Chapter Text
“Baby you have to put him down to sleep.” You run your fingers through Larry’s hair as you slide into bed beside him, noting how he was sat up against the headboard with Henry asleep on his bare chest. Since getting home earlier Larry had pretty much taken responsibility for everything apart from feeding him, stating that you needed to rest and heal.
“What if he gets lonely? It’s his first night home. It will be strange for him.” Larry murmured, his hand spanning the entire back of his sleeping son.
“Sweetheart everything is strange for him. He was born less than twenty-four hours ago. Everything is new. But he needs to sleep on his own and we need sleep. He’s going to need feeding again very soon.” Your heart swells as you watch Larry stare down at his son and you knew that he was going to be an amazing dad.
“Okay. I’ll put him in his basket.” Larry muttered before pressing a soft kiss to his son’s lightly furred head and climbing from the bed to lay him in his Moses basket. “Goodnight my beautiful boy.” Larry then climbed back into bed beside you and you turned your body to face him. “How are you feeling?”
“Sore.” Larry opened up his arm and you immediately moved across to lay against him, your head on his chest and his arm around you. His long fingers stroked patterns on your back and you lay an arm across his waist.
“You were amazing today. I was so proud. You were like a superhero.” Larry murmured and you feel tears spring to your eyes before falling slowly down your cheeks onto Larry’s chest. “Oh baby I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.” Larry murmured and you can’t help but give a watery chuckle.
“I’m sorry, my hormones are all over. They’re happy tears I think. I’m a ball of every feeling at the moment.” Larry presses a kiss to your head and lets you cry quietly on his chest whilst he strokes your back and continues to tell you how proud he is of you and how beautiful he thinks you are and how amazing Henry is.
You don’t remember falling asleep but the sharp cry of a baby jolts you awake and your eyes feel swollen and gritty where your face is pressed into Larry’s chest.
“I’ll get him baby.” Before you can say anything Larry is out of bed and picking up his son, cradling him gently as he walks back to the bed, the tiny infant crying and whimpering even though he’s probably been awake for less than a couple of minutes. You sit up and pull out your breast in preparation, the flesh swollen and heavy. As Larry lays him in your arms, you settle him against your swollen breast and guide your nipple into his searching mouth, sighing a little in relief as he begins to suck heartily and the pressure eases. You feel Larry climb back in beside you, a burping cloth in his hand, and you smile when he slides an arm around you and brings both you and Henry back against his chest.
“Thank you.” You murmur softly, turning your head to press a soft kiss to the skin of his chest and you watch as his long fingers stroke Henry’s cheek gently.
“Does that hurt?” Larry asked after a few moments of quiet and you open your eyes to see him staring down at your breast, your little boy suckling strongly. Larry runs a finger across the pale, blue veined swollen flesh of your breast before allowing it to continue across Henry’s cheek, repeating the motion numerous more times in a soothing manner.
“It doesn’t hurt per se, but it’s very strange. He’s not just got my nipple in his mouth, it’s like the whole of the area around the nipple too. The midwife said that after a couple of days it will probably start to feel really sore. She recommended something called ‘No harm nipple balm.’” You explain and Larry only nods.
“I’ll head to Boots in the morning and see if they stock it. If not, I’ll look online. Was there anything else they recommended? Maybe something for the bath to heal your soreness?”
“There’s a whole load of leaflets in my bag. She recommended a lot of things online from somewhere called ‘My Expert Midwife.’” Larry grabs his phone from the bedside table and you watch as he brings up the website for ‘My Expert Midwife’ and you realise you’ve lost your fiancé to postpartum research, but the strong thump of his heart under your head and the rhythmic suckling of your son lulls you into a doze.
You jolt awake for the second time when you feel the bed dip and as panic rises you immediately stare down at your chest only to find that Henry isn’t there.
“Where is…”
“I’ve put him back to bed. He’s been burped and changed and he’s sleeping peacefully. Sorry I woke you.” Larry murmured, stroking your hair back from your face. “You fell asleep against my chest and Henry had fallen asleep and had stopped sucking so I sorted him out.”
“Oh God what if you hadn’t been here? I fell asleep, anything could have happened. He’s not even a day old and I’m already a bad mother.” Tears filled your eyes as well as an overwhelming sense of guilt overcomes you, however Larry was quick to brush away your tears and press a soft kiss to your lips.
“You’re an amazing mother. You fell asleep because you knew you were both safe. I was there the entire time watching over you both. That’s my job.” Larry explained softly and you nod before adjusting your maternity bra and covering yourself back up.
-
Two days later and your perfect family bubble was popped as clearly everyone had decided that 48 hours was more than enough time to spend alone with your newborn baby.
