THEE day is finally here!

So yesterday I walked into the hospital with all our plans set. I was to stay with Ethan in the morning, clean out the apartment, drive to Shelby to pick up Mark, Mark then would drive me to G.F. to "room in" with Ethan, Mark would spend the night with the dogs and then come and pick Ethan and I up on Friday morning. Well yesterday I walked into the hospital and the nurse asked me if we wanted to go home (yesterday!) I said "well I thought I HAD to room in one night with him before we go home." She said they figure we have spent plenty of time at the hospital to know Ethan and be ok going home with him. So what did I say... Nah I will spend the night with Ethan in the NICU! Yep, that's me. Don't want to take my baby home! Ha, not! We just had so much to do yet to be prepared for him and Mark had to work yesterday so by the time we would have got home with him it would have been midnight! So yes we stuck with the original plan.

So spending the night in the hospital last night was... well, interesting. There are many nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, and of course another NICU mom that we had to say our thanks and good-byes to. Of course they are not forever good-byes as we hope to keep in touch with many of them. So there was a lot of chatting going on and then Ethan was not wanting to sleep. So he fell asleep about 9:30 so I laid down at 10 only to have the nurse wake me at 11 because we are not to let him go over 4 hours without eating. So he barely ate anything so I went back to bed at midnight. Ethan then woke up every 2 hours. The bench I slept on in his room was not all that comfy either. Earlier in the day I noticed I was starting to get symptoms of mastitis (this was what I got on mothers day... makes you feel all weak, hot flashes, flu like symptoms) so I called my Dr. to get some antibiotics right away since I didn't want to feel all crappy on the day we get to take him home. (Thanks to the nurse in the NICU I got it right away ;) Then through the night I noticed that my back was hurting and it only got worse. I realized why... For some reason I got into the habit of arching my back when I have been nursing Ethan so it has caused a little pinch in it. Not good. Every time I go to pick him up it hurts. I am hoping it goes away soon.

So this morning Mark came to pick us up. We had to do a few things first. I sent Mark over to the gift of life to get the rest of my breast milk from the freezer. I left shopping bags there for him to throw it in. So what does he come to the hospital with... the 2 refrigerator drawers filled with milk! So of course we had to go back to the apartment to replace the drawers... what men come up with sometimes! So after doing a little running around we went back to the hospital to take our baby home! Ethan's favorite nurse was holding him and walking around the room to help pack things up for us. She escorted us to our truck and I really think she was sad to see us go. Of course we will keep in touch with her though. I sat in the back of the truck with Ethan for the ride back to our house. Mark looked back to find me crying. He asked what was wrong... just tears of joy. I couldn't believe it was finally happening. Our baby in our car going to our house! It has been such a long journey with so many tears and now finally tears of complete joy!

Once we got to the house the dogs were of course curious as to what was in the car seat. They did really good though. Ethan was cranky though because it was time for him to eat. So we ran around trying to find the breast shield (it helps Ethan nurse better) or the bottle that the nurse made up (we need to give him some breast milk with fortifier in it to help give him more calories). Once we did that I went in the nursery to nurse him. Mark came in with the bottle so I changed to that. Well the bottle had the wrong nipple on it. It gave Ethan too much milk and he started to choke. So the monitor went off (which is very very loud and scary because this time it meant his heart rate was below 80). The dogs were right next to me at the time, mark was on the phone to the vet (once we got home we realized Kiara had an infection in her eye so he needed to get that taken care of right away) so of course I am all crazy nervous and Mark hangs up the phone and runs over to us. Ethan was fine after I helped him through his choking but right after what did I do? Well I sat back and started to bawl and told Mark "I can't do this!" Yeah that's me. A little dramatic sometimes! I think I just got overwhelmed for that second with so much going on and only being in the house for 30 minutes before the alarm went off. Ethan is not on oxygen but they did send him home on this monitor so that it will go off if his heart rate drops or increases dramatically and if he doesn't take a breath for 15 seconds. Sure it is a little bit of a pain but really.... I am so glad we have it. It gives me that piece of mind knowing that if he did stop breathing I would know.

So Mark and I were all excited to be home together. We even got to watch a movie together! Well it got to be about 11pm and Mark changed Ethan's diaper and asked me to look at his umbilical hernia (he has 2 different types of hernias.) So I did and it looked much worse. He has had it for a few months now and it never looked so big. He hadn't pooped for 24 hours either so we called the NICU asking what they thought and they said that we should go to the ER in Shelby. So we did. I could say a lot about this little trip but I won't for a few reasons. Let's just say once the Dr. came in (since they had to call him in) and the first thing he said to us was "Well, I don't know a lot about umbilical hernias." Yep, needless to say we were sent home with no reassurance that it is fine. I think it is but it still concerns me that he hasn't pooped lately. I also did not see the Dr. or nurses wash or sanitize their hands before touching him. Sure they may have and I didn't see it but I am not used to that. Being in the NICU for so long you learn to be as clean as possible so this kind of got to me. Oh and so much more but for now I will not write about that.

Even though the first day home was a little stressful we are still so excited to have him home. Words can not describe how we feel. The journey that we have been on to get him this far has been a long one but he is soooo worth it. I look at Ethan in awe. I can't believe we made such a remarkable baby. Parents talk about how fast baby's grow and I agree with that. To look back at the pictures of him when he was born to now is just a remarkable difference. He truly is a miracle and we thank God every day for our little boy. We also want to say thank you to all of you that have kept us in your thoughts and prayers. It means a lot to us. And yes, I plan to continue this blog to keep all of our family and friends updated with all the fun adventures we will have!