Mum Shares the Moment She Held Her Newborn Son Before Going Blind

Happy mother holding her smiling young son indoors.

A mother shares the heartbreaking moment she was holding her newborn son when she lost her vision.

Mum Sarah Hocking, 28, from Bendigo, Victoria, was�confronted the frightening reality she might never look at her son, Archer again after she�underwent a seven-hour brain surgery to remove a tumour from her optic nerve, just nine days after giving birth.

“A mask was put over my face”�my lights went out and that was my last coloured memory,” she said.

Mum Shares the Moment She Held Her Newborn Son Before Her 'Lights Went Out' | Stay at Home Mum

Sarah�is now blind after most of her vision were lost due to the operation, although she can still make out some blurred objects.

On her blog,�Blind Intuition, she described how she had cherished every second with Archer�before her life-changing surgery.

She said: “I remember every conversation, every visitor, the pure euphoria I felt holding my baby for the first time.

“The sleep deprivation, but wanting to stay awake just to stare at Archer, and take in the shape of his little lips, his wrinkly grandpa forehead, his deep blue eyes…the colour of his skin.”

Mum Shares the Moment She Held Her Newborn Son Before Her 'Lights Went Out' | Stay at Home Mum

A year after Archer’s birth, Sarah wrote another special blog written on her son’s birthday and recounted how blessed she felt to be his mother.

She said: “I may not be able to see the colour of Archer’s eyes, or the finer details in life, but I can see enough to see his face light up when I am up close, I can hear his infectious laugh and giggles, I saw the first time he rolled over, the first time he crawled, sat up and took his first steps.”

She said that she�has been learning to live life “� and care for her baby “� with only a little�bit of vision.�”It’s kind of like looking through a stocking or at an overexposed photograph,” she said.

Since the operation, Sarah said she saw her son’s face again when he was 10 weeks old. She was changing his nappy at 4am under the bathroom’s bright lights.�”I got down really close to him to give him a kiss and I saw his smile. I was so excited, I screamed and woke the whole house,” she said.

Mum Shares the Moment She Held Her Newborn Son Before Her 'Lights Went Out' | Stay at Home Mum

As Sarah and her husband, Cameron celebrate their son’s first birthday, they reflect on things that have happened to their family.

“I was teary actually because it was so overwhelming but I was also proud. We have achieved so much. At the end of the day, I’m still here.

“We have raised our beautiful little baby boy and Cam has got his business. So everything that we imagined before “� is still the same, it has just happened in a different way,” Sarah said.

Sources:�Dailymail.co.uk�and�Kidspot.com.au

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Clare Whitfield Chief Editor
Clare Whitfield is the Editor of Stay at Home Mum and a recognised voice in practical home management for Australian families. Based in the northern suburbs of Sydney, she balances editorial leadership with life as a stay at home mum to two school age children. Her background in home economics and more than a decade of experience in recipe development, family budgeting, and household systems inform her work.

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