Tuesday 29th July 2014

8am
Sam and Tom were in NICU before Mr Solis was even on shift, and both were at different incubators as they slowly went round and said good morning to each of their children, despite the fact that six of them were sedated so only two could hear.
"Ah, you're here bright and early." Mr Solis smiled as he came in his fresh pair of scrubs - for the past few days he had beaten the parents because Sam was still a patient who had to obey Mr T's instructions, but now he was being more lenient with her as she recovered.
"Can we hold Aaron today? Or Jonny?" Sam asked quickly.
"Good morning to you too." Mr Solis joked and Tom smiled to himself. "Um, now remember I said maybe you'd be able to hold him within a few days but not today I'm afraid. He's still on antibiotics and we're just waiting for him to gain a little bit more weight because all babies loose around 10% of their birth weight in the first few days, so he's very fragile and I don't want him to be disturbed or distressed - it will only delay his recovery." Mr Solis explained solemnly and Sam's face dropped because she had been optimistic.

"You'll be able to hold him soon Sam." Tom said softly as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Oh um, actually there was something we wanted to ask you." Tom stated.
"Oh right." Mr Solis nodded for Tom to continue as he glanced around at the babies' stats.
"Well, we've been staying in Sam's hospital room overnight for now, but she's probably going to get discharged tomorrow. So we wanted to ask if it's possible for us to stay overnights in NICU?" Tom asked softly and kindly.
"Um... Well we don't usually let parents stay in here in afraid. There's not really enough room." He stated as a nurse came in from the side room.
"I was thinking about this. I mean we normally tell parents no because we can't fit 8 babies' parents every night and we couldn't let some parents stay and not others because it would be unfair. But, all eight babies in here only have one mum and dad so surely it isn't a problem." The young, friendly nurse explained as she sympathised for the parents.

"Um... Well I mean... If you were to stay you'd have to keep it quiet at all times and to keep everything tidy and hygienic. And as for beds well... I think we'd be able to get a mattress in here by the wall, but it would only be a single one." Mr Solis explained slowly.
"Single is fine, we can share." Sam said eagerly.
"Well, I'll have to speak to bed management but I'll try my best." Mr Solis stated.
"Thank you!" Sam squealed quietly.
"Thanks." Tom smiled.
"No worries. I'm sure they'll understand if I say that presence from their parents overnight might, aid the infants' recovery." Mr Solis said suggestively. Suddenly, Aaron began to make little noises, before they quickly got louder into little cries. Mr Solis, the nurse and the two parents quickly walked over and saw the little infant had a red face and he wasn't happy. Suddenly, they could smell something and Tom being the immature person that he was, held his noise. "I do believe someone's had their first bowel movement." Mr Solis smiled. "Trust me, this is really good evidence that his internal organs are functioning well because his digestive system may be slow, but it's certainly working." He stated.

"Who wants to change the nappy?" The nurse asked as the looked at the two parents and Sam immediately looked at Tom.
"I've already changed a wet nappy and-" Tom was interrupted as Jonny, the baby besides Aaron, began to make noises and the nurse noticed that the blue wetness indicator on the baby's nappy had turned darker.
"I think Jonny's got a wet nappy." The nurse pointed out.
"Right, I'll change Jonny and you can change Aaron." Sam stated.
"Oh right, so I have to do the dirty work, thanks." Tom smiled sarcastically before he set about doing the task.

Mr Solis gave advice to Tom as he changed Aaron's dirty happy whilst the nurse helped Sam to change Jonny's wet one and soon, the two babies were settled once more.
"You'll soon get the hang of it, trust me it'll soon become second nature with the eight of them." Mr Solis stated.

"So um, what's happening with all of them?" Sam asked. "I mean, I'm assuming Aaron and Jonny just need to develop a little more with no treatment, and I know Charlie's corrective surgery is going to be this Friday, but what about the other five? When are they gonna come off of the ventilators?" Sam asked.
"Well... I know it's difficult, especially with all of them progressing at different stages but, we honestly can't say. I mean. Leah is certainly doing the best out of the younger five, so she'll probably come off first, but it may be in a week, two weeks we really can't tell." Mr Solis admitted and Sam had to bite her tongue to stop herself from speaking anymore because she was really getting frustrated. Her babies were three days old, and she hadn't been able to cuddle them, let alone feed them, which was really beginning to anger her. Though she knew she ought to be grateful for how well her babies were doing. "I'll go and speak to HR about that mattress." He stated before he and the nurse disappeared to give the parents some alone time.

