Brothers

Graham and Craig were both born in the same hospital. All of the staff at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital treated both boys very well. One of the good things the hospital does is take souvenir photos of newborn babies in the nursery. This was Craig back when he was less than a week old.

And this is Graham.

The hospital also takes a photo of mother and child immediately after birth. First we have Craig...

And then Graham. Their Mum thought Graham looked a lot like his brother as soon as she saw him but their Dad reckons they both look just like newborn babies. ;>

Graham's First Day at Home

Graham arrived home just after midday on Saturday. He was singularly unimpressed by his surroundings and decided to go to sleep to see if they would change before he woke up.

Craig wasn't too impressed with his new little brother and seemed to be very keen to find affection wherever he could. Uncle Guapo's maid Tina had a welcoming lap to sit on.

Craig settled down later in the afternoon. He even agreed to have his picture taken in front of Graham's cot.

After dinner downstairs on the second floor Craig sat on his Taiwanese Grandma's lap for another picture. He was really craving attention all day.

Before going upstairs Craig found a mask that had been made for Craig's Cousin Soit-Jade. He liked it so much that he took it home.


Craig went to bed at around 8:30pm. That gave his parents plenty of time to watch the world cup game that started at 10pm. Graham slept right through the game which was nice at the time. He'd also slept most of the afternoon. Around midnight, Craig and Graham's Dad went to sleep in Craig's room and slept peacefully all night until 9am. Craig and Graham's Mum had a very sleepless night feeding Graham and changing his nappy so many times that she lost count. Hopefully she'll be able to sleep more in the future.

Graham in Hospital

For the first few days of life Graham's parents elected to have him kept in the hospital nursery. That gave Graham's Mum plenty of time to rest and eat the extra-nutritious food supplied by the hospital to mothers that have just given birth. It "only" charges an extra NT$1,500 for the special postnatal diet. The nursery is the same one where Craig stayed briefly after his birth three years ago. The place was full of babies then but while Graham was there it was less than half full.

This photo was taken right after feeding so Graham wasn't interested in opening his eyes for anyone or anything. It was time to sleep the way only a contented baby can.

And Then There Were Two

Craig's little brother Graham was set to arrive by C-section on Tuesday morning. So, Craig's Mum checked in to the hospital Monday afternoon, as requested by the hospital. At around 5 o'clock Craig's Dad picked up Craig from kindergarten and brought him to the hospital so he could see his Mum.

Craig's Mum had very thoughtfully supplied stickers, colouring book and coloured pens for Craig to play with and he seemed pretty happy to sit there playing with his stuff.

After dinner, Craig went home to be taken care of by Craig's Great Aunt From the Fifth Floor. That had to be done quickly because Craig's Little Brother Graham had decided to not wait for the scheduled C-section the next morning. He was coming out, ready or not. The doctor raced into the hospital and performed the procedure early. The time of birth was listed as 14 minutes before midnight, Monday June 21, 2010. Graham's Mum thinks he wanted to come out early so that he could be a Gemini like his Dad.

Just after the birth, Graham's Dad was able to sit alone with Graham for about 20 minutes. Graham made a very good first impression by only crying for a few seconds. Graham's Dad tried talking to him because that's what he does to all babies. But, it was hard to not notice that as soon as he shut up, Graham went to sleep! So, they sat together in peaceful silence for most of that short first visit.

After being cleaned up properly, Graham was brought from the 9th floor nursery to the 11th floor where his Mum was staying to have his first feed. Like the vast majority of babies he seemed to know what to do.

The next day (or maybe the day after that) two nurses delivered the official hospital photo of mother and child that was taken just moments after birth. The pictures makes Graham look bigger than the 2,715 grams listed on the back.

This picture, taken when Graham's Mum went downstairs to the nursery to feed the boy, gives a better idea of how small Graham really is at the moment. It's been a quiet start to life but that's not a bad thing when you are as tiny as Graham is now.