”I was really excited to have a baby brother, lots of my friends are big sisters and I wanted to be one too. One day, mummy’s friend, Auntie Sue, came to pick me up from school and said that mummy was in hospital as Archie was so excited to meet me he was born early, but was still a bit poorly so couldn’t come home yet. I asked if I could see him, but Auntie Sue said not yet, which I didn’t understand.
”Mummy didn’t come home for a long time. Daddy took me to visit her in hospital and she had funny tubes in her hands and it scared me. Gran came to stay, which is nice – we went to the shops and she brought me a teddy bear and then I asked if we could get one for Archie too, as I don’t know if he has any toys yet.
“I gave it to mummy so she could take it to him and it made her cry. I asked her why she was so upset and she said it was because she knew how much Archie would like it. She and daddy are always out. They told me that Archie’s very poorly and he’s at a special hospital just for babies.
“I kept asking mummy what Archie’s special hospital was like, so she took some pictures for me. Archie’s really, really small and instead of a bed he lives in a big plastic box and has lots of tubes in him. His teddy’s with him, which makes me happy, but he’s a lot bigger than Archie. I asked mummy if I was ever that small and she said that Archie’s different to me because he was born so early, but she’s promised me that he will get bigger.
“I’m six in eight weeks (Gran made me a big chart to countdown). I asked mummy if Archie will be able to come to my birthday party, but that made her upset again. Daddy said that my birthday will have to be a bit different this year and I can’t ask my friends. I was a bit worried, but he said he’ll take me to buy a really big cake and I can take it into school after to share with everyone, which I guess is ok.
“I hope Archie gets better soon. I like Gran but I miss mummy and daddy and I want to show Archie all my toys.”