Wednesday 9th September 2015, 4pm

"You are doing so so well Sam, don't give up now you're nearly there." Tom said encouragingly as Sam used the gas and air to deal with the pain whilst Tom sat between her legs on the bed, waiting for the arrival of their baby. In just her bikini top and nothing else, Sam was still sweating with her hair tied back in, what used to be a tight bun but what was now a messy one. She was slightly red in the face too. "Here, give me your hand." He ordered gently.

"What?" Sam demanded.

"Just trust me." He ordered and reluctantly, Sam let go of the mouth piece and she did as she was told. Tom then moved Sam's hand past her bump and she could feel something wet and textured. "That's his head, he's not out yet but you can just see the top of his head." Tom grinned. "Can you feel his hair?" He asked softly.

"No, I thought I'd just missed a bit shaving." Sam joked sarcastically.

"You see? Just a couple more contractions and he'll be here really soon." Tom stated. Sam was taking deep breaths to combat the pain but Tom knew she was struggling so all he could do was to encourage Sam and tell her what an amazing job she was doing. "Just slow down on the pushing while his head comes out to try and prevent tearing okay?"

"Okay." Sam nodded. She just wanted her baby out as soon as possible but she really didn't want to tear - Tom had been giving her perineal massage for weeks to prevent such a thing - so she tried to take a small break and rested her head on the pillow behind her.

"I think he's got brown hair." Tom said softly.

"If I ever moan about having a headache again I give you permission to remind me of this event and how painful it was." Sam remarked and Tom smiled.

"I am impressed though, you haven't wet yourself or accidentally emptied your bowels." Tom joked.

"Yet." Sam added.

"Ooh, he's on the move." Tom announced as he used a clean towel to wipe away the small amount of blood that had appeared. "His head's coming... It's coming... Sam I told you not to push!" Tom protested.

"I can't help it!" Sam argued so Tom rolled his eyes. "Aaahh!" Sam moaned before she took quick breaths of the entonox and began panting again.

"And his head is here! Sam look, look at his face, you can see your son." Tom announced happily as he used the towel to wipe his baby's face clean and then he used a small suction ball to clear the baby's airways. "Just one last push and I'm sure you can get him out Sam." Tom stated as he supported the newborn's head.

"I can't... I can't-"

"Yes you can, Sam you're doing so so well. Come on just one last push for me when the next contraction comes and he'll be all yours, you'll have our baby I promise." Tom said encouragingly.

"Keep pushing, keep pushing- well done Sam!" Tom said happily as he took his baby into his hands and he laid him face down on Sam's chest straight away because he knew the importance of skin-to-skin contact. The small flushed baby squirmed about and once Tom rubbed his back a little bit with a towel, he erupted into a soft cry that softened once Tom had stopped the action and he just left the towel on his back to keep him warm. Sam put her hands on the baby's back - under the towel to stop him rolling off of her still rounded belly - and then looked at his eyes which were still screwed shut, and she just didn't know what to do. She was so overcome with emotion that her eyes began to fill with tears but no matter how hard she tried to stop them, two rolled down her cheek. "You managed the whole birth and pregnancy without crying, and you cry now." Tom chuckled softly. "Time of birth: 4:13pm. You did really well Sam, well done."

"Thanks." Sam said in a whisper as she couldn't take her eyes off of her newborn son.

"Right, do you want to try feeding now so we can get the placenta on it's way?" Tom suggested. They wanted to leave the umbilical cord until it stopped pulsating so that they knew that their baby had gotten all the possible nutrients from Sam so they weren't cutting it immediately. Sam nodded so Tom helped to wrap the towel around their son properly and they turned him on his back. Tom put a pillow on Sam's lap and they laid their baby on it to get him in the correct position to feed. "Okay. I'll just undo this for you." Tom stated as he gently reached behind Sam's neck and untied her black halter neck bikini and he pulled it down on the side closest to their baby's head. As Sam had read on the internet, she used one arm to tilt her baby until he was facing Sam, and the used the other hand to hold her breast as she got ready to feed her son for the first time. He was babbling and making soft noises and so he already had his mouth open before he closed his mouth over Sam's nipple. "No, try that again. He's not latched on properly." Tom said softly and so Sam used her little finger to detach her son. "You need to try and get as much of the areola in his mouth as possible." Tom stated as he sat on the bed besides her, and after a couple more tries, Sam got him latched on. "You can hear him suckling." Tom smiled and Sam did too. She was still in pain, but the worst of it was over. And she had brought their son into the world in less than twelve hours from start to finish which was pretty quick for a first time mum. "Hey, stop crying. Everything went how you wanted didn't it?" Tom laughed softly as he wiped the tears from under Sam's eyes because her hands were preoccupied.

