Wednesday 30th July

Tom slowly opened his eyes to realise that he was flat on his face on the bed. He quickly sat up and saw that he was alone in the room, however there was a yellow post-it note on the bedside table reading :
'Down in NICU
Sam x'
He got up off of the bed, brushed his teeth and had a wash, and just as he had finished getting changed, Sam and Mr T entered the room.
"Morning." Sam smiled.
"Why are you so cheery?" Tom queried.
"She's officially discharged." Mr T stated as he signed one last document in her file and then closed it. "But remember what I've said, and you have to come to your future appointments okay?" He said sternly to Sam.
"Yeah, thanks for everything. Mr Solis is getting all the credit from the press for helping the babies survive but if you hadn't have helped me to have a healthy pregnancy and performed the c section, then he wouldn't have the babies to look after in the first place." Sam stated gratefully as she shook the man's hand.
"No worries, it was a privilege to be a part of the team." Mr T smiled.

Sam and Tom were relaxing in NICU, when Mr Solis came in with a small pile of white clothes.
"I know you gave us white sleep suits for them, but they'd bit too big for them at the moment so I thought you'd like to put these on them for now, and these eight little hats there too. But you can't dress Charlie yet until he's had his operation." Mr Solis said softly as he handed Tom the pile of seven white sleep suits that were so small they would fit a young chihuahua, and eight small hats.
"What? We can dress them?" Sam asked, because all of their kids had only been wearing a nappy since they had been born because of their wires.
"Yes, all you need to do, is gently pull it on, and you can do it up, just make sure that all the wires come out at the top and behind their heads so they can't choke on them." Mr Solis stated. "In fact, it's probably best that I show you for one of them of that's okay." He began and Sam and Tom both nodded so they approached Bella, the second youngest girl. He didn't want to dress Aaron or Jonny because the parents would get some interaction from the babies as they weren't sedated, and he knew that Sam would definitely want to dress Ellie because those two females had developed a very strong bond. He took one of the sleep suits, removed the side panel of the incubator, and set about dressing the unconscious individual.

10:20am
Sam and Tom's bags were already loaded in the car, and they were ready to leave, they were just spending some time in NICU, when Fletch arrived with a fairly large yellow gift bag, a larger blue gift bag and an A4 envelope. He entered NICU and couldn't believe the sight of the eight infants all in their own incubators. Seven of which were dressed in a white sleep suit and all had a cute white hat on.
"Thanks for coming." Sam said quietly from her chair in the corner where she was sitting with her back facing the men and facing Ellie's incubator.
"My pleasure." Fletch replied eventually. "Oh um, these are for you." He stated as he offered her the bag filled with bath and massage oils, chocolates and other gifts. "And this one is from Tom." He added as he gestured her the larger blue gift bag with presents that had been wrapped but Tom gently pulled Fletch back away from his wife.
"She's expressing." Tom stated quietly.
"Oh right, sorry." Fletch apologised as he stepped back a little further.
"No, don't worry it's fine. And thanks, but I'll open them outside, they don't like loud noises." Sam said quietly as she nodded to the incubators.
"Wow, these lot are adorable." Fletch exclaimed.
"Well, they get their looks from me." Tom joked quietly.

Fletch was introduced to Mr Solis and each of the babies, before he settled and began to read one of them a story so once Sam had finished expressing, she and Tom headed downstairs with the two gift bags and the large card.

As they reached the hospital entrance, they were engulfed by a large swarm of journalists but Sam already felt guilty about leaving her children behind so combined with the vast amount of questions being thrown at her along with the constant bright flashes of the cameras, her eyes began to water.

The press were obviously thrilled at the fact that the new mother of eight was leaving her babies in the hospital so they could give her a bad image. And they obviously wanted photos of Sam's post pregnancy body too which made her feel self conscious because she knew she had dozens of stretch marks, and that her stomach was saggy - she had been carrying eight babies after all.

Tom wrapped his arm around Sam's shoulders as he forced his way through the crowd for her, and they finally got to their car and Tom began to drive away.
"Are you okay?" Tom asked softly as he focused on the road ahead of him.
"Mmhmm." Sam replied as she took in a deep breath to control her left over emotions from the pregnancy.
"Go on, open your presents." Tom encouraged.
"I'll do the ED's ones first." Sam nodded as she picked up the yellow gift bag. She soon made her way through the bag of relaxing oils, chocolates, thick socks, lots of muslin cloths and the gift cards so she picked up the large heavy blue bag from Tom.

Confusedly, Sam first picked a thick envelope out of it and wondered what it was. But once she'd opened it, she'd found numerous vouchers for various things such as massages, showers together, nappy duties etc.
"You're skipping ahead aren't you? 'Nappy duty for one night'?" Sam read off of one of them.
"Well, I'm optimistic." Tom stated proudly. Sam then took a wrapped present out of the bag and unwrapped it to find one black, and one blue soft, mid-thigh length nightie. "I hope they should fit. But I know it gets warm in NICU and I was thinking for if you have to breast feed at night because it's got buttons at the top." He explained.

