At three weeks ...
Thank God it was winter - plenty of excuses for huge sweaters and comfy jeans. Piper hadn't really known what to expect when it came to post-pregnancy, but the flobbely belly and tender boobs had not been a part of it. Not that she really had much time to notice the state of her body at the moment, but every now and then she'd catch a glimpse of herself in a mirror. She wasn't too proud to admit that she'd cried the first time, either.
Theirs had turned into a strange little home over the past few weeks. Gone was the obsessive tidiness that had been her nesting instinct - if it wasn't for Kaylee dropping in whenever she thought she could get away with it, Piper and Ollie would quite willingly be living amongst piles of rubbish. Their world seemed to have focused down to one single fact above all else - Lyneth, their tiny three-week-old baby who'd made her appearance and reordered their lives all over again.
But even though the first thought in her head when she woke up and the last before she collapsed to sleep was about the baby, Piper had been forcing herself to make time for Ollie. She didn't want him to feel left out; she couldn't imagine how isolating it must feel for him since she had told him about that little interlude with the older Lyneth during the birth, wishing that the little girl had chosen to include her adoptive father in her reassurances.
Since then, there had been no demonstrations of the power the newborn girl had brought into their home. In fact, unless you knew her heritage, she seemed just as small and helpless as any mortal child ....until you noticed her eyes. Deep turquoise in colour, those eyes were too old for a baby, focusing with ease on whatever took Lyneth's fancy, be it Ollie's face, or Poppy and Loki grooming each other on the floor beside her crib.
Speaking of which, who would have thought that the pets would welcome a baby so easily' Piper hadn't been certain about leaving her daughter in the crib at first, even with Alaric's odd offering of iron scissors and the blessed mobile his friends at the Institute had made for them. It only took a couple of days to make an important discovery, though ....that Loki and Poppy were taking looking after Lyneth very seriously indeed. It was amusing to watch the pair, Malamute and African grey, keeping vigil over the baby girl when she was put down, but at the same time reassuring. It meant that Piper didn't need to worry too much about turning her back - she knew Loki would kick up a hell of a fuss if he caught so much as a whiff of the Fae who had been watching them for so many months.
It was still going to take some time to grow used to their new routine, though. Or not-routine, she should say. Lyneth seemed to be keeping some very strange hours, sometimes waking every hour to cry and be held, at other times sleeping four or six hours at a time before demanding to be fed and changed, or otherwise spending an inordinate amount of time gazing trustingly up at her father. Yes, her father, Ollie. The injection of genes did not make a father, in Piper's opinion.
That was something else Piper was constantly giving thanks for - Ollie. He always seemed to know exactly what Lyneth wanted, where Piper herself was more often than not at a complete loss. The baby girl would quiet whenever Ollie picked her up, submit to a bath without complaint so long as Ollie was the one doing it ....Piper couldn't help being jealous of that natural way he seemed to have with their daughter. She knew she loved her daughter; she just seemed to be utterly hopeless at doing anything but providing food at just the right temperature, and even that was a biological function she couldn't regulate.
Still, it had only been three weeks, as people kept telling her. Surely that mysterious mother/daughter bond would make an appearance sometime soon. She hoped.
Thank God it was winter - plenty of excuses for huge sweaters and comfy jeans. Piper hadn't really known what to expect when it came to post-pregnancy, but the flobbely belly and tender boobs had not been a part of it. Not that she really had much time to notice the state of her body at the moment, but every now and then she'd catch a glimpse of herself in a mirror. She wasn't too proud to admit that she'd cried the first time, either.
Theirs had turned into a strange little home over the past few weeks. Gone was the obsessive tidiness that had been her nesting instinct - if it wasn't for Kaylee dropping in whenever she thought she could get away with it, Piper and Ollie would quite willingly be living amongst piles of rubbish. Their world seemed to have focused down to one single fact above all else - Lyneth, their tiny three-week-old baby who'd made her appearance and reordered their lives all over again.
But even though the first thought in her head when she woke up and the last before she collapsed to sleep was about the baby, Piper had been forcing herself to make time for Ollie. She didn't want him to feel left out; she couldn't imagine how isolating it must feel for him since she had told him about that little interlude with the older Lyneth during the birth, wishing that the little girl had chosen to include her adoptive father in her reassurances.
Since then, there had been no demonstrations of the power the newborn girl had brought into their home. In fact, unless you knew her heritage, she seemed just as small and helpless as any mortal child ....until you noticed her eyes. Deep turquoise in colour, those eyes were too old for a baby, focusing with ease on whatever took Lyneth's fancy, be it Ollie's face, or Poppy and Loki grooming each other on the floor beside her crib.
Speaking of which, who would have thought that the pets would welcome a baby so easily' Piper hadn't been certain about leaving her daughter in the crib at first, even with Alaric's odd offering of iron scissors and the blessed mobile his friends at the Institute had made for them. It only took a couple of days to make an important discovery, though ....that Loki and Poppy were taking looking after Lyneth very seriously indeed. It was amusing to watch the pair, Malamute and African grey, keeping vigil over the baby girl when she was put down, but at the same time reassuring. It meant that Piper didn't need to worry too much about turning her back - she knew Loki would kick up a hell of a fuss if he caught so much as a whiff of the Fae who had been watching them for so many months.
It was still going to take some time to grow used to their new routine, though. Or not-routine, she should say. Lyneth seemed to be keeping some very strange hours, sometimes waking every hour to cry and be held, at other times sleeping four or six hours at a time before demanding to be fed and changed, or otherwise spending an inordinate amount of time gazing trustingly up at her father. Yes, her father, Ollie. The injection of genes did not make a father, in Piper's opinion.
That was something else Piper was constantly giving thanks for - Ollie. He always seemed to know exactly what Lyneth wanted, where Piper herself was more often than not at a complete loss. The baby girl would quiet whenever Ollie picked her up, submit to a bath without complaint so long as Ollie was the one doing it ....Piper couldn't help being jealous of that natural way he seemed to have with their daughter. She knew she loved her daughter; she just seemed to be utterly hopeless at doing anything but providing food at just the right temperature, and even that was a biological function she couldn't regulate.
Still, it had only been three weeks, as people kept telling her. Surely that mysterious mother/daughter bond would make an appearance sometime soon. She hoped.