Daddy Niall.

Chapter 43

Niall's P.O.V.
I woke up before Kristen did, and folded up my cot tucking it away in the corner. The cafeteria would bring us breakfast since we had stayed overnight. I knew how tired Kristen was, so I didn't wake her up when they brought Daniel in. He was only in the room for a few minutes before she woke up. I turned Daniel so he was facing her. "Say good morning to mommy." She smiled and sat up. "How are you feeling?"
"Sore, hungry, and I need to take a shower."
"Well I can't do anything about the soreness, but the nurse asked if we wanted our breakfast when she brought Daniel in. I also can't help with the shower situation." The nurse came in right after I finished speaking.
"We need to check on Kristen now that she is awake." They did everything they needed to do, and told her they had changed and fed Daniel just before bringing him in. Another person came in after the nurses were done and gave us our food. "When is your mom coming back with Riley?"
"She just said they would come back in the morning. I'm sure Riley isn't going to be very patient about it, so they will probably be here any minute." After breakfast she was holding Daniel and gently rubbing his cherubic little cheeks when my mom came in with Riley.
"Hey daddy! Hey Kwisten! Hey baby brother!" She came over to me and sat in my lap to talk to me as my mom and Kristen talked. "Did you have fun with Grandma?"
"I fell asleep in the car on the way home, and then I woke up in bed this morning. Grandma took me to get breakfast at mcdonalds, and then we came here."
"Was it good?"
"Yep. I had pancakes and bacon with chocowate milk. We ate inside because pancakes are messy," Riley wanted to see Daniel so I put her on the bed. She crawled up beside Kristen. "Hey Daniel!" She talked to him some more for a minute before Kristen asked her if she wanted to hold him. "No. You can keep holding him."
"You don't want to hold him?"
"He's way to wittle. What if I accidentally drop him?"
"You have to stay sitting down to hold him. I'm right here and I'll make sure you don't drop him. You're a big girl I think you can handle it. Do you want to try holding him?" She smiled and nodded her head and I grabbed some hand sanitizer for her to use before holding him. Kristen showed her how to hold her arms out and she put Daniel in them. "You have to hold his head up because he isn't strong enough to do it on his own yet." Riley cradled the top half of him resting his head on her arm. Kristen kept her hand on his side for extra support. Riley started gently rubbing his nose. "Wook how tiny he is. He's so cute. I wove him. Why is he wrapped up in this blanket?"
"He get's cold because he is used to being warm inside my belly."
"Daddy take a picture of us with my camera."
"Where is it?"
"It's in the front pocket of my backpack." I pulled out her camera and took a picture for her. I got my phone out and took a picture of the two of them, and set it as my background on my phone. Riley held him for a little while before giving my mom a turn. Kristen's parents made the long drive once again to come back up to the hospital. People came and went throughout the day, but our parents stayed all day. Around lunchtime Riley started to get restless. She had her head resting in her palms as she swung her legs sitting in a chair. "Daddy when do we get to go home? I'm bored."
"We have to stay here for another night and then tomorrow all four of us get to go back home. You get to stay with Grandma again tonight. We are going to leave the hospital tomorrow morning and Grandma is going to bring you home."
--
The next morning I had gotten everything ready for us to leave. Kristen was getting ready as I changed Daniels diaper. She finished getting herself dressed and helped me get Daniel dressed. "Can you believe he's finally here? It's still shocking to me. I'm so excited to get to be at home with him and Riley."
"I know, it's crazy. I'm glad we're going home too. The day I took Riley home I had to take her to a funeral. Luckily I didn't have to do that again." She was looking down at Daniel as I spoke to her so I had to lean my head in front of hers to kiss her. I pulled away and went to stand upright again but she kissed me once more before I could. We finished bundling Daniel up since it was getting quite chilly outside and we strapped him in his carseat. The nurse came in with a wheelchair, "Kristen we still don't want you to do much walking so we will roll you out. If Niall wants to pull the car to the front he can do that now." Kristen sat in the wheelchair and I put Daniel in her lap still strapped into the carseat. I pulled my car up to the front and the nurse brought them out. I opened the backdoor before I took Daniel from Kristen. I locked Daniels carseat into the base that was buckled in, and Kristen said she wanted to sit in the back with him. The nurse and I helped her into the backseat, and I shut the door as I thanked the nurse. We drove home and I helped Kristen out of the car and pulled out Daniels carrier. She tried grabbing some of the bags, but I stopped her. She was still sore and still in pain from the delivery, and the doctor had said she didn't need to do much. I knew Kristen, and I knew I was going to have to make her rest because she was so stubborn. "I'll get those bags, don't worry about it." I carried Daniel inside and sat him on the couch next to Kristen. When I brought the bags in she was taking him out of the carseat. She cradled him and looked up at me and smiled. "Now we just need Riley, and we will all be home."
"I miss her. I know she was at the hospital with us all day everyday, but I still miss her somehow." I sat down next to her putting Daniels carseat on the floor.
"I do too. Hopefully your mom will get her here quickly. I'm sure she will as excited as they both are about seeing Daniel."