"It's annoying isn't it?" Tom said softly as he put his arm around Sam's shoulder.
"All we can do, is just sit by and wait." Sam muttered.
"You can hold their hands. Or talk to them, read to them, sing to them." He suggested.
"No, I just feel stupid." Sam stated.
"Alright then, I'm gonna go back to your room and start packing our bags for tomorrow. So you can spend some time alone with them, and just give it a go. There's no one here listening to you and you're their mother, you're supposed to coo and sound stupid when you talk to them." Tom stated as he pecked Sam on the cheek and then left NICU, because he hoped that without him there, she would feel a little more comfortable.

After packing all of his and Sam's things away, ready for her discharge the next day, Tom silently entered NICU in the hope that he would find Sam being friendly with their babies, and thankfully he did. He didn't make a sound as he closed the door, and stood there, watching Sam holding a hand limply with Ellie, the smallest girl, whom he knew she had bonded the most with. And she was talking softly to the intubated and sedated infant.

"... soon. Because I can't wait to see what colour eyes you've got, and I can't wait to be able to give you a cuddle and tell you that everything's going to be okay, because you're my little fighter... Nobody thought you were gonna make your first night, but you proved everybody wrong..." He watched her pause for a few moments as she was obviously trying to think of things to say. "I'm sure you're probably gonna get teased by your brothers and sisters as you grow up for being the youngest, but I think being the youngest is better. It means you get more attention, and you've got more opportunity to make mistakes whereas - and I'm sure I will say this plenty of times in the future - your brothers are four minutes older so they should've known better. I'm sure they're gonna be right little pain in the bums if they're anything like your daddy." Tom could tell by her voice that she was smiling to herself. "He behaves like he's a ten year old, but his hearts always in the right place."

Tom smiled to himself before he cleared his throat and Sam quickly turned her head around to see her husband.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you jump." Tom smiled as he went over and placed his hands on Sam's shoulders.
"How long have you been there?" Sam asked and Tom could see that her cheeks her flushed red a little big.
"Not long. And don't be embarrassed about talking to your daughter. You see Ellie, mummy thinks she's really tough and she acts like she's hard, but I'm the only person who knows she's really a big softie." Tom cooed to his child and Sam smiled to herself.
"You wish." She retorted.
"And, for the record, mummy is really looking forward to having grandchildren so-"
"That's not even funny!" Sam protested and Tom laughed to himself before he rested his chin on top of Sam's head because they both knew that the last thing that they wanted at that moment was another child in the family.

"Have you spoken to the others?" Tom asked curiously.
"Everyone except Aaron and Jonny." Sam replied quietly.
"Shall we make our way over to those gentlemen then?" Tom suggested. He watched as Sam reluctantly let go of Ellie's limp hand and rested it gently on the soft blanket besides her, before she stood up and grimaced. "What have I told you about standing up too fast? You have just had major surgery." Tom stated and Sam rolled her eyes as she slowly made her way over to the two incubators of the only two babies that weren't intubated, though they did sleep for a good 22 hours a day because being born at just 31 weeks gestation meant that they still had a lot of developing to do, and that really took the energy out of them.

"And how many times have I told you not to be patronising?" Sam moaned as she sat down on the seat that Tom had carried over for her. Tom sat down too, and they were sitting in the area between Aaron and Jonny's incubators so that they could both hold a hand with their sons. Sam rubbed more hand gel in, and held Aaron's hand, whilst Tom did the same and held Jonny's hand.
"Go on then, talk." Tom ordered gently.
"No, you talk." Sam ordered.
"Is this just becuase I'm here?" Tom asked.
"No. Look, I need the toilet." Sam stated as she slowly stood up.
"What?"
"Tom I mean it." Sam stated because she couldn't get past as his chair was in the way.
"You didn't need to go five minutes ago." Tom stated.
"Well sorry but carrying eight babies has made my pelvic floor muscles rather weak so if you don't let me past, I'll be standing in a puddle in a minute." Sam stated.

"Fine." He huffed. "No Sam, please I didn't mean to upset you. Sorry for being snappy." Tom said as he stood up and held his arms out. He realised that he hadn't been in a great mood - neither of them had all day becuase it was getting frustrating that they couldn't do anything, and their babies seemed to be making no progress to them, even though their health was rapidly improving.

Sam stepped into his embrace and rested her head against his chest where the smell of his aftershave always managed to make her feel safe. She remained there for a few moments before she pulled away.
"Puddle." Sam said to remind Tom so he quickly moved out of the way and Sam took small but quick steps out of NICU and in the direction of the toilets.

