hello everyone
a last a moment to tell you all about our beautiful Neve-Bean.
She is very delicate with tiny beautiful little features and silky black hair. She was heaven to hold and smell and kiss and her skin is so incredibly soft. She's perfect.
Katie has had a bit of a rough start as she was the 1 in 200 women who get a terrible headache from an epidural so she has had be flat on her back in bed since Neve was born. She's finally better today but its made feeding difficult and Neve has been a bit unsettled so her daddy has been holding her and rocking her a lot.She loves the sound of his voice and being wrapped up in his strong arms, she seemed to settle so quickly whenever he picked her up. She was crying at one point and he picked her up and kissed her face over and over and whispered 'its alright little Neve, daddy's here'. It made me cry as rapidly as it made Neve-Bean stop! Katie has just been amazingly calm throughout, as she always is. We just love her to pieces and she's an amazing mother already. My mum and sisters and I left her at one point to go and get a coffee (Tony was off with my dad at the pub having a celebratory beer) and Neve was asleep on Kate's chest. It was the most perfect scene, seeing this beautiful mother and tiny daughter lying so peacfully together. I'll remember it forever. They are, as we always knew they would be, the most wonderful parents.
We all cried so many tears on Sunday. 'Happy tears' as my sister said. I put all your messages in a special book for them and we all read bits and pieces throughout the day. I can't begin to tell you how much they loved every post, every message, every prayer you all sent.
Clemsterdarcy/DonnyLass, your poem about the 'Before Beans' made our dad cry, and he's a salt-of-the-earth Aussie farmer so that's saying something. Its made everyone who has read it cry with the beauty of the sentiment to the babies they lost.
LittleMissSensible, your line about the global joy being experienced around the world at Neve's joy made us all just marvel at the love and generosity of you amazing mothers everywhere.
Kimi, your line about giving a prayer of thanks for a baby to people you don't know on the other side of the world just summed this whole thread up. Words fail me.
AuntyStrawbery, as I said to you, the family has made a unanimous decision to adopt you so if you could just get yourself organised to come over that would be great.
It was, as I said to my darling brother, one of the most beautiful days of my life and I want you all to know that you were truly there, so much a part of it. Such a lot of the day was spent reading your messages to them, laughing out loud together over them, crying over them and just being enveloped by all of the love around us and this tiny precious baby. There were too many posts laughed and cried over to mention but just know that every single one of them was read and appreciated so much.
Our family has not all been together since before I left for England, 7 years ago, so for all of us, it was incredibly special to spend a day together in a hospital room, sharing in a miracle. I will be forever grateful to my sister who said 'just come'. As we went to leave, the tears started flowing just as they had the moment we walked in, we just didn't want to go. My father hugged us all and said 'if you can wake up in forty years time and be as proud of your children as I am of all of you, then your lives will have been good ones'. It was an amazing day for him and our mum too. To have all their children together, meeting this, their tenth, desperately wanted grandchild.
I kissed Neve and hugged Katie goodbye and turned to see my brother sitting on the bed, suddenly overwhelmed. All of the emotion of the last two days, the complete joy, the overwhelming love, the sleepless nights, the sheer relief, the anxiety of the past 8 months, the grief of the last ten years, culminated in this moment he had dreamed of for longer than any of us can comprehend, to be sitting beside his wife and child, with his family around him to celebrate her birth. My eldest sister watched him with tears in her eyes and softly said 'she's here now Tone, she's here'.
And she is, and all is as it should be.
xxxx