My favorite 4-letter word

• My favorite 4-letter word

  Written Sep 10, 2012 2:20pm
  It's official...it's been said...we are going HOME! Saturday morning during rounds the doctor said, "Let's continue as we have been with feeds over the weekend. We will discuss changes on Monday." I finally spoke up and said, "Are we talking about more weeks here? Or days? Months?" The doctor replied, "If you want to go home with the ng tube, you can leave whenever you want." I made up a story that I needed "to discuss this with my husband" but inside I was screaming YES YES YES! WE WILL GO! Bill didn't have to think twice and the big smile on his face when I told him confirmed that we were totally on the same page! Going home with an ng tube means that we will have home nursing several times a week to bring us supplies and check his weight gain. We will essentially be doing exactly what we have been doing the last two weeks. I will attempt to nurse or bottle feed and whatever he doesn't take we will put through his ng tube (tube through his nose). The doctor was confident that we could handle this and that oftentimes, babies thrive and do so much better once they get home. She assured us that there was nothing "medically" keeping us here and no need for Logan to be here as long as he was gaining weight at home.
  As of now (subject to change, as NICU news is never written in stone), we are going home Wednesday! As the "H" word was announced, so was a whole lot of others things we have to do in the next few days. Logan had to pass his carseat test. They let him sit in it for the duration of our trip home (glad we only live 25 minutes away), with his monitors on, and ensure that his oxygen/heartrate/respirations are all stable. He passed that today. Logan also has to have a hearing test. Bill and I had to watch 4 videos on carseat safety, SIDS, shaken baby syndrome, and CPR. Given that this is our 4th child, we were a little apprehensive with the amount of knowledge to be gained from the videos. However, we now think that EVERY parent should watch them before going home with a baby! We took the kids down to the sibling playroom for the hour that we watched the videos. We laughed that it was our "dinner and a movie" date, complete with cafeteria food. That may be the last "dinner and movie" date we get for a while! Bill and I also have to go through a training on the ng tube and practice feeding through it, as well as re-inserting it if it should fall out. My idea of re-inserting the tube is to call a nursing friend who lives near us and offer her a Starbucks coffee and Krispy Kreme donut to re-insert the tube. I'm sure she will agree.
  Life will continue to be crazy when we get home. We will juggle 4 kids, home health nursing, continued work on feeds/nursing, followup appointments, incorporating school, staying on top of work, making sure the cat doesn't eat the ng tube and the dog doesn't sit on the baby, etc. etc. But we won't be driving to Children's every day (sometimes twice a day), I can wear my pajamas all day (don't judge!), and I can snuggle all 4 of my kids whenever I want.
  I will admit that this week will be slightly bittersweet. Thinking about the last month, all the emotions we have been through, all the people we have met, all the changes we have gone through....it's a little scary to think that we are leaving this leg of our journey and starting the next. I have made friends here that I will remember for the rest of my life. I will never get in an elevator at the hospital and look at the 5th floor button the same. I will forever remember the feeling of first being wheeled down the hallway of the NICU. Every time I pass a donation box for Ronald McDonald house I will smile and put in my change. There are certain songs that played continuously on the ipod that first week that will always bring tears to my eyes. And I will always be forever grateful to several nurses here who made the darkest times a little lighter and the brightest times even brighter. Any time there is change in your life, it's scary, but this is an exciting scary for us. We have waited patiently for over a month, and we are ready.
  Today is Logan's one month birthday....September 10, 2012. It would also be my grandpa (Dad's dad) Ufkes' 99th birthday. Today we praise God for life. "Let everything that, let everything that, let everything that has breath praise the Lord". Psalm 150:6
  
  Here are some pictures from Logan's ONE MONTH photo shoot...