Six Weeks Old

Mauras POV
"I am feeling painfully anxious about this." I whispered to Jane truthfully as she lifted the empty green baby carrier out of the car, placing it on the ground beside her feet as she started to unclip Harper from her car seat.

Jane carefully lifted Harper into her arms, one hand supporting her neck as she walked towards me, placing our daughter gently into my awaiting arms. I smiled down at her as I placed my handbag back into the passenger's seat of my car. I don't know why I had thought bringing a handbag would be a good idea when we would have two babies and baby bags to carry out of this hospital today.

"You get to meet your brother today, boo." Jane told Harper as she closed the car door, locking it behind her as she made her way to where we stood, taking Harper out of my arms again and placing her in her own lilac carrier we had bought with us. I let Jane carry her, both of us knowing fine well that I wasn't going to be able to keep my hands off Noah once we were inside.

"You told your mother we weren't doing family dinner tonight, right?" I clarified with my wife whose suddenly wide eyes told me that she had completely forgotten. I rolled my eyes at her, softly nudging her playfully though inside I was dreading going home to our whole family waiting for us. Our little boy was yet to be introduced to much of the family formally and I can't imagine meeting a whole loud family at once will be very calming for him.

We had spent the past week trying to prepare all we needed for another baby coming into the mix, but I knew no amount of organising or planning would ever truly prepare us for what we were about to experience. I had forced myself to stop picking Harper up and cuddling her anytime she made any sort of noise and Jane had begun spending more and more time feeding Harper rather than allowing me to do it every time. We were trying to divide our time between our two babies before they were even both in our home.

"I don't want her to feel jealous." I told Jane as we made our way up to the NICU, my hand automatically making its way to softly brush against Harpers sleeping face as I spoke.

"She has two mommies who adore her and now she'll have a brother to play with." Jane assured me with a sweet smile. She leant closer to me, brushing a loose strand of hair away from my face before she pressed feather light kisses to my cheek. I couldn't fight the smile that found its way onto my lips as I turned to face her, her lips capturing mine in a sweet, soft kiss. Her tongue traced my bottom lip as the sound of the elevator arriving at our level broke us apart, a quiet sigh escaping Janes mouth as we separated. It had been too long.

I was right; the second I laid eyes on Noahs sleeping body in his incubator my arms outstretched towards him. I hesitated when I noted how small he still looked, pursing my lips before I turned to a nurse who was watching on with a warm smile on her young face. She nodded at me encouragingly as she made her way to where we stood, placing a hand on my back reassuringly. I placed Noahs carrier on the bench beside his crib as the nurse removed the plastic cover that was separating us.

"He's ready to go home." She confirmed, all three of us looking down on our perfect boy sleeping completely peacefully before us. I turned my head to look at Jane, smiling excitedly across at her as the realisation that our family was going to be over washed over my body. "Are you planning on doing the introductions here?" The nurse asked, looking down at Harper who was also fast asleep, still comfortable and rugged up in her carrier.

"If they're both sleeping I think we'll just do it when we get home." Jane said, looking at me with raised eyebrows as she spoke, trying to decipher if that was the right thing to do. I had accidentally woken Harper up from a nap last week and our little girl had made me pay for it by screaming all afternoon. Waking either of our babies up seemed like the absolute worse thing we could do at this point.

"Has he been on any specific feeding schedule?" I asked the nurse, pursing my lips as I realised I had left my notepad in my handbag. Jane sat down on the chair beside Noahs bed as the nurse browsed through our sons file, nodding every now and again before she looked up at me.

"Let me go grab Noahs doctor; he'll be able to tell you more than I can." I was a doctor, I knew exactly what that meant. There was something in that file that she, as a nurse, was not allowed to tell us. I knew that nurses fed the babies so she shouldn't have even needed to look at his file to know what time he's been feeding.

"I want to go home." I told Jane nervously, looking down at our son who hadn't moved since we arrived. I couldn't handle watching him just lay there so still any longer. My eyes darted around the room, noting there were no longer any nurses around before I lifted him into my arms. He made a quiet groaning sound but kept his eyes closed as he settled against my chest, my body rocking slowly side to side to ensure I didn't disturb him too much.

"Good morning ladies." The doctors loud voice came from the doorway, Noah jumping slightly in my arms. I tightened my grip on his small body, holding him closer to my chest protectively. The doctor pulled the blanket that our little boy was wrapped in away from his chin so he could clearly see his face. I kept my eyes on the doctors face, watching and noting all his micro expressions; none of which set off alarm bells in my head.

