The family's baby

Chapter 34

*Grace's P.O.V*

Checking the time, mommy seems to debate about something before making up her mind and getting up to go into the kitchen. I hear her rummaging around but I don't care. I lean further against daddy and close my eyes.

Staying like that, I'm surprised when mommy returns and pulls my thumb out of my mouth. Opening my mouth to protest, I'm surprised again when something is placed into my mouth to replace my thumb. As I start sucking on it out of instinct, my eyes flutter open in surprise as liquid comes out of it. It tastes like vanilla ... milk? No, it's not milk... it's something else but I can't place it. Sucking harder on the bottle, I get a better amount and can really taste it now.

It's definitely not milk... at least not our normal milk... wait... is this a bottle? Why am I drinking out of a bottle right now!? Turning my head, mommy follows me with the bottle. No matter which way I turn, the bottle never seems to leave my mouth. Giving up with that plan, I try to take the bottle from her and remove it from my mouth that way. This causes mommy to push down on the bottle even harder, making it impossible for me to win this way either.

"Mommy..." I eventually lisp around the bottle.

"What, baby? Finish the drink and it will be removed. It stays in your mouth until it's empty... it's that simple." Mommy tells me. Glaring at her, I start sucking trying to force the liquid out as quickly as possible but struggle to get any liquid out now. Even the bottle is working against me!

"Child... it's a nipple, not a straw... slow, gentle, rhythmic sucking will get the most out of it. If you are trying to finish quickly, that is. If you are trying to take your time and really enjoy this bottle, you should ignore my instructions and continue with your current actions." Mommy tells me, making me pause and blush from embarrassment. Following her instructions, I find it a lot easier to drink from and it's actually kind of soothing.

"You can take over holding the bottle now, Matias. Don't... remove it until it is empty. I'm serious, Matias. It's the protein PediaSure you bought and she needs all of it, if she is going to start gaining her weight back. She needs the extra nutrients and I knew she enjoyed these so I had you pick them up. Until she can be trusted to finish it without a fight, it's easier to force her to finish with a bottle. We would have a mess with anything else." Mommy tells us once daddy takes it from her.

Seeming satisfied, mommy nods once to herself before going back into the kitchen. With her gone, I start debating on if daddy could be convinced to remove this bottle from my mouth. The look he gives me has me leaning towards the no side though.

"I know what you are thinking, Gracie, and please don't. I don't particularly enjoy being on your mother's bad side. This isn't a serious enough issue to fight her over and she has a point that you only enforce by fighting this. You need what this drink provides you and you like the taste. Keep fighting it and your mother might make you drink one of her morning smoothies instead. I swear she is practicing witchcraft with how some of them turn out." Daddy says with a shudder, whispering that last part so mommy wouldn't hear and making me smirk, remembering about some of her smoothies.

"Hey! My smoothies aren't that bad and it was your doctor, not me, that told you that you needed to eat kale. I think I'm doing you a favor by putting it in a smoothie." Mommy yells from the kitchen.

"Anyway..." Daddy yells back before continuing in a normal speaking voice.

"I assume your complaint is only with what the drink is being served in and she told you now to fix that. Finish the drink without a fight and the bottle will go away. Put up a fight and you prove her point, making the bottle stay in rotation even longer. The choice is yours to make, Gracie." Daddy informs me.

I know he has a point but it's a bottle! A baby's bottle!! Why couldn't it just be a sippy cup, instead? Cause they can't force me to drink out of it without making a mess, Grace... mommy told you already! Resigning to my fate, I continue drinking and don't even notice when I finish the bottle. It's not until daddy removes the bottle from my mouth that I realize it's done and I was sucking on air.

"Good job finishing it for me, Gracie." Daddy says, making me blush from the praise. My blush is made worse when daddy starts lightly patting my back, making me burp. I try to hide my face against his chest but he only intensifies the patting.

"Come on, Gracie. We both know you can do better than that! You are my daughter, afterall!" Daddy says. I try to hold back and not give him what he wants but after a couple small burps escape from me, I can no longer hold the big one back and let it out too.

"That's my girl." Daddy says as he moves me to rest my head on his shoulder. I can't help but smile despite the embarrassment as I get comfortable on his shoulder.

I swear right as I'm about to fall asleep, I hear the ding of the microwave and mommy returns, taking me from daddy. Of course I whimper in protest as she picks me up. She ruined my sleep!

"I know, baby... Mommy's so mean, isn't she..." She tells me in a fake sympathy tone, rubbing my back for comfort. I want to tell her she is but the moment she sits down with me and my head rests over her heart, supported there, I forget about being moved. Her calm, beating heart is just so comforting that I find it hard to stay awake again.

When mommy gives me another bottle, I'm too tired to fight it and just accept it. This one feels different. The nipple part doesn't feel as long as the last one and the base is rounder. Forcing my eyes open, I realize the bottle is different too. It's partly bent, where the last one was completely straight.

It's also not... whatever she gave me. It's milk this time. More specifically, mommy's special milk. No, not that milk. It's just normal milk but with a pinch of sugar and some drops of vanilla, and warmed up just right. She said daddy's mommy taught it to her while she showed me how it was done one day. It's not hard to do and tastes way better than normal milk but I still think mine never compares to when she makes it for me.

Laying there, I realize I'm back in the same position I was in before with mommy so I curl up against her. Between being content in mommy's embrace, listening to her heart beat as I drink my warm milk, I'm finding myself losing my constant battle of keeping my eyes open. Eventually, I give up as my eyes flutter shut and are too heavy to open again.

"It's alright, baby... just sleep now... mommy's got you..." is the last thing I hear as I fall asleep in my mommy's embrace.