Saturday 2nd August

9am
For once, Tom was actually able to have a lie in becuase he knew that after Sam had had her iron supplement injection, she was going to be feeling much better and the worry of Charlie's operation was no longer lingering in his mind because his son was a fighter and had made incredible progress. Charlie was still sedated, so they wouldn't know until he was older whether he would be partially or fully paralysed from the waist down, and then there was the loss of skin sensations, bowel and bladder incontinence that they wouldn't know about, until they began potty training. But none of those were life threatening so his mind was at peace.

Tom had a good stretch before he got up out of bed and padded over to his wife who was breastfeeding their eldest child, Aaron.
"Have a nice lie in?" Sam remarked.
"Mm, I actually feel a lot better today." Tom admitted.
"Me too. Must be the iron kicking in." Sam stated.
"They're a week old today." Tom said proudly.
"I know, but it feels a lot longer doesn't it?"
"Yeah, about a month longer." Tom joked and Sam smiled.

"I'm just gonna wait until he's full and then I'm gonna go for a shower alright?" She said as she gestured Aaron who was gently suckling away with his eyes closed.
"Mm. I'll join you." Tom stated as he sat next to his wife in the spare chair.
"Will you now?"
"Yep. And I'll wash your hair for you." Tom stated as he knew that it caused her pain to raise her arms across her head because of the c section. He had washed her hair several times for her since the operation, and each time they shared a shower, he had ignored the blood that trickled down her legs every now and then, and he avoided looking at her stomach too because he knew she was self conscious. Tom knew that carrying eight babies hadn't done any good to her usually flat stomach, however her hair was even thicker and a few inches longer than before, and her breasts were much larger. "By the way, I'd just like to point out that you're beginning to look a bit like Katy Price." He added cheekily as he nodded to her chest.

"Well as they say, my milk is coming in." Sam sighed.
"Oi, trust me it's a positive thing." Tom smirked as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"You try having weights strapped to your chest and tell me it doesn't make your back ache even more than it did when I was carrying these lot." Sam remarked as she, once again, gestured the baby in her arms.
"Well then I'll give you another back massage in the shower as well." Tom stated.
"Sounds perfect." Sam smiled. "And make sure you wash my hair properly becuase there's a £200,000 price tag on a picture of me breastfeeding." Sam stated.
"And you actually want to release a picture of you doing that?" Tom queried.

"Yeah, you've seen me breast feed, the all the NICU staff have seen me breast feed, and you can barely see anything anyway so I don't see why not." Sam shrugged. "Right, you finished?" Sam asked as Aaron separated from her.
"Shouldn't you offer him the other breast like Mr Solis said, in case he's still hungry but he wasn't getting anything?" Tom asked.
"That was the other breast." Sam stated. "He must have an appetite like his father." She added as she clipped her bra together. "Go on, you can wind him, I need to get my towel and stuff." Sam stated as she carefully handed Aaron over to Tom.
"Oh right, in other words, you don't want to get puked on." Tom stated.

Tom was standing in the steamy washroom outside of the shower curtain whilst he gave his wife a few minutes to clean between her legs like usual, before he joined her under the hospital's stupid shower head that was little more than a trickle unlike their shower jet they had at home that had a big enough stream for both of them to stand under at the same time.
"Your hair, is so bloody thick!" Tom laughed. "And it's all coming out." He added as he pulled several loose hairs off of Sam's back.
"I know, it's caused by increased hormones during pregnancy and then when my hormones settle down, the excess hair starts to fall out again." Sam stated.
"Alright miss obstetrician calm down." Tom said sarcastically as he began to palpate Sam's lower back to relieve her tensed muscles as promised.

"Mr Solis said that he's going to take Aaron off of the oxygen cannula at 12:30pm so that he would have just had his feed and he'll be alert." Sam stated.
"Okay." Tom nodded. "So what pictures do you want to get then? Other than the breastfeeding one?" He asked.
"We could get a picture of the row of Ellie, Bella, Megan and Summer's incubators." Sam suggested. "Oh, and one of you holding Aaron when you hold him inside your shirt." Sam stated as Tom picked up Sam's bottle of shampoo for her and put some in his hands before he began massaging it into her scalp and down to her ends of her thick hair. "I love you, y'know that don't you?"

"Of course I know that, though I do like to be reminded of it." Tom smiled. "And I love you too. In fact, I love you, as much as I love Nandos." Tom stated. "Speaking of which, I really want one now becuase I haven't been allowed to eat there for months." Tom moaned as anything that was even mildly hot during Sam's pregnancy made her heartburn almost unbearable and so they hadn't been there for ages.
"We could go there tonight for dinner." Sam suggested. "I suppose it won't hurt to go out for an hour or two."
"Yeah, I'd like that. And then when the press start complaining that we're leaving our children alone, you can post another rant on Facebook." Tom smirked as he gently manoeuvred Sam until she was under the shower properly and then he began rinsing her hair for her.

