The Castaway Hotel - 9 - 31. Chapter 31 - Adjustments

After we put Joshie in the crib, Dion hopped into bed beside me. We bid each other sweet dreams and then slowly drifted off to sleep. A couple of hours later, I heard Joshie begin to cry. I waited to see if Dion was going to respond, but he continued to lie there. I waited another minute and then I began to gently shake my sleeping son.

“Dion, your son needs you,” I advised him.

“Huh? What?” he responded, very groggily.

“Dion, you are going to have to tune in to your son’s cries, if you’re going to take care of him,” I added. Dion rolled over and looked at me a second, before it sank in. He immediately jumped out of bed and raced to the crib.

“What’s wrong with him?” Dion asked, as he was lifting the baby up.

“I believe he only wants his diaper changed and his next bottle,” I informed him. “Do you think you can handle that?”

“Ummm, yes, but will you please watch me, to make sure I’m doing it correctly?” he asked, timidly.

“Yes, I’ll make sure you are doing everything correctly,” I agreed, so Dion grabbed a diaper and the baby wipes and then placed Joshie on the bed so he could change him.

“Oh, man, he shit!” Dion commented. “It’s yellowish and it really stinks.”

“Yes, babies do that,” I quipped. “Just make sure you clean his bottom off really well, so he doesn’t get a rash.” Dion was gagging and I couldn’t help but chuckle as I watched him. It almost appeared as if Dion had been on a bender and now had the dry heaves.

“Dad, I’m not sure I can do this,” he told me, in between gags.

“You can, but it might take you a while before you get used to it,” I explained. “You’re doing fine, so don’t give up.”

“Dad, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to this,” he replied, as he set the smelly diaper aside and wiped Joshie off once again, before placing him in the new diaper. Once that was done, he turned to me and spoke.

“Dad, will you watch him for a second, while I take care of this stuff,” Dion asked, while holding the diaper. I quickly agreed.

Dion took it out and threw it in the trash, washed his hands and then heated up the baby’s bottle. A little while later, he returned and began feeding Joshie.

“Damn, I didn’t know taking care of someone this tiny could be so hard,” Dion informed me.

“Yes, they do require a lot of care and attention,” I responded, “but this is still the easy part. Wait until he starts walking and getting into things.”

“Damn, Dad. Am I going to be able to do this?” Dion asked. I could tell he was being serious, but he also looked slightly scared.

“Most new parents probably ask themselves the same thing,” I replied. “You’ll do fine, but it will just take some time for you to learn the ropes.”

“I’m sure glad you’re here to bail me out when I need it,” Dion shot back. “And Trey’s going to have to learn to do some of this too.” Dion stopped and looked thoughtful for a moment.

“Dad, what if I don’t hear him when he cries at night?” he asked. “I wouldn’t have tonight, if you hadn’t woke me up.”

“After a while you’ll become so tuned in to the sounds Joshie makes that you’ll wake up when he coughs and sneezes too,” I answered. “It will take time and probably won’t start to happen until you have your next long vacation, when you’ll be able to spend more time with him.”

“We’ll be home at Thanksgiving, but that will only be for a few days,” Dion remarked. “I guess it will have to happen over the Christmas break then.”

“You’re probably right,” I agreed.

Once Dion finished feeding Joshie, he burped his son and put him back in the crib. We went to sleep for another couple of hours after that, but then Joshie awoke again. This time Dion heard him and woke up on his own.

“Is he alright?” Dion asked, concerned.

“Yes, it’s just time for his next changing and feeding,” I informed him.

“Does he do this all night, every night?” Dion followed.

“He will for a few weeks,” I explained, “and then he’ll start sleeping a little longer before waking up. For now, though, it looks as if it’s going to be every couple of hours.” Dion rolled his eyes at that news, because he preferred to be able to get a full night’s sleep.

Once Dion finished tending to the baby’s needs, we went back to sleep again. Joshie woke up a couple of hours later and Dion tended to him again, but when Joshie awoke the time after that, we stayed up after he went back to sleep. As soon as Dion put him down this time, he told me he’d be back in a bit and then raced upstairs to his room.

“Okay, Trey, wake up,” he said, while shaking his lover. “You might as well start learning how to take care of Joshie too.”

“But I want to sleep a little longer,” Trey answered.

“So did I, but the baby woke me up every two hours, so now it’s time for you to join in the fun.” Trey wasn’t pleased, but he got up anyway. He was about to say something to Dion, but Dion spoke first.

