All he wanted to do was lie down. He had been working almost nonstop with brief breaks for food and passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow. His wife had been in the same boat ever since the baby was born and the two had decided on a shift schedule to make the work more equal, so here he was rocking his daughter to sleep while he fed her the premade bottle as his wife napped in the other room. He smiled down at his daughter as he fought to keep his own eyes open, finding his daughter’s eyes curiously looking up at him.
He sunk into the rocking chair with a groan and leaned back to get more comfortable. His daughter blinked at him as she continued to nurse from the bottle. He lightly rocked the chair in a steady motion as he marveled at the content look on his daughter’s face. She slowly let her heavy eyelids remain closed and continued to nurse until she was fast asleep, occasionally suckling on the bottle and dozing the rest of the time.
He carefully pulled the bottle away and set it on the nearby dresser. He carefully adjusted her, so she was laying on his chest with her head over his shoulder covered by the burp rag. He gently patted her back and continued to rock her. A light burp occurred, and he rubbed her back as she nestled into the crook of his neck. He let her rest there as he continued to rock them both, finally letting his heavy eyelids close.
He dozed as he continued to rock. Occasionally his daughter shifted enough to rouse him, and he blinked his eyes open to find her still content and secure in his arms, snuggling back into her nap. He tried to stand occasionally, which sometimes roused her and other times managed to nearly place her into her crib before she roused again and was fussy. He never understood how his wife got her to sleep in her crib, but he would love to know the secret. Unable to successfully lay her down in her crib to sleep he resigned himself to dozing while rocking her in the chair while she lay on his chest.
At one point in the night, he was roused by a tap on his shoulder. His eyes found his daughter still secure in his arms before turning his attention to his wife who had tears in her eyes. He carefully placed his sleeping daughter into his wife’s outstretched hands and watched in fascination as his wife lay their daughter down in her crib without rousing her. His wife turned her attention back to him, pulled him into a squeezy hug and kissed him deeply. He stared at her with a question on his mind as she pulled back, smiled at him as if he had given her the world, and led him out of the room.
She led him to their bedroom, helped him remove his clothing, and pulled him into their bed. She pulled him close to cuddle and pet his hair as he dozed. He felt a smile grow on his face as the world around him fell away. He was roused at the sound of his daughter crying and began to sit up in bed until he felt his wife push his shoulder back against the bed. He nodded in the dark, rested his head against the pillow, and let the world fall away as he heard his wife get up to attend to the baby.