"Of course it did; I'm not crying because I'm sad. I'm just happy and... Overwhelmed, I suppose." Sam shrugged.

"Well done, I'm so so proud of you." Tom whispered before he pecked Sam on her forehead. "Right, let's get your placenta out." Tom stated as he got up and went to kneel between Sam's legs again to deliver the placenta and complete the final stage of the birthing process.

8pm

Oddly, the Kent family had already fallen into a routine within hours of their baby's birth. Sam was sleeping and recovering after the birth and so after having a shower and changing into some comfortable pyjamas whilst Tom cleaned up the bedroom and made the bed up with clean sheets, she had curled up in bed, with the bedside sleeper right next to her so that her son was no more than a foot away from her. Every two hours, both Sam and their son would wake. Sam would empty her bladder because she had to get rid of the extra fluids from pregnancy and she'd change her maternity pad, then she would sit up in bed, and breastfeed their son for however long he wanted. Though his first two feeds had taken forty minutes because he had a habit of falling asleep whilst feeding. After feeding, Sam and Tom would put their son back to sleep and then Sam would drift off too. And if was about time that the whole routine started over again...

"Sam... Sam wakey wakey." Tom said softly and Sam slowly opened her eyes and then twisted her neck to look at her baby boy wriggling in the bedside sleeper right next to her, and he was putting his fist in his mouth - a sign that he was hungry.

"I'll be right back." Sam stated as she shuffled to the end of the bed because the cot meant she couldn't get out of her side of the bed, and she quickly used the bathroom before she returned to find Tom sitting on his side of the bed with a tray with a plate of lightly buttered toast and a glass of orange juice in front of him.

"I thought you might want something to keep you going." Tom stated as Sam slowly climbed back onto the bed. "And I've got Baby Kent his first little toy." Tom smiled as he showed Sam the black and white border collie plush toy that he had gotten from Hamleys months ago. He leant over Sam and put it in the corner of his cot, out of the way so that it wouldn't cause him any harm as he wasn't old enough to play with it.

"I'll just get him started before I eat." Sam stated as she pulled a pillow onto her lap but she grimaced as she laid the infant who was swaddled in a blue blanket with a light blue cap on on the pillow.

"How are you feeling?" Tom asked curiously.

"Not too bad. It's just like period pains really but it's nothing compared to earlier." Sam replied as she pulled her vest top down on one side, unfastened her nursing bra and took a couple of minutes before he latched on. "How's Shadow and the pups?"

"Shadow is perfectly fine now that the storm has passed, she went out in the garden and did her business and she's curled up feeding her babies just like you at the moment." Tom explained as he put one arm around Sam's shoulder and looked down at his son who had his eyes wide open as he suckled away making small sounds with each swallow. Like both of his parents, the newborn had bluey-green eyes and his head was coated in a very thin layer of golden brown hair. "Thank you for bringing our son into the world. You... This just means so much to me and I don't know how on earth I can ever repay you-"

"You don't have to repay me, just be the brilliant dad that I know you will be." Sam replied as she rested her head in the crook of Tom's neck. "Besides, you gave me the ideal birth - I wouldn't have had anything differently if I had the choice - and that was really important to me." Sam stated. "I didn't want to be scared to give birth again, and I'm not."

"Oh, so you're already planning on our next child are you?" Tom joked.

"Not in the immediate future, no." The couple sat in silence for a little while longer whilst their son filled his tiny stomach with colostrum when Tom noticed that the boy's eyelids were shut and his cheeks weren't moving.

"Oi, I know it's tiring work eating and sleeping all day mate but you've got to stay awake to eat." Tom chuckled as he tickled his son under the chin causing him to stir and then he began suckling again without difficultly as the latch had not been broken.

"This is a whole lot quieter than I thought it'd be." Sam admitted.

"Well maybe we're one of the lucky few who has a very well behaved little son." Tom smiled.

"Yeah right. If he's got you as a father, he's gonna turn out to be a right little monkey with a cheeky grin like the one you've got right now." Sam stated bluntly.

