A Day in the Life: Homecoming

That's right, the heading of this post is correct! Adin is HOME! it's been a whirlwind of a few days, so let me back up...

Thursday - the attending du jour said that it would be 5-7 days of Adin being on monitors after the 2 episodes of apnea he had on the 5th. My heart sank because that just elongated his stay... then, they had said Wednesday would be circumcision day (and it wasn't) and that Thursday morning it would happen (which it didn't) so Thursday afternoon I went momma bear on the poor nurse and called her up that afternoon and let her know that we had been told it would happen Wednesday and Thursday and my hope would be that it would be done that day so he could come home on Sunday (they had already warned me that Friday was booked up). So, about an hour later I got a call from the surgeon to review the procedure and get consent to do it - which we gave.

Friday - Jesse dropped me off before parking and I headed up to the NICU floor. The nurse was new to me and greeted me by saying "You must be so excited that he's being discharged today!" Now, in hindsight I should have said "Yes, we absolutely are!! We will bring up the car seat later for the car seat test." Instead, my reply was "We were told he was being discharged Sunday". She then realized I was not one of the two mom's having their child discharged that day. However, the Fellow on Adin's case came over and said if he really hadn't had another episode of apnea since the 5th that he would come off monitors that morning and could go home the next day. I began to cry (which I'm about to do just typing this) because I was so happy. She unplugged the monitors and removed some cords and for the first time I held my son without feeling like I was on a leash. I almost wanted to walk around the unit just to make a point that I could move more than 3 feet with my child.

That morning they booked a family room for us and we headed home to pack our items for our overnight and clean the house in preparation of a child coming home and a nurse visit. Just after 6 we went over to the Westfields to get the Snap-N-Go frame that we were buying off of them and then to fill up the RAV-4 with gas and finally to Honeydew (a coffee for Jesse, a green tea for me) before heading up to the hospital for THE LAST TIME!!! We got there at about 7 and settled in for a few minutes before Adin was hungry. Then he had to wait 1 hour before the car seat test (sitting in the car seat for an hour hooked up to monitors to make sure he could breathe and maintain an adequate heart rate). Jesse went and picked us up dinner and by 10:15 we were wheeling Adin down the hall to family room D in his crib.

We did a diaper and feed, watched a movie, attempted to sleep (me on a pull out chair with awful coils, Jesse on a tumble chair that he couldn't even lay out flat on), did a change and feed with a check-in from a nurse, Jesse got an upgrade to a fold out cot, slept for about 3 hours, did another change and a feed (and a pump and walk to drop my milk off to be refrigerated), another 3 hours of sleep, and finally a change and feed at 7:15. Then we packed up the room, wheeled Adin back for a final blood pressure check and blood draw, had breakfast, and started the discharge process...lots of paperwork and signatures and words of wisdom from the attending and nurse. I was also given all the milk that they had in the freezer that I'd pumped and, if I were to guesstimate the amount of bottles, I would say there were at least 20 (each 2 ounces).

Now we are at home. Jake has met Adin and Adin has lounged in his boppy newborn lounger and pack and play. He has slept through guests (with kids), doorbells, Jesse playing video games, and a Skype session with Nana. Soon will be his nightly daddy feeding with his vitamin in a bottle.

Below are pictures from the past few days...in random order.