We're Home!

We brought Parker home yesterday afternoon after our 2pm feeding. A different neonatologist was on call for the weekend, so we weren't sure if he would feel comfortable discharging Parker since he hadn't been there all week to see his progress. The nurses knew we were keeping our fingers crossed to get out of there and when we arrived at 1:45pm, we were disappointed to hear the doctor had not been by to see Parker yet. We fed him, they took his vitals, we spoke with the nurse practitioner, and then nervously waited. The doctor came in around 2:15pm and the nurses quickly told him that we had been waiting for him because we were hoping to bring Parker home.

He checked Parker's heartbeat, reviewed his chart, reviewed his monitors to check his oxygen saturation and breathing levels, and then had a hushed conversation with the nurse practitioner in another room. We tried our hardest to overhear their conversation and weren't convinced it was going to be good news when he came over to talk to us.

Thankfully, he said he felt confident that the water in Parker's lungs had been absorbed and that although he still has short periods of rapid breathing, this is normal for all infants. He does not have any restrictions such as delaying his vaccinations or keeping him out of public places - the doctor just said it would be a good idea to have everyone use hand sanitizer before holding him (duh). Parker's weight yesterday was 7 lbs, 15 oz and he's officially moved into size 1 diapers.

We had already decided that if we got to bring him home we would not tell our parents who were waiting for us at our house. We packed up all of his NICU gear and got some free diapers, wipes, vasoline, diaper rash ointment, etc. Then we had to figure out how to loosen the straps on the car seat. Hayley had warned me to try to loosen them before leaving the hospital and I should have taken her advice. We had to read the manual 4 times, the nurse wasn't any help, and the neonatologist was laughing at us. We finally got it figured out and got Parker locked and loaded to break out of baby jail.

It was great to walk in the front door of our house with Parker and surprise our parents - we took lots of pictures of him in his car seat and let him sleep in until he woke up for his next feeding. I sat in the backseat with Parker on the way home and Benton said he couldn't wait to his the Coppell city limits so we could be out of Irving. Parker quickly fell asleep and seemed completely content to be done with NICU.

We had a great night last night and things have gone well today. He's eating every four hours and staying awake about an hour each time. We are so grateful that he is home and healthy. We were in a wonderful hospital with caring doctors and nurses and they made our experience in NICU as positive as it could be. Sorry this was so long - I'll post pictures soon and I'm looking forward to settling in to a blah, blah, blah life as a mom!