Ten weeks 5 days old

EVAN WENT HOME!!!

So let's back it up a smidgeon.

Earlier this week on rounds, the doctors said that they thought Evan was ready for discharge. One of his primary nurses has said that they're not doing anything extra for him that we couldn't do at home. Evan was off all meds and oxygen so we were ready to bring him home. Andrew and I bustled around picking up last minute things for him; you know important things like bottles!

Evan will be bottle fed 3 times a day when he comes home so he can get extra calories. We will continue to add fortified formula to breast milk so he can get an average of 22 calories a day. I can then breast feed him whenever. He also has to have a daily vitamin that smells like a penny and looks nasty. I've been assured by the nurses that it also tastes nasty. We hide that in a little breast milk as well. So far Evan hasn't caught on to our tricks.

The day went by super fast, but also in slow motion. Evan is part of a respiratory study so he had to complete a bottle feeding and sleep while hooked up to monitors (that track his stats). We weren't able to participate in the feeding portion so we arrived to the hospital late. It felt so weird not rushing to get there for morning rounds! Evan needed to sleep for 15-30 minutes while hooked up to the monitors. Unfortunately, he selected this morning to stay wide awake. Oh well, the doctors were still working on the discharge paperwork anyway.

Andrew loaded up all of Evan's gear. It's amazing how much was still left (clothes and blankets) and what you're sent home with. We have a long list of appointments that Evan will be attending over the next few months. He is going to be one busy boy!

All morning nurses were coming in to say good bye to Evan. He's such a little flirt! He played coy though and slept through the good byes. I know Andrew and I are going to miss seeing everyone. The level of care that Evan received was amazing. We always felt included in his care. From day one the nurses encouraged us to change diapers and then gave us more "chores" as Evan got stronger. In our ten and a half weeks, we were able to hang out with some amazing people.

When it was finally time to leave, Evan was unhooked from his monitors and I started to panic a little bit. I'm not much of a monitor watcher (that's more Andrew's thing), but for some reason I got a little freaked out thinking "How are we going to be able to tell if he's breathing?!" or "What if his heart rate stops, how will we know!?" I guess we'll just have to watch him like normal parents watch their full term babies!

I am so glad Evan's two day primary nurses were there to send him off. They've been with him since the beginning so it was only fitting that they see him off in the end too. We got Evan settled in his car seat and an announcement was made that he was leaving. A flood of people came in to say good bye to Evan. To see everyone's smiling faces one last time was a little overwhelming. Evan's first round Fellow was on so we were able to see him on the way out as well. After saying good bye to everyone in his room, Evan was wheeled out. Nurses and doctors were congratulating him and clapping. He had his own parade!! It's so surreal to look back at it.

When Andrew put Evan in our car, it really hit me that we were taking Evan home. Not only were we taking him home, but we were taking him home way ahead of schedule. He's still only 36 weeks! The car ride home went pretty smoothly. Evan was a little fussy once he realized he wasn't able to wiggle like he normally can. I sat in the back and relayed his stats to Andrew.

I'm sure Andrew and I are in for a long night of worrying about Evan. He sounds so much louder now that he's out of the hospital with all the bells and whistles constantly dinging. The dogs are extremely curious. Stella is struggling with boundaries and has been put in her house several times as punishment. They're not aggressive at all, just very sniffy. It's important to show them that Evan is the boss and they need to obey us when we ask them to move.

I will continue to keep this site updated. I may not update every day. Even though we're not spending all of our time at the hospital, I think I am going to lose time because I'm snuggling Evan!

I cannot thank everyone enough for all of their love, support and prayers. We are so humbled by everyone's support. I can't wait to tell Evan his story and about all the people that loved him right from the very start. We were so fortunate to never receive a middle of the night phone call. Evan's NICU stay was definitely scary at times, but it could have been so much worse.

Evan is still going to be "in the bubble". Just the bubble of our house. It's cold and flu season so unless we're going to an appointment, we'll most likely be quarantined at our house. As much as we love everyone at the Children's Hospital, we'd like to not go back.

It's a thug life for me - bustin' a sag in my going home outfit.

Finally, then there were five.

So you're saying I live here now and I can snuggle whenever I want?!

Can't wait to check out this zoo everyone has been talking about!