Rocking a baby to sleep
Harry was crying, and while James as always was as sound asleep as ever, Reg and Lily were arguing over whose turn it was to take him. “Please Reggie!” Lily begged.
“I took him last time, it’s James’ turn.” Regulus defended, but as James was as immobile as a dead man, Regulus relented and checked on their baby.
Harry was just a few months old, and being the father of a newborn was much harder than Regulus had expected, even with the mother and a second father in the picture.
“It’s okay Harry, Daddy’s here.” Regulus picked up the screaming child, and he almost instantly calmed. He just rocked and shushed the boy until he fell back to sleep, which took about half an hour. But Regulus was scared to set him back in the crib, in fear it would wake the baby up again. So instead Reg sat in the rocking chair. He was exhausted, he was certain that he hadn’t gotten a full nights sleep since the baby was born. He knew Lily hadn’t either. They both envied James, the unwakeable bastard.
Regulus wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep, but he was woken by a hand gripping his shoulder. He instantly held Harry closer, instincts kicking in. “Relax Reggie.” James' voice soothed.
“You scared me.” Reg whispered.
“I’m up, I can take him.” James offered.
Reg blinked feverishly, trying to focus his sight, still groggy from waking up. “What time is it?”
“5 in the morning. I’ll take Harry for a bit, you sleep in a real bed for a few hours.” James kissed Regulus’ forehead.
Regulus sighed, “He’s gonna be hungry in a few minutes, might as well give him to Lily now.”
James shook his head, “Nah, one bottle feed won’t hurt him.”
“Lily will be mad at you.”
James smirked, “Lils is always mad at me for something, but I think she’ll be madder if she’s still running on 4 hours of sleep.” James kissed Regulus on the forehead and took Harry into his arms. “Get some rest babe.”
Regulus obliged, feeling as though he hadn’t slept in years.