“Shhh, you’re okay,” he whispers. “Daddy’s taking care of you. Let’s put your diaper on.”
Why did he make me feel so good? The thought lingers in my head as my eyes start to droop.
“It’s okay, I’m just fastening your diaper,” Daddy explains as I feel something being wrapped around me.
He wraps a blanket around and holds me close to his chest.
“I’ll wake you up in an hour to give you some formula. You can go to sleep now,” he soothingly says. “Daddy will watch over you.”
I want to give him a smart reply back, but I find myself falling asleep instead.
“Suckle on this while you sleep,” he whispers as he places something in my mouth.
FIVE
I whine and swat the hand away as it runs through my hair. Why are they waking me up once again? Why can’t they just let me enjoy my sleep and be done with it?
“I know, Little Pet, but it’s necessary. Daddy needs to keep your belly full, or else something bad might happen. We don’t want that,” he coos at me.
“No,” I whine once again, tears pooling in my eyes when I open them. “Don’t wanna. Just wanna sleep.”
My body is exhausted and begging me to get a full night’s rest.
“You don’t have to open your eyes. I just need you awake, so when I put the formula in your mouth, you can swallow it and not choke,” he gently says. “Then you can go straight back to sleep.”
Ronal picks me up and holds me close to his body as he runs his hands through my hair.
“Everything is going to be okay. I know it’s tough waking up every single hour to get fed, but it’s going to be worth it in the end,” he soothes me. “Daddy doesn’t like waking you up every hour, either. I want you to get good sleep, but Yamal told us to do this so you don’t have any problems.”
Yamal.
Yamal.
Yamal.
Anything Yamal says, Daddy is going to do right away.
“Don’t wanna,” I whisper. “Sleep is healthy.”
“Sleep is healthy, but so is keeping your body full of nutrition. You need this formula in your stomach right now since you haven’t gotten fed in a couple of days. It’s important. Some sleep can be sacrificed for it so you don’t have any discomfort when trying to eat,” he explains. “But enough about this. Daddy is going to feed you now. Then you can go back to sleep.”
At this point, why doesn’t he just hook me up to an IV to get all my fluids.
Wait.
Those are two different things. He wants my stomach full, and an IV wouldn’t do that, no matter how much I want it to. He would need to put a feeding tube in, and I don’t want anything going down my throat. No, thank you.
Daddy’s soft lips press against mine, and I open my mouth, allowing him to dribble the formula in.
“Such a good girl,” he mumbles against my lips when I swallow.
Daddy does this several more times, each time telling me how good a girl I am and that he’s proud of me.
Not once have I ever had someone tell me that. I don’t know how to react. Do I say thank you, or do I just let it be and pretend that I never heard it?
“You can go back to sleep. I’ll wake you up in an hour,” he gently says as he snuggles his cheek up against mine.
“Can you not?” I find myself asking. “I don’t want to wake up again. I want to sleep.”
