Two Weeks Home for Baby H

Two weeks ago, we brought baby H home! I was very happy that he was coming home but also very nervous as he was no longer going to be watched by the neonatal doctors and nurses and on monitors for 24 hours a day! But so far he has done very well at home. He is taking his bottles, gaining weight, and keeping his temperature under control. He keeps us very busy with eating every 3 hours, including during the night! We are so thankful to our parents for staying with us for the first few nights baby H was home so that they could help us take care of baby H during the night. Now, that it is just Michael and I, we are trying to figure out how to get by on less sleep and on very interrupted sleep. We take turns with the midnight, 3 AM, and 6 AM feedings. So far we have not come up with a perfect schedule, but we are doing the best that we can. When I was in college, I did not go to bed until 3 AM and managed to make it on 4 hours of sleep a night, but 10 years later, I can't seem to handle that schedule! :)

Baby H went to his pediatrician last week, and he weighed 4 lbs 9 oz. He is definitely gaining, but she wants to see him make a little more catch up growth. If needed, she will add more calories to his bottles like he was getting in the NICU. While at the doctor, we also tried to repeat his carseat test. Once again, he did not pass as his oxygen saturation went down below the desired levels. For now, he will have to continue to use the Dream Ride car bed, and she anticipates he will need this for a few more weeks. Because the car bed does not seem to be the safest ride, beyond going to the doctor, we are not taking him very far from home right now. We don't want to get him around too many people yet anyways, so the only place he has been since coming home is the doctor's office. However, we have put him in the car a few times when we've gone to get supper (at a drive thru!) or to run a quick errand--this is so I can get out of the house a little!

We also have a nurse coming to our house once a week to check on baby H through a program called Nurses for Newborns. She checks his weight, temperature, and vital signs, and she also checks my blood pressure. She gives us advice about his care and also allows us to ask her questions. We are grateful to have him checked on frequently to make sure that he continues to do well.

S has done very well with baby H so far. As soon as S comes into a room where H is, he points to him and says "baby." When he gets close to him, he points to his body parts-eyes, nose, ears, mouth-as well as his pacifier, which he calls a "pass." He has been very careful with baby H and even wanted to help "hold" him a few times. We haven't seen too much jealousy or acting out yet but realize it has only been 2 weeks, and we know we may still see some of this.

As for Mommy and Daddy, we are just trying to get into our "new normal" as a family of four. We're working on the sleep deprivation, and I'm working on just trying to feel "normal" in general. Things have been a bit overwhelming, as we expected, and we hope that we will eventually get into the swing of things just like we did after bringing S home.

We hope that the next couple of weeks will be calm and without too much craziness. Our next adventure is S' feeding tube surgery and short hospital stay at Vanderbilt the first week of August. I'll post more details about this later.

Again, we appreciate all of the thoughts, emails, comments, and prayers! As I've said many times before, we have no doubt that God answered your prayers and worked out each concern we had related to our pregnancy, the delivery, and baby H's stay in the NICU. We've seen God work in amazing ways, and He deserves all of the credit for all the good things that have happened over the past few months!

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In the "Rooming In" room at the NICU where we stayed the night before bringing baby H home

S helping to hold baby HCute little fellowAll of our family together at home