Found Along The Way

Chapter eighteen

Being a mother didn't exactly come easily to Lina. She was a partier, a dancer, someone who would stay up until 2 A.M. downing shots and singing the night away, surrounded by strobe lights and drunk twenty-year-olds enjoying the prime of their lives. She was still at the age of being in the prime of her life, however this time instead of staying up until two, she was being woken up at 2, and at 3, then 5, then every other hour until breakfast.

She knew babies woke up a lot, and ate a lot, and needed changing a lot, but she didn't know just how much there was to do on such little sleep. Joey was a brilliant dad and the fact that it seemed to come with such ease to him made Lina jealous, and she felt inferior.

Lina was officially 2 weeks postpartum, and it was a chilly January morning. The cute arrangement of teddies on the couch, blankets on the floor and 'congratulations!' cards on the coffee table were the perfect disguise to the disorganised state Lina and Joey's new parental life was in right now. Anya opened the front door to find an exhausted Lina wearing just a large pink button-down shirt and pyjama shorts, her hair was in a messy braid that looked like it'd been like that for the past week, and she had Rosie in one arm while she poured cereal with the other.

"Heyyyy, Lina honey do you need some help?"

"Oh, Anya, I didn't hear you come in." Lina yawned. Anya gave her a sympathetic look and walked over reaching for the baby.

"Rough night?"

"An understatement." Lina chuckled quietly.

"Well, I will take this little gal and you can go enjoy your cereal, and then maybe take a nap?" She suggested softly, taking Rosie in her arms and rocking her cheerily.

"Seriously Lina," Joey chimed in, coming out of the bathroom from the first shower in what seemed like a century for him. "You need some sleep sweetie, Anya can watch Rosie, and I will finish the laundry."

"But she needs me... what if she gets hungry?" Lina groaned, collapsing onto the couch with her cereal.

"We can try her on a bottle?" He suggested tentatively.

"She's too little, and what if she likes the bottle more than me?" She responded digging into the cereal as if she'd not eaten in days, "But you're right... I'm kind of a zombie right now." She admitted, almost solemnly.

"As soon as you finish that bowl, straight to bed lady." Anya said putting Rosie down into her rocker on the carpet. Lina nodded, gazing into the half eaten cereal drearily.

After a few minutes she kissed Joey and took herself into the bedroom for what she hoped would be a fulfilling sleep.

"You know, Lina's trying her best and she's already so worn out. It's like she'd walking around in some sort of daze... I'm worried that she's forgetting about herself too much." Joey said, trying not to seem too worried. But he was, and Anya could see this.

"I know what you mean. It's clearly been hard on her, on both of you, but I'm sure that when you get into a routine that she'll come back to being herself again." She said hopefully, trying to be optimistic.

"I hope so. Would you talk to her when she wakes up? Just to check on how she feels? I try to talk to her but she's so tired most of the time that she just can't hold the conversation. I don't blame her, we're both exhausted."

"Of course Joe." She assured him.

He smiled back at her, picking up Rosie and rocking her gently. After about 10 minutes she heard a thud coming from the bedroom, took herself upstairs, and opened the door to find Lina sat on the floor by a fallen pile of books. She went over to her, putting her hand on her shoulder,