300 Days of Rachael

I was on the bed beside Sarah holding her hand the moment our baby was born. She was quickly placed onto Sarah chest, drawing her first breaths in a strange new world. The enormity of the situation, that things would never be the same and that we had a precious little girl all of our own all hit me almost instantly in the same moment with a wave-like feeling.

We called her Rachael. Sarah and I always had a theory that we would call our first daughter Rachael, because every Rachael we’ve ever known or met was totally awesome.

She does new ‘tricks’ every week. Clapping, doing hands ‘up high’, waving hello and goodbye and ‘dancing dancing baby’.

She loves drums and beats. She will bang her hands on any surface that will make a sound.

During the days I will be engrossed in work, but come mid-afternoon I will start missing her terribly and start getting excited about going home to see her.

My favourite part of the day is the nightly “wind-down” were I feed her her bottle before bed. We sit on the rocking chair in her bedroom, the room is dimly lit and music lightly plays from the iPad on the nearby table. It’a a relaxing de-compression for me too! On the good nights she will be very still while having her bottle, eyes staring up at me and after a while she will calmly reach up to touch my chin or grab onto my hand. I tend to just gaze back into her big blue eyes and feel very happy.