Updates: February 4th - 33 days old

GUESS WHO GOT TO COME HOME TODAY!!!!!

As you read in last night's blog entry, Dom and I spent the night at the hospital rooming in with Mario. The night went very well, though I didn't get much sleep ;) We stayed for rounds this morning and when the group (the attending neonatologist, residents, nurse practitioners, etc.) got to Mario's bedside they went through the usual updates and such. The resident covering for his primary resident (she was off this weekend), mentioned a discharge date of Monday or Tuesday, which we'd been hearing for several days now. I asked if there was any way they could clarify what day, just so we would know and be prepared. The attending neonatologist went over things with us, asked us how it went last night, why they were keeping him, when his last episodes were, etc and then asked us how we felt about bringing him home today. Of course, Dom and I both said we would love to do that. So, that started things rolling and the discharge orders were written.

Dom and I spent the afternoon running around getting a few things we needed, washing sheets for the pack n play and other baby items, and being excited. We went back to the NICU around 6pm and we were home, with Mario, by 7:30pm :)

So, we've spent the past several hours getting things situated. The animals (for those of you who don't know we have 2 greyhounds and 2 cats) are trying to figure out what is going on and are being very good. I'm sure Mario is going to have an adjustment to make. Things here are much differerent than in the NICU - different noises, light levels, temperature, etc. But, so far, he is transitioning well.

It is so wonderful to finally have our baby boy home with us. We will miss the people at the NICU though, they have become a second family to us. Though, as a way to keep in touch, we made up little business cards for Mario with his blog address and email address (yes, Mario now has an email address) to leave at the NICU - check out the pictures for today to see what the cards look like. That way all of the nurses who took care of him or helped us out that we didn't get to say goodbye to can keep in touch with us. We plan to keep in touch with them and will bring Mario by for visits in a few months when he starts some of his follow up appointments.

Thank you again to everyone who has kept us in your thoughts and prayers. We are so grateful for them. Now the real fun begins. . .trying to figure out our routine. The hardest part for me last night was figuring out when to sleep between caring for the little man and pumping more food for the little man. Speaking of pumping. . .time to go do that then try and snooze before the midnight feeding.

One last thing. . .yes, we do intend to continue blog updates now that he is home. I can't promise any set schedule for updates, at least initially while we get our routine established. But, I will try my best to do them around the same time as in the past.