"Aw, that's a great idea Tom." Sam smiled.
"Wait. I got something right?" Tom said sarcastically.
"Haha." Sam retorted as she took out another wrapped present. She carefully took off the wrapping paper to reveal a deep sea blue hoodie. "Ooh." Sam smiled as she unfolded it to check for the general size on her body.
"Um, before you panic, I have a feeling that we're being followed." Tom admitted and Sam discreetly looked in the mirrors to see two large black vans with blacked out windows behind them.

"This is a joke." Sam moaned. "Do they realise that I'm not royalty? I'm a human being with eight babies I don't see why the press are so interested in them."
"Just ignore them, they can't do anything to us." Tom stated. "Go on, carry on with the presents." He smiled and Sam returned to the gift bag and took out a small cuboid shaped present. "Ah now, please don't take this present the wrong way. I'm not saying that you need this, I am merely saying that I think you want this." Tom explained as Sam unwrapped the present to find it to be a bottle of bio-oil that was used to reduce stretch marks.
"No, I know what you mean. I was going to get something like this anyway. Thanks." Sam smiled as she put the box back in the bag.

Tom pulled up down the small high street where thankfully the Boots store and tescos were right next to each other. However unfortunately for Sam, there was the two black vans still behind them and they parked up too. Sam opened her car door and moved her legs over the side onto the pavement, but she grimaced as she tried to stand up, and she only ended up back down in the passenger seat. Tom rushed around her side of the car and gave her a helping hand out before he shut the car door and locked it.
"How am I supposed to get what I need when those lot are here?" Sam complained quietly and Tom could tell she was embarrassed.
"Sam, you're a new mum and you need certain toiletries. They're hardly gonna judge you on what you get are they?" Tom said reassuringly as he put his arm around Sam's shoulders and walked her into the Boots shop. Yesterday, he had planned to let her go in there alone whilst he went in tescos, to save her any embarrassment. But with the presence of the media, he didn't want to leave his vulnerable wife alone.

He grabbed a basket and stayed behind Sam in the hope that he would be able to see if anyone with a camera was following them. And thankfully, it didn't appear that anyone had left the black vans so he carried on following his wife through the store as she timidly filled with basket with sanitary towels, breast pads, nipple cream, a breast pump and other products in bulk because she was going to be staying in the hospital and she didn't want to have to go shopping again. She quite literally zoomed around the store as fast as her pain threshold would allow her because she wanted to get back to the hospital as soon as she could.

Once Tom paid with the gift voucher that Sam had received with her other presents, they entered the tescos next door with a small trolley.
"Look, I know I said I was okay with it but, can we leave the cakes? Please?" Sam asked. "I just want to get back to NICU." She admitted.
"I know, so do I as well but we've both got clothes that need washing to take back with us and the quick spin takes about half an hour, and they'll take at least another half an hour in the dryer so we're gonna have some spare time. We might as well make some cakes because they're fun and it'll take our minds off of things for a while, yeah?" Tom encouraged and Sam padded behind Tom as they arrived in the baking aisle.

"Can we at least get one of the ready made mixes to save some time because we'll need to clean up too. And there's no point in getting butter and things like that because it won't all get used." Sam stated as she looked at the mixes that only required eggs, oil and water.
"Alright then." Tom agreed. "In fact, if we get two mixes then we can give everyone in NICU some." Tom stated and he watched as Sam immediately picked up a devils food cake mix.

With only one shopping bag that needed to be carried in - because everything else was going to the hospital - and their two holdalls, Sam and Tom opened their nine bedroom home's front door to find their doormat plastered with coloured envelopes, thick padded brown envelopes and a few small parcels that had been fitted through the letter box.
"You carry on, I'll get them." Tom stated because he knew that she couldn't bend over without wincing in pain because of her abdomen. Both were confused as to how they had received so many cards, however Tom proceeded to take the shopping bag and holdalls through to the kitchen, before he gathered the stack of cards and parcels and took them through too. "Don't suppose you have an absolutely huge family that you forgot to tell me about have you?" He joked as he placed them all on the side.
"Nope, but by the looks of things, they're mostly address to Mrs Kent, not Mr Kent." Sam stated smugly as she picked up the top pink envelope, opened it and took out a card congratulating her on her beautiful new babies - despite the fact that the only people who knew what their babies looked like was the NICU team and Fletch because they hadn't let any pictures slip out yet. But it was signed from pampers, the massive nappy company, and they were giving the new mum a £1000 voucher to spend on any pampers products. "I bet these are all companies trying to get their brand promoted." Sam concluded as she showed it to Tom.

"But then again, we really can't complain at that can we? I mean, we're gonna need to all the financial help we can get. I know we've got a lot in our bank from the magazine and from that website that put a picture of me on the internet, but we've got to think of the future because it isn't going to last forever." Tom stated.
"No, I suppose not." Sam agreed as she picked up another envelope that was a turquoise/green colour. It was a congratulations card from mothercare giving a voucher for 50% off of the price of all baby clothing, and another giving 50% off of the price of all bedding, blankets and cribs. Tom then opened a card with a voucher from 'BabiesRUs' giving them a £5000 gift voucher - they had only opened three cards so far and there was a massive stack of them!

