Twelve weeks 5 days old

It was deja vu as we drove away from the hospital with our little man in the car. This time, he was a quiet baby that slept the entire way home. No more zombaby! (Before the balloon therapy, Evan sounded like a zombie when he was breathing.)

It's amazing how quickly everything moved. Evan is truly remarkable. We do have to watch for signs that the balloon therapy may not have worked. (Thankfully our parking pass doesn't expire until the middle of December since we will still be heading down to the hospital for follow up appointments with ENT, surgery for the hernia, Hearing clinic...) Evan seems so much more content now. Well, as long as he's being held. Mr. Pants is quite the snuggle monster. I'm not sure how I'm going to get anything done!

We had training on a bradycardia/apnea monitor that Evan will be hooked up to until the doctors decide it isn't necessary anymore. The monitor is in a little bag and is about the size of two stacked reams of paper. Thanks to the awesome family bassinet (80 years old!), we've kind of looped the straps of the bag over the frame and can easily wheel Evan from room to room without having to tote the bag too. The monitor is pretty advanced. Evan has two electrodes that are stuck to him (just like in the hospital), that plug into the monitor. It has preset settings (based on the doctor's prescription) that tell the machine when to alarm. The machine will alarm if Evan stops breathing for more than 15 seconds or if his heart rate goes above 220 beats per minute or below 80 beats per minute. It also alarms when the battery is low and if the connection is bad. The alarm is quite loud - it's similar to a smoke detector. We don't anticipate the monitor going off (unless it's a false read or something) since Evan grew out of bradys and never really had apnea problems. The monitor is more to tell us if Evan starts to struggle with his breathing. The monitor records and the information can be uploaded so the doctors can see if it is still necessary to use one. We're hoping Evan will be wireless in a few months. For now, it is kind of a nice safety net. While it won't "fix" Evan if an alarm goes off, at least Andrew and I can immediately assess the situation if Evan starts to struggle. Thankfully it can run on the battery for 6-10 hours. We have to test it to see how long the battery life really is. The respiratory therapist said that each machine is different. So far we just keep it plugged in the living room and unplug it if we need to wheel into the other room for a diaper change. I'm sure we'll just let it run on batteries for the few hours in the middle of the night when Andrew and I are both sleeping and Evan is in his bassinet next to me.

So we're home. WE'RE HOME!!!!

I'm thankful for a full belly again!

Momma is thankful for my turkey butt.

Daddy is thankful I'm not struggling to breathe. 

Sigh, what a great 1st thanksgiving!
I'm also thankful for everyone rooting for me!

Peace out! I'm outta here (again!!)