Gabriella laughed. “You act like you’ve never seen a baby before.”
“He looks so mad!” Misha laughed, his eyes on the baby as he sat next to me and watched him.
Gabriella congratulated us and focused on Kalina so I could have a moment with my son.
Mysons.
I smiled all over again. I just couldn’t stop, I was so overwhelmed with happiness.
“Will he be as fussy as Andre?” Misha asked.
I laughed with him, letting him gingerly take the baby and hold him.
For the rest of the afternoon, we let more of the others meet the newest Dubinin.
Bets were going for the choice of name, but over all the excitement and well wishes, I watched Kalina carefully for signs she was overwhelmed.
She wasn’t, all smiles as the women chatted with her and everyone took turns to see the baby. The other children weren’t too interested yet. Andre furrowed his brow as he looked at my baby boy, almost as if he was thinkinganother one?but knew better than to say it.
When we weren’t discussing and betting on names, Misha and Lev asked many questions.
How the baby gotina woman. When a baby started to grow. How people knew a baby was going to be coming at all.
The women deflected, passing the questions on to us men. We then took turns hedging answers because they weren’t old enough forallthe details, too young to handle the entirety of the birds and bees talk.
Luka handled it best, saying, “You will understand more when you are ready to hear more.” And that was that.
Once the baby started to fuss and want to be fed, everyone filed out to give Kalina privacy to nurse.
We’d get her back upstairs to our room, but for now, with the nurse still checking her as if this were a hospital stay, we were staying put.
“Okay, but one last question,” Misha said before leaving the room. “Howare babies made?”
I chuckled, bringing the baby to Kalina to nurse. “Later, Misha. I’ll explain more later.”
He nodded and left with Lev, both of them probably trying to figure it all out.
“I’m not ready for him to be curious about all that,” I admitted as I helped Kalina get positioned to feed our son.
She smiled, amused.
“I do know that I can’t wait to practice again and see if we can get a daughter next time.”
She gaped at me, then grinned as the baby latched. “Alexsei! Ijusthad this baby.”
I stroked her hair back to tuck it behind her ear. Leaning in to kiss her, I rested my hand on the back of the baby’s head. “And I will never stop loving you for it.”
She settled against the pillow, watching me with a lazy smile. “Besides, I think it’s up toyouwhether we’ll have a boy or girl.” She yawned, clearly ready for a nap. “Maybe we’ll just have to keep practicing until you figure it out.”
“We never discussed how many we might want,” I reminded her.
“We never even discussed having one,” she teased. After another yawn, she said, “I have to admit, it wasn’t as bad as I feared.”
“That’s because you are the strongest, bravest woman I know.” I kissed her as I sat next to her and urged her to rest her head against me. She needed to nap, and I’d handle the baby when she did.
“And not a day will go by when I don’t realize how lucky I am that you wanted to be mine.”
“Yours,” she replied sleepily and happily before closing her eyes and trusting me to have her back with our new son.
