“She needs her diaper changed and breakfast, and you need to get ready,” I replied, shaking my head as I moved to get up.
“Sleep, sugar,” Will ordered, putting a hand to my chest and shoving me gently back down. He leaned over with Rebel clinging to him like a monkey and kissed my lips lightly. “I’ll take care of Reb, and I’ll take a shower at the clubhouse.”
He stood back up and strode out of the room, saying something quietly to Rebel. I heard his footsteps fade down the hallway as I closed my eyes again, but before I could fall asleep, his voice came over the baby monitor that we’d never turned off the night before.
“You sleepy, princess? Yeah, me, too.” I smiled as I heard the drawers in Rebel’s dresser open and close. “We’re gonna get you dressed since your mama keeps the house so damn cold. Sound good?”
It really wasn’t that cold.
Will’s voice grew faint, like he’d moved away from the monitor, so I reached out of the blankets and turned the volume up a little.
“I gotta work on an old Mustang today, which should be pretty nice. Beats working on a 1994 Mazda, you know? Those cars are shit. Don’t know if you’ll ever be able to drive, baby, but if you do? I’ll get you a good car. Something that’s built like a tank, cause if you’re anything like your mama, you’ll be running into shit left and right.”
“Mama,” Rebel replied.
I backed into something once. One time. And it hadn’t even been anything important—it was a stupid curb that shouldn’t have been there.
“I can teach you all sorts of shit about cars. You gotta know how to check your oil and change your tires just in case I’m not around to help ya with that. Don’t wanna get stuck out on the road somewhere with a flat.”
Will was quiet for a few moments.
“It’s alright if you can’t drive, though,” he said quietly. “I’ll still teach you about cars. Maybe when you’re older, I can take you out to the garage and you can help me with shit. Show you how to change the oil and stuff so you can help your mama out.”
“Mama,” Rebel said again.
“Yeah, princess, your mama’s sleepin’. You’ve been keepin’ her up all night. What’s that about, huh?” Rebel giggled the way she always did when Will was tickling her ribs. “Nah, don’t pull at your ears, baby. You’re gonna hurt yourself.”
He kept talking for a little while longer, but eventually they left Rebel’s room and I fell back asleep to the low sounds of Will making Rebel breakfast in the kitchen.
* * *
“I’m not sure what’s going on,” I told Rebel’s doctor later that day. Thankfully, the doctor’s office knew Reb and all of her medical history, so when I’d said that she wasn’t sleeping well, they’d gotten us an appointment right away. You really couldn’t overlook anything when dealing with a child with Down syndrome, because all of their habits and medical issues wove together into a bigger picture that we had to keep an eye on. I couldn’t just say something was a phase and would get better, because there was always a chance that there was an underlying issue that I wasn’t seeing, especially since Rebel couldn’t tell me what was wrong yet.#p#分页标题#e#
“How often is she waking up at night?” Doctor Mendez asked, smiling at Rebel as she let her blow warm air on the end of her stethoscope.
“Some nights it’s only like three times, but other nights it’s been six or seven.”
“Whoa, so you’re really not getting any restful sleep,” the doctor replied.
“Couldn’t you tell?” I joked, waving my arm in front of me to call attention to my sweatpants and greasy hair.
She laughed. “Well, sometimes, kids Rebel’s age just have wonky sleep patterns. But we’ll check her out and see if we can figure out what’s happening.”
She listened to Rebel’s heart and lungs, then pushed on her little belly, making my baby laugh and squirm. When she pulled out the little thing to check her ears, Rebel froze, then scrambled back onto my lap.
“Mama,” she said frantically, her little fingers digging into my skin.
“She’s talking? That’s great!” the doctor said, keeping her voice cheerful as she moved closer.
“Just one word,” I replied, rubbing Rebel’s back. “But it’s the best one.”
“Who knows, it might be the word that opens the floodgates,” she said, leaning down to steady Rebel’s head as she looked in her ear.
“You think?” I asked, tightening my arms as Reb began to squirm.