9pm

Sam laid fast asleep on her side, resting after the long day whilst Tom sat in bed, in his boxers, with his son in just a nappy, lying on his chest. The bedside lamp was on very low to reduce stimulation of the young infant whilst he wriggled and squirmed about.

"I would read you a story little man, but we don't want to wake mummy up do we?" He whispered. "Mummy's worked very hard to bring you into this world and after carrying you for 41 weeks, and then giving birth, I think she deserves a nice nap, don't you? Now then, what are we going to call you?"

"I like Daniel." Sam croaked and Tom looked down to see Sam's sleepy eyes looking up at her son on his father's chest.

"Hmm, Daniel... What do you think? You like Daniel Kent?" Tom asked his son, who only made quiet noises as he waved his clenched fists around a little.

"He could be Daniel Thomas Kent if you want." Sam offered and Tom grinned.

"I think he definitely looks like a Daniel Thomas Kent." Tom stated proudly. "Well that was a lot easier than I thought it would be. How're you feeling?"

"Still a bit sore, but not too bad."

"Listen, the plan for tomorrow is take you and Daniel for your thorough check over with your obs and gynae consultant at 8:30am, and then there is quite literally a list of people who want to come around and meet him and see how you are so we could start accepting visitors."

"Yippee." Sam sighed sarcastically.

"Well lots of people have been affected by the flooding and could do with cheering up. Robyn, Lofty and Max's house is flooded and Zoe is having to put up with all three of them while they wait for the river to go down."

"Oh, I bet she's loving that." Sam joked. "It'll just give her an excuse to have Max sleep in her bed."

"Oi, none of that kind of talk around my son please." Tom smiled as his son was content with being 'free' as Tom put it, in just his nappy with chest to chest contact with his father.

"Why don't we go and introduce him to Shadow and see what she makes of him?" Sam suggested as she brought her hand up out of the duvet and put her thumb in Daniel's palm before he screwed his fist up and gave Sam's thumb a weak squeeze causing both new parents to smile.

"Yep. But we'll have to be careful of her, just in case. She's very protective of the pups and she might think he's a threat because she hasn't seen him before." Tom warned as he carefully got out of bed and then Sam took Daniel into his arms whilst he pulled a dark blue dressing gown on over his boxers.

"Why hasn't he got any clothes on by the way?" Sam asked as she swaddled the boy in a bright blue blanket to keep him warm on the changing table.

"He's just like me, he prefers to be in his underwear or in this case, his nappy." Tom stated and Sam rolled her eyes in response.

"Actually, I suppose it does save on washing." Sam shrugged jokily as she picked him up and cradled him against her chest. They went into the living room, and flicked the light on to see a familiar sight of Shadow's pups all fast asleep nestled together around their mother's belly whilst Shadow had her eyes opened slightly. Her ears went down and her tail wagged slightly because she had not seen Sam in a while (and her stomach had certainly gotten a little smaller because she hadn't seen her since before she gave birth) and she also seemed excited and curious of the bundle in Sam's arms so she stood up and stepped just outside of the box whilst Sam knelt down on the floor.

"Good girl." Tom said softly as he attempted to keep the dog calm. Shadow sniffed the bundle and then nosed the baby's feet which tickled Daniel and caused him to squirm. Shadow cocked her head in confusion before she began nosing him gently and rubbing her head against the side of the bundle like a cat would often do to a human's legs when they wanted something. "I told you she's part cat, part mongrel." Tom remarked.

"Good girl Shadow!" Sam praised happily.

"She's not Shadow she's- wait, no that is Shadow." Tom corrected.

"How could you get her confused? She's by far the biggest dog in the apartment." Sam protested.

"I know she's the mum but in this household there is Tom, Sam, Daniel, Shadow, Alex, Zoe and Panda plus whatever Fletch's kids decide to call their one; there's a lot of names in this house compared to when used to be just two!"

11pm

All was well in the Kent family home. Sam was fast asleep recovering from the tiring birth, Daniel was fast asleep with a stomach full of milk, swaddled in a blanket, and Tom was asleep too. Then in the living room, Shadow's pups had woken up for a late night feeding and were quietly suckling away making the smallest of sounds in the almost silence household with the occasional snore from Tom. But most babies were quiet in their first few days, so how long would it last?

Coming up: How will Sam and Tom be getting on just one week after their son's birth?

Thanks for reading, please review :)