We're HOME!!!!!!!!!

After 140 very long days in the NICU, we finally have Nate the Great home!! We were expecting to be going home sometime last week but the NICU staff surprised us last Sunday morning kicking us out. It was absolutely crazy! The doctor decided it was time around noon and we were out the door by 6pm. Since all the doctors and nurses knew we would be leaving, they had most of the process ready but Todd and I had NOTHING ready. We had to go back to the Ronald McDonald House and pack up everything we had accumulated over the past 4 months including 3 coolers FULL of milk. Our car was absolutely packed. Todd had to go to work and pack up his office. We needed gas in the car and the car seat installed. It was madness. 

Nate in his going home outfit with all of his wires and cords off!

Last family picture in the NICU

Ready to go.
It was surprisingly hard to leave.  We are really going to miss the staff that have taken such good care of our boy.  

Nate has done so well being home so far. He has been sleeping amazingly well. He had been in the habit of staying up most of the night in the NICU so we were a little worried about how he'd do. He wakes up for his feedings and goes right back to sleep. He's also in heaven being able to eat as much as he wants. The first few days he went a little overboard and starting throwing up and not gaining any weight so his doctor restricted him just a bit. He now gets enough to be able to grow and feel satisfied but not so much that his body just pushes it through without absorbing anything. He needs to learn that we aren't going to starve him anymore so he doesn't have to stuff himself. Poor kid :(

First family picture at HOME

Nate loves all of his toys but he especially loves looking at his Mickey that Grandma got him. 

The weekly Sunday afternoon nap for the boys.

Day 134

Oh boy! It has been a very LONG week. Little Nate has had a week full of infections, antibiotics, wound packing, morphine, and starvation. The poor kid's incision got infected which, of course, delayed his eating and made morphine induced naps the only way to get him to stop screaming. We all had a lot of sleepless nights which made for one grumpy family :(

Fortunately, the end of this week turned out better than the beginning. His doctor started his feedings back up slowly on Friday and Nate has been a much happier boy. His infection also seems to be improving but another 7 day course of antibiotics is going to be necessary. The doctor is hoping that his feeding issues will all work themselves out by the time the antibiotics are done because those are the only 2 things keeping him here now. I can't believe we could be coming home by next weekend if everything stays on the right track!!!!

Here's hoping this week is full of eating and pooping!!!! :)

Day 125

I have decided that I hate everything about surgery. It really is the worst thing for a little baby (and his parents) to go through. 

Nate's rotten experience started on Wednesday at 2:00pm when the surgeon put Nate on a clear liquid diet in order to make sure his intestines were clean before surgery. He got unflavored Pedialyte for a total of 19 hours. They couldn't even give him something that tasted like fruit punch :(  He was not a happy camper for the first couple of feedings and he screamed for most of the evening. We expected it to continue throughout the night so Todd and I decided to take shifts holding him so he would be more comfortable. I'm not sure if it was the holding or complete exhaustion, but he slept pretty well the rest of the night with only a few real tantrums. 

This was taken right before they came to get him for surgery. We thought he looked like he was pleading for something to eat :) 

They took him down for surgery at about 9 am and didn't bring him back up until 1 pm. The surgeon said it all went well but there was a lot of scarring from his previous surgery so it took longer than she expected. She thinks that because of the extra work she had to do, it might take him a little longer to recover than we originally expected. 

Here is Nate this morning. You can see how swollen his poor little belly is.  He has had a hard time peeing since his surgery so he gained 6 ounces of fluid since yesterday. He is getting Morphine every hour still but they are hoping to start weaning him down more today so they can get him off of the ventilator. He gets pretty agitated with all that stuff down his throat :( Poor guy is feeling pretty rough today.