“Babe my mum has just text me. She’s on her way with my dad. Apparently they’re bringing a car full of stuff but she hasn’t said what.” You turn your eyes to Larry before you lay Henry over your arm, rubbing his little back to rid him of any trapped wind before you switched breasts.
“Oh, okay. I’d better go and put some clothes on.” You look down at the leggings and vest you’re wearing, your hair piled on your head in a very messy bun and currently one breast bared to the world.
“I’m sorry baby. I did message asking if everyone could give us a week but clearly what we want doesn’t matter. Can I get you anything? Drink? Snack?” You shake your head before smiling softly at Henry when you hear a tiny burp. “That’s my boy.” Larry chuckles, coming over to kneel before you and pressing a soft kiss to Henry’s head before pressing a kiss to your lips.
“How long do you think they’ll be? He’s probably got about ten ish minutes on the left one.” Larry pulled his phone from his jeans pocket and checked the text message from his mum.
“Probably about thirty minutes give or take. When he’s done with your boob give me a shout and I’ll take him and change him whilst you go and do whatever you need to.” You nod and press another kiss to Larry’s lips before bringing Henry to your left breast and stroking his little cheek as he sucked sleepily.
As predicted, ten minutes later and Henry was asleep, his hand still grasping your breast but his little mouth slack around your nipple.
“Let me take him.” Larry scooped up his son and cradled him to his chest and you put yourself away before standing and adjusting your clothes, sighing at the sight of your swollen wobbly stomach. “Stop it. You’re beautiful. You grew a human in there, that’s magical.” Larry murmured, his hand reaching out to slide across your stomach to your hip and then up your body until he was cupping your cheek. “I love you and I want you more now than I did before Henry, and I couldn’t get enough of you then.” You smile softly and enjoy the tiny thrill of desire that swoops through your stomach letting you know that although your body had been through trauma, when the time is right it still wants Larry as much as it always did.
Thirty minutes later and Larry was opening the front too to admit his mother and father, however as you stood in the living room looking to the door your eyes widen at the huge gift basket that had Nigel’s voice.
“Laurence can you help your mother with the bags whilst I put this down somewhere?” Nigel asked and you watch as he enters and heads immediately to the dining table, laying the gift basket on the wood before turning to you with a smile on his face.
“Hello love. Don’t you look lovely.” He brought you into a hug and you can’t help but smile as you returned the embrace. “Ooh better go and help Laurence, Carol will be loading him up like a pack horse.” You watch as Nigel heads back out and seconds later you watch Larry stumble through the door, arms full of bags. He dumped them at the foot of the table and turned to you with wide shocked eyes.
“Ooh hello sweetheart. Right where is he? Let me see my grandson.” Carol gives you a smile before immediately moving towards the Moses basket and your sleeping son. “Oh there he is. Look at him. Laurence he looks just like you did when you were born.” You watch with a horrified stare as she made to scoop him out of the basket however Larry was by your side in an instant, doing what you felt you couldn’t.
“Mum don’t pick him up just yet, he’s literally just gone down. Plus I’d like you to wash and anti-bac your hands before you touch him. Especially with him being so young.” Carol’s eyes widened as she stared at her son before her gaze landed on you and her eyes narrowed a little, but quickly replaced with a sickly sweet smile.
“Oh Laurence. I brought you and your brother up and we didn’t have anti-bacterial sprays and washes. That stuff will ruin his immune system before he even gets one.” She made to place her hands on Henry once more but this time it was Nigel who stopped her.
“Come on Carol love. Let’s get our coats off and wash our hands, then I’m sure Laurence will be more than happy to hand over his son for some cuddles.” Larry gave his dad a grateful smile and you watch as Carol purses her lips before following Nigel out into the porch, shedding their coats before heading into the kitchen to wash their hands.
“Right well seeing as we can’t touch our grandson yet, I’ll show you what we have brought for him. Now I know you said you had everything he needed but I saw these and thought they looked so much better.” Carol then headed across to the table, Laurence following and you trailing behind.
“I’m sorry love. I tried to stop her but there’s no reasoning with her sometimes. I’ve kept all the receipts. I’ll give them to Laurence when she isn’t looking. I’m sure what you don’t want or need, you can put the money to something the little fella does need.” Nigel murmured in your ear and you genuinely wanted to hug him and never let him go, he was every bit the man Larry was only with more lines and greys.
“Mum this is a lot of stuff. I told you we have everything for him.” Larry stated, staring at the outfits and toys and blankets and everything else you could think of for a baby, half of it he wouldn’t get to use until he was a bit older.