"He's ready to come home, yeah?" Jane clarified from the chair, her hand resting on Harpers legs. I had started to notice that whenever Jane wasn't holding Harper; she had a hand on her. When I was feeding our little girl, Janes hand would be resting on her back. When I burped Harper, Janes hand would lightly hold hers. When I was rocking Harper to sleep, Janes hand would gently touch our daughters face when she was close enough. I couldn't imagine anything bad ever happening to either of these babies so long as Jane was around.

"He is, there is just one little thing we need to talk about." I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat at the doctors words, my hand tightening against Noahs back protectively as Jane stood up and stood beside me, stretching her arm backwards to keep physical contact with Harper. "There is a very good chance it will never happen; but due to the lack of oxygen to his brain during his birth, you may encounter seizures during his life." My eyes widened, my heart racing in my chest as everything I knew about seizures went flying out of my brain.

"What do we do if…" Jane started, taking a deep breath as she let go of Harper and rested her hand on my lower back as a sign of support. The doctor nodded in understanding, pulling out a pamphlet and handing to my wife who frowned down at the picture of a baby lying on it's side. So we were supposed to learn how to deal with our baby potentially seizing from a pamphlet? No. When we got home I had every intention of finding the best course available and I would be forcing the whole family to take it.

"Are you ready to go home?" I asked Noah quietly while Jane continued asking questions and taking notes about what feeding schedule out little boy had been on while he was in hospital. I carefully placed him in his carrier; trying not to panic at how much smaller than his twin he looked. "Mommy won't let anything happen to you."

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"What if they hate each other?" I asked Jane with a frown as we sat on the sofa looking down at our two babies sleeping in their respective carriers on the living room floor. She nudged me playfully before placing light kisses on my shoulder, a quiet sigh escaping my lips as I let myself drown in the feeling of complete bliss I felt. I had my beautiful, incredible wife beside me and our two babies healthy and home. Could things ever get better than this?

"Sometimes they will hate each other." Jane told me, resting her head on the back of the sofa as I leaned into her, resting my head in the centre of her chest for comfort. "But they'll love each other to death." She added, a small smile playing on my lips as we continued to look down at our two favourite people.

"Thank you for being so wonderful." I whispered, turning my head so I could place a light kiss on Janes lips. We both melted into the kiss, our foreheads soon resting on each other as we tried to fight the urge to take the kiss to the next level.

Noah was the first to stir, a small frown making its way onto his otherwise perfect face as he started to wriggle around in his seat. I took a deep breath before Jane and I both climbed off the sofa and sat on the floor in front of the babies. Jane and I looked across at each other, both of us smiling nervously as we unclipped the babies before us. I lifted a sleep Noah into my arms, instantly covering his pale face in kisses.

"Good afternoon." Jane whispered to Harper whose eyes opened the second Jane picked her up, a small frown making its way onto her face when she realised we had woken her up. Jane looked up at me, turning Harper around in her arms so she was facing Noah and I. "There's someone you have to meet." Jane told our little girl as she gently bobbed her up and down in her arms, Harpers eyes fixated on the bundle in my arms.

"Hi you." I whispered down to Noah as his eyes slowly opened, the frown still apparent on his face as he tried to adjust to the light in the room. I carefully turned him around to face his sister, both of their eyes meeting the second they were able to. Jane and I sat there quietly, waiting for the babies to react before we did. "Who's that?" I asked quietly, pressing a light kiss to Noahs ear, Harpers eyes not leaving her brothers for even a second as I spoke.

It felt like hours that we were just sat there holding our babies, letting them become familiar with each other's faces before Noah started throwing his legs and arms around excitedly. Jane was beaming down at him, her eyes starting to water as she got the first view of our baby boys first smile.

"Is that your sister?!" Jane asked him excitedly, a huge smile on her face as she scooted closer with Harper still happily sitting in her lap. A few quiet moments passed before a huge smile broke out on Harpers face followed by an ear piercingly sweet squeal of excitement. Janes smile faded as she watched Noah carefully, expecting him to be terrified by the sudden sound but before I knew it he was jumping around in my arms excitedly again.

"What is happening?" I asked with a giggle as our babies continued smiling and squealing at each other. Jane kept her eyes focused on Noah, a smile on her lips as she shook her head. Neither of us had ever predicted they would be so excited to see each other.

"I don't think we have to ever worry about them hating each other." Jane told me, her face full of love as she looked up at me. A quiet knock on the front door reminded me that Jane had failed to cancel the family dinner we had every Sunday night and I let out a quiet groan. I could have sat here and watched our babies love each other forever.