Going Home

Day 35: Friday, July 31

It finally came, the day we got to take our baby home. He passed his weight gain with flying colors, a whopping 15 grams last night. Blaise got a ride up to SLC to meet me early this morning. He helped me clean and check out of Ronald McDonald. We got up to the hospital, wide-eyed and smiling, at about 9am. I was told yesterday that we wouldn't be able to be discharged until the neonatologist and the nurse practitioner were done with rounds. However, when we got to the bedside they were both there too. It turned out they both didn't have rounds until later, so they said that we could go ahead and get out of there. The neonatologist did a final assessment and the nurse practitioner filled out the discharge paper work. It all started to move pretty fast and it was so exciting.

There were a few things that we had to do before we could leave. They have a car seat squad that helped Blaise properly install the carseat base. While he was down in the parking lot doing that I fed Will and talked over a few going-home things with the nurse. She took the sensors off of him and I dressed him in the outfit that Blaise brought from home. I wrapped him up and held him while the nurse started packing up stuff and clearing his crib. As I stood there holding him, I had the fantastic realization that I could move further away from the bed side than a 2 foot radius! I looked and double checked to make sure we really were all unhooked. Sure enough, no strings attached. It felt so good to wander around that room with my baby boy in my arms. Blaise came back up and saw me standing in the middle of the room, smiling.

We put Will in his car seat and it made us remember how little he really is. He didn't like being in there at first but we got him to fall asleep pretty soon. The nurse helped us carry all of our stuff out to the car. As we left the hospital it was so weird to have Will with us. It felt like we were stealing him. He slept the whole way home. It was so neat to finally bring him into our little apartment. These past five weeks have been quite the roller coaster. However, overall Will went as fast as his little body would let him. The only set back that he had the entire time was the week that he had the infection. We had prepared ourselves to endure at least two more weeks in the NICU, but we are thrilled that Will had a plan of his own. Thanks to all of you for reading, praying, and supporting us through these last five weeks. I suppose this is the end of one adventure and only the beginning of another.