"Oi, that rant got about five million likes in the end." Sam stated smugly.
"I know." Tom laughed. "Ooh, I'm gonna have a medium double chicken burger with chips and garlic bread and coleslaw with plenty of coke, followed by chocolate ice cream and their chocolate cake for pudding." Tom announced because their diet in the hospital had either been the meagre tasteless hospital food or a small meal cooked in the ED staffroom so he longed for a large meal.
"Well let's hope all of our kids get your metabolism and not mine. You can eat that and you won't even put on half a pound." Sam moaned.
"Yeah but it's not as if your fat is it? I mean, I know now - and I'm not saying this in a mean way - you can't wait to start running and going to the gym again to get your figure back, but before you were pregnant, you had an absolutely perfect body." Tom stated lovingly as he tucked her wet hair behind her ears to stop anything from getting in her eyes.

"Thanks but it was only becuase I was eating the right things and running a lot. I hardly think that eight kids are going to be joining me on my morning runs and eating a salad for lunch anytime soon are they?" Sam remarked.

12:25pm
Sam had just finished breastfeeding Aaron and he had been laid back in his incubator. Tom had gotten plenty of photos whilst she fed so that Sam could choose one that she was happy to send to a magazine company, but now Mr Solis joined them as he was going to remove the clear tube that went under Aaron's nose to provide oxygen for an hour or two, to see how his stats varied without the additional support.
"There we go..." Mr Solis said softly as he took the tube off of the young boy who sneezed in response.
"Bless you." Tom smiled as he gave Sam's hand a small squeeze.
"Right, we'll keep him under 10 minute obs, and we'll see how he manages. If there is no change, he won't need to go back on the oxygen but we'll just have to see how it goes." Mr Solis explained before he left and went into the side room.

"Can you smile properly now? Was that tube annoying?" Tom cooed as he leant over the open incubator and smiled. After a slightly pause, Aaron mimicked his father and smiled back. "Yes, you've got lovely gums." Tom smirked and Sam shook her head in disbelief at how childish Tom could be. "And your hair is going curly isn't it?" He smiled before he turned around to see Sam's reaction. "What?" He protested.

"You are just, so child-like that it's unreal." Sam laughed.
"I am not a child." Tom protested.
"Pft, not with that ugly face you're not." Sam joked and Tom playfully slapped her on the bum.
"Nice nappy." He retorted and Sam immediately looked down at her backside.
"What?" She mumbled worriedly as she looked behind her.
"No, Sam I was joking." Tom said quickly as he saw her become uncharacteristically timid and shy. "Calm down, honestly I can't see anything." Tom said softly as he grabbed her hands to stop her from messing about with her shirt to make it cover her bum. "Calm down." He repeated as he held her hands tightly.

"Don't say things like that!" Sam protested as she pushed him gently in the chest and he had to take a few steps back to prevent himself falling over.
"Sorry, I didn't think that you'd get so worried." Tom laughed and Sam couldn't help as a small smile tugged at her lips. "Ah see, even you find it funny so I'm off the hook." Tom concluded smugly.
"Not necessarily." Sam said sheepishly.
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, you've got to do something nice for me now to redeem yourself." Sam stated.

"And what is that something nice?" Tom raised an eyebrow.
"If I express enough milk, you have to feed Aaron at midnight, 3am, 6am and 9am so I can have a glass of wine in Nandos, and a nice lie in and a coffee in the morning." Sam stated.
"Okay fine, but you don't have to ask, I'd do that anyway." Tom stated.
"Really?" Sam raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, honestly. I would." Tom stated and Sam gave a small nod in acceptance.

Suddenly, there was an abnormal bleep coming from Aaron's monitor, but it was only brief. Within seconds Mr Solis entered the room to check what was going on.
"Okay, his oxygen sats have gone down ever so slightly, but he's still within the normal range, and it's expected after he's been on 100% oxygen for the last few days."

"So, he's fine to stay off of the oxygen?" Sam asked.
"For now yes, but if his stats drop any lower then we will put him back on the oxygen." Mr Solis stated before he left the room.

1:30pm
Unfortunately, Aaron had been off of oxygen for little more than an hour, but Mr Solis was fitting the nasal cannula once again because his stats had dropped further.
"Don't look so worried." Mr Solis said kindly to the worried parents. "He can last an hour without any assistance in breathing, he's making very good progress for a 32 weeker. And an octuplet at that." Mr Solis stated. "Listen now that they're all stable again there is something I would like to talk to you about. Mr Self, the CEO, isn't entirely happy about you two staying in NICU overnight because the press are beginning to make a fuss about it. There are other mothers with babies in NICU that are complaining becuase they can't stay overnight, and they think that it's just because you work here that you get special privileges." Mr Solis explained.

