Baby Rapture

The week after Sasd was born and the two weeks that followed were practically the best time in my life. I refer to this period as "Baby Rapture." It felt so good that I thought it would never end.

During this time, Kelz and I were on the same wavelength when it came to taking care of Sasd. We did everything as a team. We took turns changing diapers, doing the feeding and burping and getting Sasd to go to sleep.

Sasd turned out to be a good baby. She slept all through the night. Kelz and I were well-rested. It reminded me of how Mom said I slept through the night as a baby. Maybe I had a lot in common with Sasd after all.

But we would have occasional disagreements. One night, Sasd wouldn't eat. Kelz started getting worried and thought we should take her to the emergency room. I told her that the situation hadn't reached a real urgent point yet and we should wait. She didn't want to do that, so we got in the car and drove to the hospital where Sasd was born. After waiting a couple of hours, Sasd was seen. The doctor told Kelz that it was normal for the baby to not eat from time to time and it really only becomes an issue if she goes more than a day without eating. I got a little ticked off because the time we went to the hospital was the time I was usually in bed sleeping. Even though we were getting plenty of rest, it still interfered with my ability to go to bed in a timely manner so I could work the next day.

One day at work, Kelz called and told me that I needed to come home right away because caseworkers from the Welfare department were there. I rushed home. There were two other women in the apartment. One of them asked me, "Why are you helping her take care of a baby that isn't yours?" I responded, "Because I love her?" She then asked me some other questions about our relationship. I don't recall what led up to this, but I informed her that Kelz was a recovering addict. She turned toward Kelz and said, "You're a recovering addict? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TELL US ABOUT THAT!" Kelz got mad at me for telling them that. I didn't know there were going to be consequences. I don't know exactly what happened, but Kelz never got any money from Welfare while she was living with me.

But we were still a very strong parenting team. I told her that on Sundays, which were my day off, I would be the one to take care of Sasd and she could just take it easy those days. She was happy about that.

One night, we were putting Sasd to sleep in the crib. All of a sudden, I felt a very close connection to Kelz. She acted like she was in a hurry for us to get to bed. We both laid down. I turned to her and started kissing her on the mouth. This was the first time we'd kissed since before Sasd was born. She reciprocated and we spent the next hour or so making out. During this time, I told her she was the only woman I wanted to do this with.

This capped off the greatest three weeks of my life up to this point. But as you might expect, it all came crashing down the next day.