“Hey, you said you wanted us to have kids, so you’ll have to do part of the work too,” Dion informed him. “Dad’s going to get stuck with most of it, but I want you to spend time with Joshie and take care of him as well.”

Reluctantly, Trey kept his mouth shut and came downstairs with Dion, “But he’s sleeping,” Trey stated, when he looked into the crib.

“For now,” Dion told him, “but he’ll be up again soon. I think we have time to have our breakfast first, before that happens.”

The boys then went into the kitchen and began fixing themselves something to eat. I sat with them and we talked a bit about how they felt, what they thought of the experience and how they wanted to split up the responsibilities. Once they’d discussed all of this, we began cleaning up and then we heard Joshie crying in the other room. Dion bolted to his side.

“Come on, Trey. It’s your turn to change and feed him,” Dion announced, much to Trey’s displeasure. However, Trey did go in and took care of doing everything for Joshie, under Dion’s watchful gaze and words of advice.

That pair took care of Joshie throughout the day. They never wandered very far away from him and spent time talking to Joshie and reading him stories when he was awake. Joshie would smile and follow both his fathers with his eyes, which was pretty good for a newborn.

“Dad, he’s real pink. Does it mean he’ll stay that way?” Dion wondered.

“Dion, he probably won’t stay pink, but we probably won’t know his true skin color for a while,” I explained. “It may take weeks or even months before we can tell for sure, so you’ll just have to wait and watch.”

“So maybe by Thanksgiving or Christmas we’ll know more?” Dion pressed, hopefully.

“We may, but let’s not worry about that and just enjoy him as he is now,” I offered, and both boys seems to be fine with my suggestion.

Dion and Trey took care of little Joshie most of the time, but their brothers spent some time with the baby too. It was cute to watch them all fussing over the infant and even Jake got into the act.

Later that night, when it was approaching time for bed, I posed a question to Dion and Trey. “How do you want to handle tonight?” I asked. They looked at each other briefly, before Dion answered.

“If you wouldn’t mind,” Dion began, “we’ll stay in your room and take care of Joshie.”

“That will be fine,” I agreed. “Jake and I will stay in Shannon’s room then.”

Since that was set, I left them on their own. They went into our room, shut the door and hopped in to bed, once Joshie was in the crib. Trey immediately began kissing Dion, which got him excited, so Dion got out of bed and began to prepare himself for lovemaking.

“Uh, I don’t know about doing it in Dad’s bed,” Trey confessed. “It doesn’t seem right.”

“Hey, Dad and Jake do it in here, so I’m sure they won’t mind,” Dion answered. Trey gave in easily, since he was horny, so before long, Dion was slowly entering his lover. They had just begun to get in to it, when Joshie began to cry.

“Damn!” Dion exclaimed, when he heard him.

“Just let him cry a bit,” Trey suggested, since he didn’t want to stop.

“No, I’ll take care of Joshie first and then we can finish this afterward,” Dion offered, as he pulled out of Trey. Trey seemed disappointed.

“Is this the way it’s going to be from now on?” Trey wondered. “Are we always going to have to put Joshie first and our needs second?”

“Yes, baby, we are,” Dion replied. “Joshie depends on us for everything right now, so he comes first. Don’t worry, you won’t be neglected.”

The boys then took care of Joshie and changed and fed him, but once he was asleep, they jumped back in bed and started over. This time there was no interruption and Dion was able to make sweet love to Trey. Once they had each exploded in powerful orgasms, Dion whispered in Trey’s ear.

“Satisfied?”

“Totally,” Trey answered.

“Then it was worth waiting until the baby was taken care of first?” Dion pressed.

“If it’s always that good,” Trey continued, “we can wait every night until after his diaper has been changed and he’s been given his bottle.” That seemed to answer Dion’s question and removed any doubt that Trey was going to become jealous of the baby.

The only problem was, I wasn’t sleeping very well upstairs. Besides being in a strange bed, I was also worried that Dion and Trey weren’t going to hear Joshie when he cried. Therefore, I woke up several times and finally gave in to my concerns and began to occasionally sneak downstairs, so I could check up on how things were going.

I never heard Joshie cry during any of the times I did this, but on a couple of occasions I did notice the boys were both up and taking care of him. The first time they didn’t happen to notice me, so I slipped back upstairs before they did, but the second time Dion spotted me in the foyer.

