Thomas is snuggled asleep on our bed at home one Sunday evening. He is 25 days old and we were to start a normal family routine and life the following morning. We had arrived back home from Helen House at the end of the previous week and had spent the weekend setting our home in some sort of order. Jason was to start back in the office the next morning and the children were back to nursery. This was finally how it was supposed to be when Thomas had first arrived in our family.
That evening I had had a long bath with Thomas. This was our first bath together, and was to be our only one. The thought still invokes the memory of the softness of his skin on mine, the feel of his movements against my body and the warmth of the water that surrounded us. There is something quite primordial about holding a newborn baby skin to skin whilst in water.
Thomas used to love the bath and he fell asleep almost instantaneously he was put in with me. It calmed him and you could see the peace that came over him as he entered the water. Due to the brain damage, he spent much of his time with his legs tightly bent up in a frog position (you can see this a bit in this photograph), but in the warm water, his legs seemed to relax and release. His love of the bath was a wonderful contrast to the loathing that Oliver used to display!
After this relaxation with me, we got him ready for bed, took this photograph and snuggled down with him. The soothing effect lasted a while after the bath and I see this sense of peace in this picture. He knows he's at home, he's feeling relaxed and ready for the week ahead. This is a precious moment which I had, at one point, thought I would never experience with him.
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