"I love him being little like this, but I am excited to see him start being able to play with things."
"I had a lot of fun with Riley when she started playing and talking. It was fun trying to figure out what she was trying to say. Do you think he will say Mommy first or Daddy?"
"I don't know. What was Riley's first word? Daddy?" I laughed to myself thinking back to her being so little.
"No, it was pickle. She used to eat pickles all the time. Not even the little ones or the slices. I used to buy her full pickles, and she would just eat them all the time. She used to love pickles. She still likes them, but doesn't eat them nearly as often as she used to eat them. She used to never keep her clothes on either. I could not get her to keep anything on, so she used to just fumble around in nothing but a diaper eating a huge pickle."
"That's adorable. There are a couple of pictures of her like that in the scrapbook you guys made me."
"Yeah, she was such a handful when she was younger. She was always so full of energy, and was always getting into to something."
"She still is always full of energy."
"When she first said daddy it was great. I obviously knew I was a dad and I had been called a dad by family and referred to myself as her dad, but having her call me that was one of the best feelings in the world. I can't really explain it, but it's amazing. It was different hearing her call me that. I used to just sit with her and say daddy repeatedly to try and get her to say it back, and she used to just laugh at me and say pickle. I think she was doing it on purpose." Me and Kristen talked more about Riley as a toddler until she got home. She ran straight over to Daniel without even saying hi to me or Kristen. "Daniel did you miss me? I missed you." We spent the whole day a with all of just staying in the living room playing with Daniel. After we ate dinner Riley tried talking and playing with Daniel again. She looked up at me, "He doesn't do much does he?"
"He's a baby. He can't do much yet."
"I think he's just lazy. Why is he always sleeping? He doesn't do anything, so he can't be that tired." I laughed at her.
"He just likes his rest I guess." After a couple of hours I got Riley ready for bed, as Kristen fed Daniel. I tucked her into her bed after giving her a bath, and drying her hair.
"Read me a bedtime story."
"Which one?"
"The one about the baby sheep who is trying to go to sleep."
"We don't have that book anymore."
"Why not?"
"I already told you I threw it away a few weeks ago."
"Why would you throw my book away?" I lightly poked at her stomach,
"Because somebody got a pop tart smushed into the book and pages were stuck together. I'll buy you a new one since you like it so much." She laughed at what she had done, and picked out a different book. I read her half of the book before she had fallen asleep. I went back out into the living room to see both Kristen and Daniel asleep on the couch. I took Daniel from Kristen which woke her up. "Why don't you go get in bed? I'll change Daniels diaper and put him in his bed." She sleepily nodded her head and slowly made her way to the bedroom. Once I had him changed into pajamas and ready for bed I put him the cradle we had in our room. It was right next to the bed since he was too little to sleep in his own room by himself.
Kristen's P.O.V.
I woke up as soon as I heard Daniel cry in the middle of the night. I sat up and looked at the time and saw it was time for him to be fed again. Niall woke up right along with me, and went to get out of the bed to feed him. "Niall let me feed him. You can go back to sleep." He groggily replied as his eyelids struggled to stay open, "Are you sure? I don't mind."
"You have to wake up early and get Riley ready for school tomorrow. Go back to sleep." He kissed my cheek before laying back down. He was such a sweetheart and such a good dad. I was so lucky to be with him. I picked Daniel up out of his crib and rocked him as I walked into the kitchen. He kept crying, so I tried soothing him by talking to him, "Shh mommy is here. I'm going to make you a bottle just give me a minute baby." He continued to cry and I still talked to him not that I expected him to be quiet until he had a bottle in his mouth. "Shh we don't want to wake up your sister she has to go to school tomorrow." I kept softly shushing and rocking as I made the bottle. I tested the temperature of the milk by squirting some of it out onto my hand. I put the bottle in his mouth, and went to go sit in the living room with him. When I turned I saw Riley standing in the doorway of the kitchen.
"Oh! Riley you scared me half to death."
"Sorry. What's wrong with Daniel?"
"He's just hungry baby nothing is wrong. That's just how he tells us he is hungry or needs his diaper changed because he can't talk yet. You need to go back to sleep. You have to be able to go tell all your friends about your new baby brother tomorrow." I walked behind her to her room since I knew she had trouble falling asleep on her own. She climbed up in her bed, and I sat down next to her, and fed Daniel as she tcuddled into my leg holding Daniels hand. She quickly fell back asleep, but I stayed there until Daniel finished his bottle. I didn't want to leave the room because I loved being with Riley and Daniel. I loved them both so much, and I loved that Riley is such a good big sister. I couldn't stay in the bed and just cuddle with the two of them all night, so I burped Daniel and eased my way out of Riley's bed into Daniels room. I changed his diaper and brought him back to bed. I layed him in his cradle before I layed in my bed scooting closer to Niall who was laying on his stomach. I stayed on my back, and I thought he was asleep until he draped his arm across me. "Niall I thought I told you to go back to sleep."
"I was asleep until you got back in bed."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." He moved so we were as close as we could be, and he buried his head in my neck as I rubbed his back until we both fell asleep again.