A very merry Christmas 2018

It’s crazy to think Clara has now seen her second Christmas. That means a whole year has gone by since her story began.

Christmas in 2017 was a reminder that our world had now changed (at the time we didn’t know just how much!). Up until then, mid December was a blurry haze of new baby. Christmas Day was a reminder that outside of the maternity unit walls, normality continued for most.

On Christmas Day, 2017, Clara and I woke up in hospital and my husband was at home. Clara was still having phototherapy treatment and so I wasn’t able to cuddle her, she had to stay in her incubator under the lights. But I sat next to her as the sun rose slowly and daylight crept in.

Clara performed her first Christmas miracle that year Christmas morning. You can read the Christmas Day 2017 story here, one of my first ever blog posts.

The first time Clara ever left the hospital for the fresh air of the outside world was Christmas Day 2017.

What a difference a year can make.

We were warned, early in January once Clara had proven she was tough enough to stay with us, that she would be in hospital still for Christmas 2018. I set myself a mental goal to have her out for Christmas day again, but ideally forever. I’d do whatever it would take. Turns out Clara had her own plans and came home six months earlier than that! She truly is our Christmas miracle.

Fast forward to now, Christmas 2018, and Clara woke up in her own bedroom, at home. There’s no words to describe our gratefulness to experience such normality.

As she can’t eat fillet steak (we broke tradition, I know), or roast veg and potatoes because of the extra fat they’re cooked in that irritates her bowel, or Yorkshire puddings as they contain milk, I cooked Clara her own mini roast dinner of roast chicken, steamed veg, mashed potato, and gravy.