24 days is how old baby A was yesterday.
It was also how old S was when he came home from hospital.
24 days in a baby’s life is a long time. When I think of all the special bonding time that we’ve had at home with baby A, I haven’t been able to help but think about what I was doing during the first 24 days of life with baby S.
20 hours after S was born, I was sitting beside him, looking at him wired up to many machines, drips etc, wondering if he was even going to survive the night.
20 hours after A was born, I was sitting on my bed in the hospital cuddling him, as we waited (somewhat impatiently) for his dad and big brothers to arrive to take us home.
2 days after S was born we were sitting in a small room in the hospital, tissues in hand, listening to a doctor use lots of big, scary words as he described for us the many possible outcomes of S’s brain injury.
2 days after A was born, we were all happily shopping for a new leather couch for our new house, baby A asleep on me in the sling, while S and M bounced around on all the different suites.
4 days after S was born, my husband and I, devastated that I’d been released from hospital without our baby boy, camped out in our car in the hospital carpark so that we’d be nearer to him. We couldn’t bear the thought of being at home without him.
4 days after baby A was born, we were all at home, enjoying a blissful night of sleep together in our big cosleeping bedroom in our new house.
A week after S was born, the tubes to help him breathe were removed and we were able to hold him for the first time.
A week after A was born we were at a friend’s house, having a barbecue, watching S and M swim happily in their pool while baby A slept peacefully in my arms.
An
d then, yesterday, the same 24 days after we were dancing and cheering as we had been told we could finally take our little boy S home, we went to the beach with baby
A. Baby A slept the whole time. The rest of us played and splashed and built sandcastles.
It’s only 24 days, but when so much was different in our experiences with our precious boys, it’s also a very good time to remember just how much is the same – love you my 3 gorgeous boys! (And apologies to our beautiful master M – we should have taken a 24 day car pic of you too xo!!):











