Dad, Redefined

Her expectations of fatherhood are murky. Her dad never married her mom, but he was always around, taking her to doctor's appointments and talking with her, she says. He's still in her life.

"My dad was a great dad," she says, gushing. "He was at school meetings. He even did my hair."

She has four girlfriends who have had children. None of them are married.

She plans to raise Zyhir on her own budget, and says she is not worried about Wagoner as a dad.

"I don't ask him for anything. He takes it upon himself to provide things. So I know it won't be a problem when Zyhir goes to school, or needs other things. I know Tim will be there." (Although, McDaniel giggles, when Zyhir's diapers are "serious business, he brings him right to me.")

The child-care issues, for now, are a family-wide affair:

Zyhir goes over to Wagoner's every day that she works (her schedule changes). Wagoner watches him in the mornings on Mondays and Wednesdays until he goes to work, then his 19-year-old sister Tiffany takes over until 8 p.m., when Wagoner returns. He then ferries Zyhir back to McDaniel's, and has the rest of the evening to himself.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, he'll pick up Zyhir, drop him back at his house for Tiffany to babysit while he goes to his GED class. "I like it," Tiffany Wagoner says, "because I want to be a pediatrician, and I love being around little kids."

Saturdays Zyhir spends with the Wagoners; on Sundays, the baby is with McDaniel's mom.

This will last until January, when Tiffany starts taking classes at Montgomery College. McDaniel says she'll likely find Zyhir a spot in a child-care center. Or, Tim says, his mom might watch Zyhir in the mornings after she gets off work. Maria Washington works an overnight shift at Amtrak, cleaning rail cars.

Sated from the bottle, Zyhir drifts off to sleep. Wagoner goes to the kitchen, rustles up another bottle, then takes Zyhir upstairs to Maria, who's sleeping in. Wagoner comes back downstairs, bends down, touches his toes, gets some milk and cereal from the kitchen. He flops back on the couch with the cereal, settling in for "Crossing Jordan."

Trying to Get Ahead

In October, Wagoner enrolled in Project Empowerment, a District program that pays enrollees to take simple jobs and study for their GEDs so they can move into better-paying jobs. Wagoner had been out of work all summer, during McDaniel's pregnancy.