Sam and Tom were in their bedroom and all they could do was wait. The orange drizzle cake and the devils food cake were in the oven baking and the kitchen was all tidied up. Their clothes had just been put in the dryer, and Sam had already packed her bag with her prepregnancy clothes that were usually a bit baggy on her, so they would fit her now. They had gotten over an astounding £20,000 in vouchers from so many different brands and stores that sold baby products along with money offs and other deals! They were just so grateful, though they knew that the companies weren't interested in the family side of things, they just wanted publicity.
"Right, we need to take some more books because I've read some of them several times." Tom stated as he and Sam walked into one of the few store rooms that were filled with products for the babies that they had bought with goodbye magazines money on their shopping spree.
"Mm. And seeing as we can dress them now, we should take some hats and sleep suits in." Sam stated as she sorted through the boxes until she found the once containing clothes for newborns - they were probably a little bit on the big side for now, but she knew they would soon come in use once the hospital clothes became too small for them. "Ooh, actually I should probably bottle some more milk." Sam stated because she knew that she had to provide more and more milk to NICU, and to keep up with demand, she had to express regularly.
"Go on, you go and I'll finish getting their stuff ready." Tom stated and Sam thanked him before she headed downstairs to use the breast pump for the first time.

As soon as tom parked in the hospital car park, Sam literally leapt out of her car despite the pain that it caused because she was desperate to see her kids. Tom had just opened the boot, when he noticed that Sam had already left the car to go to the hospital without taking a single bag!

Sam was almost running down the corridor but she paused outside NICU to catch her breath back, before she entered the unit.
"No changes no?" Sam demanded off of Fletch who was a little taken aback.
"Woah, calm down." He laughed softly as he stood up from the chair. "As far as I know, nothing's happened." He stated and Mr Solis then entered behind Sam.
"Welcome back." The consultant smiled.
"Any problems? Changes? Dirty nappies?" Sam asked and Fletch looked confused.
"No, nothing at all." Mr Solis said to Sam before he turned to Fletch to explain. "Babies who are born prematurely often don't digest milk very well so it's a big milestone whenever they have a wet or a dirty nappy." Mr Solis stated and Fletch nodded in understanding when Tom entered with two holdalls in one hand and a third in his other.

"Oops." Sam said awkwardly. "Sorry, I forgot about the bags..." She admitted cheekily and Tom shook his head at her in disbelief at her childish side.
"Don't worry about it." He said as he put the bags just inside of the door, out of the way and he noticed that there had been a single mattress placed at the very back of the room between Leah and Megan's incubators and it had been made up with pillows and a duvet.
"Are there any more bags?" Fletch asked.
"Um yeah, would you mind giving me a hand? Because I believe that that one is currently occupied." Tom smirked as he nodded over at Sam who was already holding Aaron's hand. Fletch smirked too before he joined Tom and went back down to the car.

11pm
Sam had finally called it a night of 'keeping guard' as Tom put it, but she had already been in her pyjamas and hoodie so she just had to slip beneath the covers next to Tom in the small mattress. She felt Tom's arms wrap around her stomach before he nuzzled her neck with his nose as he rested his head behind hers on the same pillow.
"You finally coming to bed?" Tom said sarcastically yet sleepily.
"I just need to check my phone." Sam stated as she brought her hands above the cover and put her phone just in front of her. There was a text from Fletch telling her to ignore what the journalists are saying about her and Tom. "What does that mean?" Sam asked confusedly and Tom lifted his head to see the text - the text had obviously been received earlier because Sam always turned her mobile systems off when she entered NICU - though she could still use the hospital wifi.
"Um... I don't know. Try looking at the news." Tom suggested, so Sam opened the internet to google, and clicked on the news tab. But the first news story that came up infuriated both the new parents.

It basically claimed that Sam and Tom were being bad parents by leaving the babies alone in NICU for a couple of hours when they were just four days old, and that instead of spending time with their sick children, they had bought ingredients to make cakes.
"Right, that's it." Sam muttered to herself as she opened a new tab and opened her Facebook account.
"What are you doing? Don't do anything you're gonna regret Sam, don't forget it's late." Tom stated cautiously, but he watched as he wife gave a rather large status update :
For those saying me and my husband 'abandoned' our children today, I have spent hours on end with my children, so much so that I'm currently lying on the floor on a mattress in NICU with Tom because we don't want to sleep at home, away from them. We didn't abandon them, we were out of the hospital for no more than two and a half hours and I missed my children so much when I was away from them. But the truth is, if me and Tom spend all of our time in NICU, we're gonna make ourselves sick because we can't keep ourselves cooped up all day in a room, where we have to play the waiting game. Also, could the press please stop camping outside the hospital and following us because we're no different from any other new parents, and you are getting in the way of ambulances.

"There. See what they think about that." Sam concluded as she placed her phone under the pillow that they were sharing, and then she made sure she was safely within Tom's arms before she let herself drift off into a deep sleep...

Thanks for reading, please review :)