"What? So you're saying that we can't stay here anymore?" Tom asked worried as he snaked his arm around Sam's hip.
"Well no, I'm not telling you, but I do have to add that I think that maybe staying in your own home overnight might be better for you." Mr Solis stated. "I mean, it can't be comfortable sleeping on the floor, and your babies are all stable so there's not really a need for you because the nurses can feed Aaron in the night. And, I think the less time that you spend here, the more you'll appreciate it. And Tom, you're going back to work soon, I'm sure you're going to want to be staying in your own bed rather than in your place of work. I mean, you don't have to decide now, but just think about it." Mr Solis warned before he left the room.

"Wh- we can't just..." Sam trailed off as she didn't know what to do.
"We'll talk over dinner. Don't worry about it." Tom said reassuringly.

Sam and Tom had already been seated at a small table in Nandos after they had left the hospital which still had a small crowd of journalists outside. They had just been served their meals, and Sam had a bottle of wine to herself whilst Tom had a glass of coke because he was driving.
"Right, I know you're probably going to bite my head off, but I think that... we should start sleeping at home." Tom admitted and Sam stopped the piece of chicken that she was about to put in her mouth.
"Why?" She asked curiously.
"Well, what Mr Solis said is right, if we sleep at home, then you'll enjoy the time that you spend there more." Tom stated.
"And what about when you go back to work? I can't drive for a few more weeks. How am I supposed to get to and from the hospital?"
"Well I can drive you on my way to work, during my break, my lunch break and after work. I'm sure Fletch can give you a lift if he's free, you can get a taxi, you could get the bus." Tom stated and Sam huffed before she began eating.

"Look, I love our kids just as much as you do, but there really isn't anything we can do for them overnight, except feed Aaron, and the nurses can do it... You need sleep Sam, you're doing the best you possibly can for every single one of our babies, but just think do you really think that sleeping on the single mattress on the floor with me is doing any good for your recovery? Because you've had major surgery Sam." Tom stated. "That, and living at home now will make it so much easier for the transition when the first one is discharged." Tom stated and Sam remained silent as she continued to eat, so Tom let her think on it.

"Right, shall we make a move?" Tom suggested because both had eaten their meal, and desert and Sam had just finished the last drop of wine from the bottle that she had consumed by herself. Tom had thought that she would've gone a little tipsy because it was the first time that she had had a drop of alcohol since way before christmas of the previous year - over 8 months ago - and she had had a total of three large glasses. And he was right because she nodded and then stumbled a little as she stood up.

"Before you comment, I am perfectly coherent and alert." Sam stated as she pulled her coat on.
"Of course you are." Tom merely agreed for the sake of it before he began to follow her. "But let me go down the stairs first." Tom said sternly as he sped up and began the decent sideways so that he was watching her as a precaution. They had already paid, so he held her warm hand as they made the short walk to the car.

"I've made my decision." Sam announced.
"Right." Tom prompted her to continue.
"I want to stay two more nights in NICU, and we'll go home on Monday morning so you'll have two nights before you go back to work." Sam concluded.
"That sounds like a good plan." Tom smiled.
"And just because I have consumed alcohol, does not mean that I've forgotten that you said you're gonna feed Aaron tonight, and get me a strong coffee in the morning." Sam stated.
"Dammit." Tom muttered.

"Right little miss 'I'm not drunk', I think it's bed time for you." Tom stated as he guided her through the doors of a dimly lit NICU, and straight ahead to their mattress. "Do you feel sick?" He asked bluntly.
"I had two glasses." Sam protested.
"You had three, and large ones at that." Tom corrected. "And you haven't had alcohol for months so you're bound to be a lightweight." He added as he pulled her coat off. He then decided against bothering to change her into her pyjamas so he just laid her down on the mattress and then pulled her shoes off. "Just in case it's needed." Tom stated as he placed a cardboard kidney dish besides the mattress on the floor.

"I'm not gonna need it." Sam stated as she pulled a cover over her face.
"Don't forget I'm sleeping in that bed too once I've fed Aaron." Tom stated.
"Mm, you can sleep on the floor for being patronising." Sam mumbled from under the covers. Tom laughed at her a little bit before he went into the side room to warm some of Sam's milk up for Aaron.

Tom and just put Aaron to sleep, and changed into his shorts and t shirt when he decided to go to bed, only Sam was sprawled out across the mattress fast asleep. He knew she wasn't going to be woken easily, so he bent down, and literally rolled Sam onto her side so that he had most of the mattress and settled down for the night, knowing that it would be the second to last night that he would spend on that floor.

Thanks for reading, please review :)