"Not your whole life," he says, looking up at last, flashing her a quick, lopsided grin. "We'll get a reprieve sometime between her finally sleeping through the night and when she's mobile enough to come running into our room at one a.m. because she had a nightmare."

Darlington walks slowly from the center of the sunroom to the windows and back again, easy and meandering, letting Edie rest in his arms. "And I can take on more of the nighttime feedings and changes. Trying to split it evenly was maybe too ambitious."