thing was her feeding. Rebecca's milk came in 3 days after Ella was born and she had to pump every 2 hours to have it stored in the NICU. Ella was taking a bottle with the milk but they wanted her to be able to eat directly from her mother if it was at all possible before she could go home.
Which is what led them here, sitting in the little NICU room trying to get her to latch
"She doesn't want it" Rebecca said as she was growing frustrated "I'll just pump every few hours and give her bottles" she said "She's gained 3 ounces like she is supposed to, they want her gaining weight and she's doing it" she said
"Just keep trying" Colby said and she looked up at him with a glare
"What does it look like I'm doing?" she questioned in a whisper "You can't do this, you have no opinion"
"Woah" he held his hands up "Why are you snapping at me?"
"Because you're being stupid" she said and he shook his head
"I get that you're exhausted, so am I but I'm not getting mad at you" he shook his head
"Colby" she said and he looked at her "Shut it" she said and he nodded
"I'm gonna go walk before we both say something we regret" he said walking out of the room
He walked to the waiting room where Holly was waiting patiently for any word from him and when he walked up to her shaking his head she feared the worst, her granddaughter wouldn't be coming home today like originally planned.
"What's wrong?" she questioned as her son sat down next to her and ran his hands over his face
"She's not wanting to latch" he said and Holly nodded "and Rebecca's snapping at me for it"
"She's not snapping at you" Holly shook her head "She's frustrated, this is something as a mother you should be able to do automatically but sometimes it doesn't work out like that and I know how much she wanted to be able to do this, it's frustrating for everybody involved, it's frustrating for you because you can't do anything to help, it's frustrating for Rebecca because she feels like something is wrong with her and it's probably frustrating for Ella because she's hungry and she can't quite figure it out yet but she will get there" she said and Colby nodded
"This is the only thing holding us back from being home" he said "She's overcome all of the rest of it but this"
"You two are just gonna have to readjust, adapt and roll with it" Holly said and he nodded once more
After talking with his mother for another 20 minutes he walked back into the cubicle and Rebecca looked up at him
"I'm sorry" she apologized and he shook his head as he sat down next to her
"It's okay" he kissed her head "You're frustrated and you're exhausted and you're probably in pain"
"In pain is an understatement" she said with a shake of her head and she looked down at Ella
"Alright kid" Colby said taking the newborn from her mother and she looked up at him, her eyes focused directly on his "We want you home, we are both tired of this hospital and you've got a bed that took me hours to put together that I promise you is way more comfortable than this thing" he motioned to the plastic basinet "You've got a whole house waiting for you and you even have your name on a wall" he said and Rebecca laughed "This is the only thing holding us back from all of that" he said and she began to cry and he bounced her gently "Yeah I know" he nodded "It makes me sad too" he said "You gotta work with your mom here kid" he said and Rebecca took the baby from him and they tried again and this time on the first try she latched and began to eat hungrily
"Oh my god" Rebecca said as she watched her daughter
"Finally" Colby said with a sigh of relief
"She's hungry" Rebecca said
"Well yeah" he nodded "They took her off the feeding tube and haven't given her a bottle in a few hours.. she was probably starving" he said and Rebecca shook her head as she ran her finger over the baby's cheek
"We get to go home Lopez" she looked over at him and he kissed her lips quickly
After an hour of making sure she could keep everything down, the doctor came in and did one final check before they had to sign all of the paperwork for Ella to be discharged. Holly went home, wanting to give the new family time to settle into their lives at home.
"You're free!" Colby said as he placed Ella's carseat in the backseat of the car and helped Rebecca in the backseat next to her
"We're going home little love" Rebecca smiled down at the newborn who was fast asleep
"Normally this drive takes about 30 minutes" Colby said "but now with you in the car it may take us 3 hours to get home" he said and Rebecca shook her head with a laugh
They arrived in their driveway 45 minutes later, Colby pulled into the garage and made sure the door was securely shut before he got out of the car and helped Rebecca out before grabbing Ella's carseat. Rebecca walked slowly up the three steps to get into the house and noticed the flood of flowers sitting on the kitchen counter and it almost brought her to tears and she looked back to Colby who just smiled
"What is all this?" she asked
"Hunter, Steph, Vince.. a lot of the producers and and office people" he said "They've been sending them all week.." he explained
"They've been keeping me busy" Holly said as the little family walked into the living room and Colby placed the carseat on the couch, gently unbuckling his babygirl and holding her close to his chest
"She's home" Rebecca said in a whisper as she kissed her daughter's head as she slept soundly against her father's chest
"The adventure begins" Colby smiled down at the newborn
A/N: You're going to see a huge time jump in the next chapter.. there will be a spacer to separate part one of this story and part two. We are jumping almost 5 years into the future but will still be following the same storylines.. get ready for Ella and all of her sassiness that you all love in part two
