Home Sweet Home

Well y'all, we made it! I can't even explain how good it feels to be in our house again. It felt like we were sleeping in the Ritz Carlton last night, with our soft sheets and towels! Aside from the pure comfort we experienced, it was INCREDIBLE to finally have our baby at home. I felt your prayers, for sure; thank you so, so much for that!!

We were packed and ready to go around 10:15 yesterday morning. After some last minute paperwork and figuring out some prescription issues, we were discharged around 11:30. This posed a bit of a problem, as Ethan needed to eat again at 12:00. Thankfully, the nurse allowed us to hang around until then, so we took the opportunity to say goodbye to our friends in the PCICU. We couldn't have picked a better time go stop by, as we got to be apart of the "Grand Exit" for Ethan's old roommate, and our newest heart friend, Olivia. She had been at Duke since December, so needless to say, it was a very happy and emotional goodbye!

We made it back to the room in time to give Ethan some lunch, and it took another 15 minutes to figure out how to get 9 and 1/2 weeks worth of stuff, and a baby, to our car. We left the hospital around 1:30, and I swear I could hear Ethan's body soaking up the sunshine the whole way home. (Did I mention he slept from 11:00 until we got home at 2:00???)

I'm not gonna lie. Once we got home, it was a bit overwhelming. All of a sudden we had a crying baby that we were completely responsible for taking care of, and had a whole slew of stuff that came along with him. We've spent the past 2 days finding homes for all of this new equipment; we haven't even taken care of the "normal baby" stuff! (Although, I do have to thank some very awesome friends and family for organizing our nursery and cleaning our house while we were away. We love you guys!)

Ethan slept like a champ pretty much the whole night. Jeramie and I were up every 3 hours to feed him, but aside from that, I'd say we slept pretty well too. Other than almost forgetting to give him his nighttime meds, I think we did a good job for our first time alone with him!

We've had some concerns today in regards to his feeds. He doesn't seem to be tolerating them as well as he has been, so we've slowed them down to over an hour (instead of 30 minutes). Would y'all pray that his tummy would be receptive to his new formula, and that we can get him back on a 30 minute feeding schedule? We go see our feeding therapist first thing Monday morning, so hopefully she'll have some ideas for us, too.

Overall, it's been VERY GOOD to be home. I'm not nearly as anxious as I thought I would be, so I know your prayers are working. We're also at a point where we're ready to welcome visitors, so if you'd like to stop by, just give us a call! We can't wait for everyone to finally meet the boy we've all fallen in love with over the past 2 months!