Going Home...

No more feeding tube, almost time to go home...

Wearing her preemie going away home outfit.

In her carseat and ready to go...

On Wednesday, December 5th, just shy of 3 weeks after giving birth, Leah was able to come home.  She had been doing great in the NICU, the last thing to work on was getting her off the feeding tube and taking all of her meals by breast feeding and bottles (she has to come home on 4 bottles a day to get a preemie supplement).  Preemie's are so sleepy, so getting her to build up her endurance to do a full feeding was tough, but eventually she worked up to it and we were thrilled to get the news on Sunday that she would be going home on Wednesday.

My experience in the NICU has been a good one.  She had her own private room with a couch and recliner and I got all my meals delivered there free since I am a breast feeding mom.  The days were long and draining, but I also enjoyed the quiet time at the hospital.  The NICU doctors were amazing, so we feel very lucky to have had such a good experience.  But, we are so excited to get home and be together as a family.

Dennis and the boys came to the hospital to pick Leah and I up and we all went home together.  The boys seem very excited about her.

The biggest obstacle we are going to face now is having to be germ conscious. I think Dennis and I are pretty laid back when it comes to germs.  After all, you can't raise 3 boys and be overly paranoid about dirt and germs.  However, the NICU doctors told us many times the importance of not letting Leah get sick.  Since she is a preemie and missed out on some vital immunity that babies get in their third trimester, she can get sick easily and if she does she will get very sick.  He said if she gets the flu or RSV she will be in the ICU for 3 weeks on a vent.  We are not to not take her out except for doctors appointments up through April.  Also, nobody should hold her except her caregivers.  They went on and on about this multiple times (and later the pediatrician said all the same things), so we realize that raising a preemie is going to be very different than our boys.

She is relatively healthy though, so we have been lucky.  Both her kidneys are dilated (Grade 1 for 1 kidney and Grade 2-3 for the other), so on the day of discharge we had to get a scan done where they put a catheter with dye in her and see if she is refluxing the dye from her bladder into her kidneys.  Luckily, it didn't so we have to followup for a repeat ultrasound in a couple months and meet with the urologist.  I know that being a preemie she is at risk for a lot of developmental and medical issues and we are crossing our fingers that nothing else comes up.

Anyway, we feel blessed that she is doing as well as she is and if staying home and keeping her away from germs is the only thing we have to worry about, than I think we are pretty lucky.

First bottle at home.