coming home

Spencer's 2nd mama - his beloved primary nurse Laura. We were SO very happy she took care of him three days every week since he was born. She is the BEST.

Going home day - May 10th

Getting final discharge instructions from the nurse.

The week Spencer was getting ready to come home was kind of a roller coaster. He was ready in so many ways. His due date had come and gone, he was huge (over 9 lbs), finally taking all 8 feedings by mouth and generally acting like a normal full-term baby. He even shocked us all by rolling over. We thought it might have been a fluke but he is super baby and did it again several days later :) But he still scared me. The main last issue keeping him in the NICU was that he had blood in his stool and we were trying to figure out how to resolve that. After scaring us with a lot of extreme possible causes, the doctors concluded that they would first see if he has a cow-milk protein intolerance. He started a special (=very expensive) formula where the proteins are already broken down into amino acids and so less irritating to the colon. Meanwhile I started a very strict dairy free diet (you would never realize the things that have dairy until you read the labels) and waited a week to get it out of my system. So we started him on dairy-free breastmilk the week he was set to come home and the docs were basically waiting to see how he responded to that. Meanwhile, he kept having heart rate drops (bradycarida) while eating and burping. I was told this is was ok, even full-term babies hold their breathe sometimes, but it scared us so much and we begged and begged to be sent home with montiors (to no avail). The doctors and nurses we were assigned that week had never had Spencer before and it was making me uncomfortable that they weren't familiar with his history. I was becoming more and more nervous to bring him home and had a few pretty big break-downs about it (luckily I have a very supportive, loving husband).

He was set to come home on Friday May 7th, but on Wednesday night he had a heart rate drop in his sleep. He had to go 5 days without doing that before he can come home, so we started that countdown again. It truly was a blessing to have more time because it helped us feel more prepared and confident in bringing him home. On Thursday he starting having blood in his stool again so was put back on the special formula and we would just have to follow up with the Gastrointerologist once he was home. On Sunday night I got to spend the night at the hospital "rooming in" with him which means you are taking care of him all by yourself but you're still at the hospital in case you have questions or problems. It was a perfect mother's day gift. By then I finally felt at peace and knew he was ready to come home. I was so grateful that the Lord helped me feel confident and know that it was the right time, so I could let go of all those fears that seemed to consume me at times. It was so exciting to bring him home and I just felt this great sense of peace and felt that we finally could start having a normal life together as a family. The girls are so thrilled and do very well with him. We feel so happy and so very blessed.