First Feeding

Dan Evans

His handsome face creased into a smile, Dan looked through the window of the nursery at the flushed, sleeping little face. The label on the bassinette read "Baby Wade". The tiny pink face had a button nose and there were soft, wispy little curls on top of her head.

Sighing, he went back to the couch in the waiting room, which was only a few feet away. It had been fourteen hours now, since Liana and the baby had been brought in. Dan remembered the few moments down in the emergency room.

Ben had stood there holding his daughter and not knowing which way to turn. Liana would need to go one way and the baby another, with Liana having lost so much blood and in shock, she had to put into ICU. In all the years he'd known Ben Wade, Dan had never seen the man look torn apart like that. He couldn't go with both of them.

"Here." Dan had stepped up to him and held out his hands for the baby. Ben had had the child in his arms from the moment she'd been born and hadn't once relinquished her up to that point.

"You should be with Liana," Dan had told him. "I'll watch the baby for you."

Seeing the hesitation in Ben's eyes, Dan had gone on. "I won't leave her side for a minute, Ben," he'd said. "I'll watch over her like she was my own, and if there's anything you need to know, I'll let you know the second it happens."

Ben's eyes had softened as he looked down at his daughter. He'd leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "You go on with your Uncle Dan, little one," he'd said softly. "He'll take good care of you."

Then, Ben had placed the squirming, towel-wrapped bundle into Dan's arms. The midwife and a nurse had been standing nearby, waiting to examine the baby. Both of them had caught the look between the two men. Ben's look of trust at Dan, and Dan's return look, that told Ben he'd die before he let anything happen to the child, just as he would with either of his own two boys. The two women had exchanged a look of surprise between themselves.

As Ben had left the room to accompany Liana, Dan had gazed down at the baby girl in his arms. It brought back so many memories of the births of William and Mark. The nurse had stepped up and cleared her throat, holding out her arms. "I need to take her now."

But Dan had not given up his prize. "Where are you going with her?" he'd asked. "I'm going with you. I'll carry her."

He had stayed by her side as a doctor had examined her and pronounced her healthy, although a bit underweight, since she was a preemie. The nurse had cleaned her up, put on a diaper and a white gown. Then, she'd brought a bottle of formula.

Dan had held out his hands. "I'll do that," he said quietly. "I'll feed her."

"I hope you're a relative, sir," she'd said tartly.

"I'm her uncle!" Dan had snapped at the woman. "Her mother's upstairs in the ICU, and her father's there too! She needs somebody in the family to take care of her, and that'd be me!"

The nurse had looked startled, but she'd given Dan the bottle and led him to a rocking chair where he could feed the baby for the first time. "Being early, her sucking reflex may not be completely developed," she'd told him. "The first few times might not be easy."

The baby had had a difficult time at first, figuring out just what to do with the nipple on the bottle, but Dan had been patient. He'd been through feedings with newborns twice before. She was hungry and she finally got the hang of it. Dan had sat, rocking quietly, holding the bottle for her to suck and, without knowing it, humming softly to her.

The nurses, gathered in the corner, had looked on approvingly. "I never saw an uncle get so attached so quickly," one of them remarked.

When she had finished the bottle, Dan had put her over his shoulder to burp her, rubbing her back very gently and still humming, just as he used to do with Mark and William. When she'd burped, he smiled and kept rocking. The baby slept and he dozed himself.