“Well he’s my grandson. I wanted to spoil him. I’ve seen some of those knitted cardigans and I don’t think they’re good enough for my grandson.” Carol stated, disdain clearly evident in her voice and you couldn’t help but stiffen at her words, knowing that your gran had made those and they were beautiful. People all over town paid your gran to knit for their babies and you knew that everything she made was infinitely better than what was mass produced in stores.
“My gran made those! And they’re beautiful. And you may not want them on your grandson, but I will certainly be putting them on my son!” You could feel tears spring to your eyes and you cursed your hormones for making you weepy when you were actually quite annoyed and insulted. Larry clearly noticed your emotions and stood in front of you, sliding a hand around your hips and pulling you to his chest.
“Are you okay?” Larry asks every so softly and you sigh and then nod and Larry nods in return before pressing a soft kiss to your lips. “If you’re not, tell me. There is no one more important to me than you and Henry.”
“I’m okay. We’ll talk when everyone has gone. I love you.”
“I love you too.” As Larry moves from your view you notice Carol frowning at the pair of you. Larry keeps an arm around your waist and his chest pressed against your side in both comfort and support.
“Right well, I’ve bought Henry some dummies. Probably best to give him one now so that he can get the benefit.”
“We’re not using a dummy just yet. We’ve been doing a lot of reading and whilst he is breastfeeding we want him to focus on that first before we introduce anything else.” You explain, informing Carol of the decision you had both made however judging by the look on Carol’s face she clearly didn’t approve of this.
“You’re breast feeding?” Your eyebrows raise at the surprise you hear in Carol’s voice.
“Yeah I am. Just for the first six weeks and then we’ll switch him onto formula which means Larry can feed him too.” You explain and Nigel smiles.
“That sounds like a brilliant idea.” He states and both you and Larry smile at him.
“Well I think it’s very selfish denying Laurence the chance to bond with his son for the first six weeks.” Carol chimed in with her two-penneth and you sigh and bite your lip, willing your brain and mouth to stay connected and not blurt out what you’re thinking.
“Mum that’s ridiculous. I don’t have to feed him to bond with him. We’ve been doing plenty of bonding without there being any food involved. Every decision we have made for Henry we have made together and for the benefit of him, in order to give him the best start he can possibly have.” Larry explained, staring at his mother.
“Right well… can I hold him now? You’ve kept me waiting long enough.” You hear Larry sigh and you feel his fingers flex against your hip and you know that he isn’t very happy to place his son in his mothers arms, especially not with the way she has been acting since she arrived.
“Larry why don’t you go and make everyone a cup of tea. I’ll sort Henry out.” He gives you a look which clearly states that he knows what you’re doing and that he’s grateful for it, so with a nod you watch as he heads into the kitchen.
Three hours later and you figure that Carol and Nigel have taken up residence on your sofa, with Larry making multiple cups of tea. Carol was still holding Henry and you can see that he’s starting to get fussy and you know that he’s due a feed, if the pressure in your breasts was anything to go by.
“Laurence fetch me a bottle, I’ll feed him.” Carol announced and you struggle to stop yourself from rolling your eyes.
“Carol he doesn’t have a bottle. He’s breast fed.” Nigel stated, staring at his wife in almost disbelief.
“Well then bring me a bottle of breast milk.” Larry sighed and you can tell that he’s starting to lose patience with his mother.
“Mum he’s three days old. We’re trying to get him used to a nipple before we start introducing bottles.” Larry then scooped up his wiggling son from his mother and cradled the little boy to his chest, shushing him softly.
“I’ll take him upstairs for a feed. I don’t want to put you all out.” You make to stand up but Nigel quickly comes to your rescue and you figure that you owe that man a very nice bottle of whiskey.
“I think we should head off, don’t you Carol? We’ve taken up enough of their time. Let’s let them get sorted for the rest of the afternoon and evening.” Carol seemed mightily put out by Nigel’s suggestion but she didn’t argue, only standing up and collecting her handbag before giving Larry a hug and stroking her hand across Henry’s head and then heading towards the front door. Nigel gave both you and Larry a hug and pressed a kiss to the top of Henry’s head.
“In a few weeks, when he has more of a routine. We’d love you to come for dinner.”
“We’ll be there dad don’t worry.” Larry stated with a smile before he walked his dad to the door and you manage to catch him slip a wad of receipts into Larry’s back pocket.
As soon as the front door closed, you had sat yourself down on the sofa and pulled up your t-shirt before undoing the cup of your bra, Henry almost desperately nuzzling at your flesh to get his dinner. Larry sat next to you, pulling you against his chest and pressing a kiss to your forehead.
“I love you.”
“I love you too. And I think after today I’m a little bit in love with your dad as well.” You both chuckle before your attention is taken by the little cherub currently inhaling your breast.