Adopted by Phan

Chapter 107

Phil's P.O.V.

I could see the incubator from where I was standing, just behind Jay's wheelchair. She was still in a bit of pain from the surgery and couldn't move much so she couldn't see him, and I wheeled her forwards into the tiny room.

As we went in the nurse who had been in there left, giving us a reassuring smile and nod as she disappeared around the corner.

I could Phoenix properly now, one of his tiny hands curled up by his face and several tubes coming out of his nose and mouth. There was a blue cap nestled on top of his head and although he didn't have any blankets over him the incubator was keeping him warm to stop him from freezing.

Once Jay was right up close to the incubator she could see him and her hand went up to the plastic separating her and Phoenix, her eyes wide. She held her hand there for a couple of seconds, just taking in the fact that that was her son, he was very real and very much there.

"Do you want to hold him?" The doctor, still holding her clipboard, was smiling at Jay and she nodded, looking over at me and Dan.

She looked up at Dan and I and I patted her shoulder gently. She looked a little nervous, unnerved even but I didn't blame her, after all she had just met her child for the first time.

The doctor went over to the incubator and lifted one of the sides, starting the gentle process of untangling the wires the surrounded him.

"Can you get the pillow from the shelf please someone? It's up there." She moved one of her hands and pointed up at the top of a cupboard, where there was a pillow. I took it down and handed it to Jay, where she adjusted its position so Phoenix could rest there.

"Here you go." She lifted Phoenix from the incubator and placed him on his side on the pillow, carefully adjusting the wires do they weren't tangled around him or Jay.

Phoenix didn't seem fazed, he didn't cry or anything, he just settled own on the pillow and relaxed. Jay ran one finger over his face as Dan and I pulled out chairs and sat down beside her, trying to make ourselves comfortable for the while we would probably be there.

Jay spent a little while just getting to know little Phoenix, letting him hold onto her finger and just looked at him, taking in the fact that he was there. After a while she started to drop off a little, and offered for Dan and I to hold Phoenix. I took him first.

There's something beautiful about holding a new-born baby, something you can't describe, the smell and the tiny weight in your arms is so amazing yet it's unfamiliar. His tiny hand was waving a little and Dan reached out his hand to hold onto the tiny fingers.

Just as I was shifting my arms around Phoenix started to stir and opened his eyes, looking right up at me. The first thing I noticed was his striking green eyes, the same shade as Jay's and it had the same intense stare that always seemed to be given to us by Jay.

"Hey little man." Dan had leaned over and was looking right at Phoenix, who looked right back.

I glanced over at Jay, who was now asleep in her wheelchair with her head leant up against the back of headrest. I nudged Dan with my elbow and he looked over at her, smiling.

"You know I really feel like we've done an amazing thing Phil." I looked down at Phoenix and then across at Jay, who were our family.

"I knew right from the beginning that we did an amazing thing, and I'm so glad that we did do it." He smiled, brushing his finger along Phoenix's face gently as he slept.

It was sinking in now, as well as Jay we had a little boy to look after too, little Phoenix, and they were our family.

"We've got so much to look forwards to in the future Dan, and I really can't wait."

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"Easy Jay, okay can you take a few steps?" She was standing up on her feet, unsteadily mind you, with her hands out to the side. She was wearing her prosthetic and attempting to get around for the first time since she knew she was pregnant.

She could take a few steps on her own but not much more than that without almost falling over, but it was a lot better than it used to be. Because of the weight she had dropped from no longer having Phoenix she was having less trouble getting around and she could take some steps without crutches, and was showing some major improvement.

It was a week since Phoenix was born as it was the 22nd of January and Phoenix was born on the 15th, making him only a week old. The nurses had said that Phoenix would likely be in the NICU for about a month to a month and half depending on how fast he developed and how well he did outside of the incubator.

Anais had come and visited both Jay and Phoenix a couple of times while Jay was there, as she had come home after 2 nights in hospital.

We had taken shifts to go into the hospital to be with Phoenix during the days when Jay didn't go in because she only went in every second day, and on the days we all went in we spent all day there. We had all taken turns trying to feed Phoenix and although it didn't work most of the time there was some successes, which told us that it was getting better.

At the start he would hardly take anything and got all of his energy through a feeding tube but over the past few days he would take most of the bottle we gave him, usually only when Jay fed him though.

He seemed to know that Jay was his mum because he seemed more attached to her than us and seemed more at ease in Jay's arms. Jay seemed completely at ease with holding, feeding and changing Phoenix and had settled down into the role really fast, amazingly fast for having only been around him one week.

Dan and I were picking up things about how to care for Phoenix over time and the nurses were showing us little tips and tricks on how to keep him calm and calm him down when he was crying.

We were only allowed to hold Phoenix for short periods of time, an hour at most, before he had to go back into the incubator to keep warm, but for Jay it was enough. She spent a lot of time texting to Anais on her phone when she wasn't holding Phoenix, which both Dan and I were thankful for.

It gave her something to do while we were at the hospital, as Dan and I spent a lot of time editing together the videos we had pre-filmed prior to Phoenix's birth because it meant we were somewhat productive.

Jay was sat up on a chair with Phoenix on her lap, she no longer needed the pillow to support him and could just use her arms now and hold a bottle too with no help.

He was off most of the wires that he had on at the start of the week, the only one now coming out of his mouth that did block his feeding occasionally but it didn't really make much difference. He was still small but was slowly gaining weight, at about the speed the nurses had expected.

"Jay it's almost 5, we're gonna think about heading home soon." She nodded.

"Okay."