Novel Bin Chapter 207 - Epilogue 1
Life As A New Mommy
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Star
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If I had thought that being a mommy to a new baby was going to be easy, then I was terribly wrong. I think that I had been a little overconfident in the beginning because I had all the other kids around, but they were easy when it came to the baby.
Brayden, being a newborn, needed to sleep a lot, but he also needed to be fed every two hours or so. I was also breastfeeding him, which meant that I was the one feeding him most of the time. I was being taught how to pump my milk after the first few days as well.
The benefit to me pumping my milk for Brayden was that Artem, Mom, Chay, Gabby, Aunt Criztie, Dad, Aries, and whoever else was helping could feed the baby. There was a lot of help for us though, and that was a good thing as well. Everyone wanted to feed and hold him and help me with stuff. It was honestly a little overwhelming with how much people were trying to help out.
I didn\'t mind, though. I wanted this type of inclusive family life. I was enjoying having everyone here with me and Brayden. I was happy that he was going to know so many members of his family.
Actually, what I was most happy about was that my baby was never going to know the hate and abuse that me and the boys knew growing up. My son, and the other children Artem and I will have together in the future, would never have to know the type of life that me and the boys went through. I never wanted anyone to suffer through that type of life.
Right now though, we were all just trying to adjust to the new life that we were living. The kids were doing their best through it too.
"Mommy, can I hold Brayden now?" Dalton asked the minute he got home from school just like he had done every day for the last month.
"I need to go get a snack for all of you now so that would be very helpful." This had become a routine for us.
"I will help you with that, Mommy." Cohen took my hand.
"Me too." Benton took my other hand.
"You shouldn\'t have to do that, Mom. We can do it." Flint tried to have me sit back down.
"We will do it together." I smiled at him. "I will appreciate the help."
I was happy when the kids came home from school. They all told me how their day went while having a snack. And I was really glad that they had this opportunity. I never got to go to regular school so I didn\'t know what it was like. Because of that, I quite enjoyed the stories that they told me about different games they played and the different things they were learning. I also liked that they had Reed and Bailey with them everyday. I liked that they all left and came back together. That was helping everyone with the transition and adjustment to their new lives.
I had seen them all grow so much over the last several months. It was making me sad. Even Brayden had grown a lot over the last month since he was born. He was getting bigger, and he slept a little less. I had a feeling that, before I knew it, we would be running after him when he crawled or walked away from us. That made me truly sad.
A Growing Family
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Artem
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Over the last few weeks, I couldn\'t help but notice how much life was changing for everyone. All the boys were gushing over the baby when they got home from school. Mom, Dad, Vivian, and Aaron were always hanging out wherever the baby was. Aunt Criztie spent half her time with all the kids, Brayden included, and the other half listening to anime in the background while she was cooking in the kitchen with Kieran. She particularly liked to watch, or listen, to One Piece. Both she and Kieran enjoyed cooking together quite a bit and got along really well.
I watched as over the last month Vivian looked more and more pregnant since she was due in just about two months or so. And Chay was starting to show now that she was a third of the way through her pregnancy as well.
Not to mention that about a week after Brayden was born, Kent told me that he had proposed to Ella and she said yes. Three days after that he told me that Ella was pregnant. Within two more weeks, Reed, Toby, Morgan, and Doc all announced the same thing. This meant that there were going to be a lot of little ones soon. We were all one big family, and it was growing a lot bigger.
That was all fine with me. I was happy that we had quite the large family now. It was perfect in my eyes. I could do with having even more friends and family around. There were more than enough people in the house that we could handle it, and there was even more room left.
Every night, when Star went to take her shower, I would just sit in our room and watch Brayden as he slept in my arms. I had enjoyed every moment that I spent with the boys, that wasn\'t an issue, but I had never gotten the chance to be around babies like this.
I was a natural at it, apparently. Mom joked with me constantly about how I had apparently pissed on my dad at least a dozen times before he had learned how to change a diaper properly. I wasn\'t having an issue though. I seemed to know just what to do when I first tried to change Brayden\'s diaper.
"Artem, I truly think you were born to be a daddy." Mom smiled at me while she watched me with my son. "You have been so good with all of the children. It doesn\'t matter what their ages are, you\'re doing it all so perfectly."
"I don\'t know, it just all seems like common sense to me." I shrugged my shoulders at her words. "I\'m not trying to do anything other than that."
"Maybe it\'s because you were raised with so much love." Star would say when she heard Mom compliment me. That was when she would kiss my cheek and smile at Mom. "It\'s all thanks to you."
"Oh, Star, you give me too much credit." Mom was always humble and shy like that. Still, I liked that Mom was happy when she got that compliment.
Getting Used To A Baby In The House
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Chay
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I couldn\'t believe how much our life was changing. A year ago, Artem had come to me and told me that he wanted me to help him here at the pack house. I had graduated high school a year early so that I could take time off and do what I wanted to and grow as a person. I most definitely hadn\'t expected that Artem would tell me that he wanted to take over the wolf pack and free the abused kids.
I knew he wanted to do that, but I didn\'t think it was going to happen right then. Honestly, he probably would have done it sooner, but Dad wanted him to prove that he had what it took to run the company before he left for Mexico with Mom.
He did it though. He proved that he was more than capable of running the company so Dad approved of him taking over the pack. We all knew what it meant for him to take the pack. He would have to take it by force and that meant killing the Alpha. There was no love lost there, none of us liked the Alpha. Still, it was a major step.
In fact, it was a step that I thought was going to suck all the happiness and joy out of Artem. That didn\'t happen, though. He stayed the same person he was before, even though he had killed a man. He lived like he used to and took care of everyone because that was just who he was as a person.
I didn\'t think that over the course of the one year Artem would adopt thirteen boys and marry his mate. Nor did I think that his mate would have a baby so soon. In such a short time, we went from murdering the former Alpha to raising so many children.
And to top it all off, I am mated and pregnant now as well. And I am getting married in just a few weeks. Bailey wanted to have our wedding on Valentine\'s day. That actually gave us more time to plan than the time we had for Star and Artem\'s, but the venue was the same. And with Aaron there offering his help and Vivian to make dresses, we didn\'t have that much to worry about.
Honestly, I think the thing that was the hardest to adjust to over the last year was the baby in the house. That was the newest and biggest change. Most of us didn\'t know how to take care of a baby so, and honestly, I was glad that we had our parents here to help Star and Artem.
Not to mention that I was going to be learning as much as I could. I will be having a baby in just four months now as well, so I needed to know all of these things. And to think that my baby and Star\'s baby would only be five months apart in age. And then Brayden\'s aunt or uncle would be in the middle of them. It was a unique family dynamic, but it would work for us just fine.
"Chay?" Bailey called out to me when I was writing in my journal.
"What\'s up?" I smiled at him and accepted the kiss on the cheek he was giving me.
"What are you doing?"
"Just making notes." I showed him the journal. "I want to remember all of the things that I have learned from Mom, Aunt Criztie, and Vivian. I want to make sure that I know how to take care of my baby, our baby, properly."
"You\'re going to be a wonderful mother. I know this. Plus, it helps that you have all this time to get used to a baby being in the house." He wrapped his arms around me then and pulled me back to lay against him.. I loved when he cuddled me like this, I loved being wrapped in his arms and feeling the warmth of his whole body.