Sam and Tom were just getting ready for bed in her hospital room after a long day of little progress in NICU.
"Seeing as you're getting discharged tomorrow, why don't you come home for a couple of hours?" Tom suggested. "I mean, since your bed rest, you haven't been out of this hospital for two months and we've got a few things to do haven't we? I mean, you'll need to pack some more clothes because you haven't got many left, and I need to put my clothes in the wash too. You could either have a little nap, or pack some things like clothes for the babies, and I'll run the hoover over the house and give it a polish, I'm sure it'll be a bit dusty." Tom stated. "Hey, we'll have a proper oven so we could have a nice lunch and then make some fairy cakes like we used to, just to distract us for a little while." He added as he remembered their many attempts at making cookies and cakes in their kitchen when they had a spare afternoon and the kitchen would often look like a bomb site once they were finished.

"I don't know Tom." Sam sighed - she didn't want to leave her babies without their parents in case something went wrong, but then she also liked the idea of getting out of the hospital because she and been sleeping in that same room for almost two months and it was getting very dull.
"Uncle Fletch still wants to meet his nieces and nephews. And he told me that he's always happy to sit in if we want some time to ourselves so I'm sure he'll be more than happy to help." Tom stated.
"Won't he be working though?"
"No, he's got this week off. He was telling me and he was bragging about his lie ins." Tom explained.
"I... I suppose it wouldn't hurt to give him a call then."

"Fletch says it's fine." Tom stated as he put the phone down after having a friendly conversation with him. "And he said that the whole ED wasn't sure what to get you or the babies, so they've all put money together and got a few collections and there's a small gift bag, a £100 mothercare gift card, a £100 Boots gift card and a £50 iTunes card which is intended for relaxing children's music and nursery rhymes." Tom explained happily.
"Really? Wow. Ooh, I might have to go to boots tomorrow then." Sam stated,
"Why?"
"Because there's lots of things that I need to get."
"Such as?" Tom asked curiously.
"Well considering the first thing on my list is nipple cream, do you really want me to continue?" Sam asked rhetorically. "Nope, didn't think so." She concluded. "But don't let me spend forever in there." She added.
"I won't." Tom muttered as the pair clambered into the small bed. Sam had to lie on her back because lying on her side was painful from her c section incision so Tom laid on his side to conserve space, and he kept one arm under her shoulders so he was holding her.

"Oh crap, I forgot I NICU asked for more milk." Sam stated as she slowly sat up and got the two bottles off of the side. Tom sat up besides her, and he had a massive grin on his face. "You are so annoying sometimes you know that?" Sam moaned as she reluctantly unbuttoned her pyjama top, unclipped her bra at the front and began massaging her breast to slowly fill the first bottle up with milk.
"I thought you didn't use a pump because you wanted to waste time, surely now you want to hurry up?" Tom questioned.
"I'll um, I'll get a pump tomorrow in Boots, you can only rent ones from the hospital here and I really don't like the idea of renting one. Besides, I'll use it enough to get the money's worth." Sam stated.
"Okay. Why don't you do one breast, an I'll do the other to speed it up?" Tom suggested cheekily.
"No!" Sam protested quickly. "You're just looking for an excuse to touch my boobs." Sam stated.

"Fine." Tom muttered sulkily. "Right, plan for tomorrow then, Fletch is coming at 10:30am, maybe a bit earlier so we can introduce him to Mr Solis, and then we can leave. We could stop in the high street on the way home and you can go to boots, while I go the tescos next door and I'll get ingredients for a nice meal, and the stuff to make our lovely cakes." He smiled. "And then we'll go home, sort out whatever we need to do, and come back to the hospital. And don't worry, Fletch said he's happy to stay until 5pm and that he wants us to enjoy ourselves." Tom stated as Sam continued to express.

Once she had finished filling the two bottles, she was stuck as she didn't have the energy to traipse down to NICU to deliver them.
"Just push this." Tom stated bluntly as he pushed the button besides Sam's bed that signalled that she needed assistance, but that it wasn't an emergency.
"Tom, they're not our skivys. We can't just tell them what to do." Sam whispered as a nurse entered the room.
"What can I do for you?" She smiled.
"I know it's a lot to ask, but would you mind popping these two down to NICU. We were just getting off to sleep but Sam forgot to take them down." Tom put on his sleepy voice to make it sound believable.
"No problem." The nurse smiled as she gladly took the two warm bottles from Tom. "Would you like me to turn the light down on the way out?" She offered and Tom nodded before he rested his head down on the pillow and Sam closed her eyes to pretend that she was going to sleep too. They could see through their eyelids as the light was dimmed, and then they heard the click of the door close as she left.

"I can't believe you did that!" Sam whispered.
"What? They're not paid to do nothing." Tom said innocently as he snuggled up to his wife in the dimly lit room. "Night night." Tom whispered.
"Goodnight." Sam replied.

Thanks for reading, will there be any problems when Sam leaves the hospital for the first time in months? Please review :)