“Something wrong, Dad?” he asked.

“No, I was just coming down for drink,” I fibbed, although I did go and get some water after that. “How are things going?”

“Not too bad,” Dion answered. “This is the third time he’s woken us up, but I think we’ve heard him every time he’s cried.”

“That’s good,” I replied. “Any problems?”

“Not unless you want to consider a really stinky diaper as a problem,” Trey joked. “I thought I was going to vomit when Dion made me change it.”

“Well, Dion did one last night, so it’s only fair,” I added, with a chuckle.

Since they seemed to have things under control, I went back to bed, feeling a little more at ease about falling asleep. In fact, I slept a little later than normal and Jake was considerate enough not to wake me.

“Why did you let me sleep so late?” I asked him, when I ran into him downstairs.

“I knew you were up most of the night, checking on the boys,” Jake confessed, “so I decided to let you get some rest.”

“But it’s Sunday and we have church,” I followed.

“Josh, it’s only nine and everyone else is ready,” Jake assured me, “so just get ready quickly and we can leave.”

Before I left, I did have one additional question. “Dion, are you going to take Joshie to church?”

“Do you think it will be alright?” Dion asked.

“Yes, he should be fine,” I answered. “He’ll probably sleep through most of it, like the rest of you do, but we’ll take a diaper and a bottle with us, in case he wakes up.”

My comment about the rest of them sleeping through the service got me some hostile glares and a few comments, but hey – I have to get my shots in when I can.

The baby was nearly perfect throughout the service and on the way out, several people stopped us to see him. Dion was very open about being the father, but didn’t say much when asked about the mother. He said he wanted to wait and speak with her first, to see if she had any problems with everyone knowing she was Joshie’s mom.

Our minister stopped us so he could see the baby too and told Dion he should consider having the baby baptized. Dion agreed and said he’d contact him and set up a time for it when he was home on a vacation. Our pastor agreed and congratulated him on his son.

Joshie even joined us for brunch, and Dion and Trey took turns giving him his bottle, while they attempted to down their meal in between. The waitress had been kind enough to heat the bottle up for them, so we thanked her and I added a little something extra to her tip. Once the baby finished his bottle and burped, he went right back to sleep. Oh, what a life.

After I dropped everyone else off at home, Dion wanted me to take him and the baby down to Shelly’s house. He wanted to ask her if she wanted others to know she was his mother, but it was also to give her and her parents a chance to see Joshie too. I thought that was very considerate of him, so I drove him down. Trey thought it would be awkward if he accompanied us, so he stayed home and worked on some of the assignments he had brought back with him.

The Novaks were thrilled when they saw us at the door and invited us inside. Dion handed Shelly’s mother the baby, nearly as soon as we walked in, and she and her husband sat down and began talking to Joshie. While they were doing that, Dion took Shelly aside and asked her his question.

“Look. When we were at church this morning, some of the people asked who Joshie’s mother was,” he began. “Since I didn’t know if you wanted me to tell anyone, I didn’t say anything, but I’d like to know what you want me to do in the future.” Shelly thought about this quickly, before responding.

‘I guess that since you’re going to let me be a part of his life, they’re going to find out sooner or later,” she answered. “You might as well be honest and tell them and I’ll make sure my parents are okay with it too. Thanks for asking though and not just making the decision on your own.”

“Hey, I didn’t want to make the decision for you,” Dion stated, “and I just want to do what you’re comfortable with. I won’t do anything to hurt you in any way, since you were nice enough to let Trey and me raise the baby.” They hugged briefly after he said this and then they came back to join the rest of us.

Shelly’s parents were having a great time with Joshie, so before we left, I assured them they could call and let me know when they wanted to see him. I told them I’d be happy to bring him down any time, so he could get to know his other grandparents too. They thanked us for doing that and then Dion and I took Joshie home.

After spending the rest of the day with the family, Dion and Trey left to return to their respective campuses around three. Trey was driving back, while Brandon was taking Dion. I told both boys they could call or email me whenever they wanted to find out how the baby was and we’d see them again at Thanksgiving, when they could spend more time with him. I don’t think either father wanted to leave and they kept coming back to kiss and hold Joshie, but eventually they got in their vehicles. They were teary eyed and hesitant to go, but knew they had to, so they told me they’d be in touch regularly, to see how Joshie was doing.

Once they pulled away, I took Joshie back inside and we settled in for the long road ahead of us.