~103~ Coming Home!

I'm coming home, 

I'm coming home, 

Tell the world I'm coming home!

We are very happy to say that Ethan is home!  We were officially discharged on Tuesday, after 17 days in the NICU.  We had originally hoped to take Ethan home over the weekend, but a little "episode" set us back a few days just to make sure that he was 100% healthy and ready.  It was disappointing for sure to have to spend those extra days at the hospital, but we adjusted and managed none-the-less.  Although it feels like eternity now, another NICU parent wisely pointed out that in the grand scheme of Ethan's life, the days that he spends at the NICU whether it's 10 days or 100 days, are just a blip on the radar and in a few years will just be a distant memory.  Hearing that really helped put things into perspective. 

Leading up to discharge day, Ethan was subject to a whole host of tests: Congenital heart defect test, hearing test, and a car seat test-in which he had to maintain his vitals for at least 90 minutes while sitting in his carseat.  He passed all of them with flying colors!  We also made sure to take some pictures with our favorite nurses.  During our time here, we had many, many nurses work with Ethan.  Over the weekends though, we were fortunate to have the same nurses during the day and evening that really got to know Ethan and us.  It was comforting during those days to know who would be in and out of our room and to have someone that we had developed a relationship with, versus a random nurse that we only saw for 1 twelve hour shift, if that.

           Our day nurse, Tiffany             &        our night nurse, Christina

On Tuesday, after packing up our room and signing discharge paperwork, we strapped Ethan into his carseat and finally took him outside for the first time.

Once we got home, I went inside to greet the dogs and say hi.  Then Jake took his turn doing the same.  Even though we've both seen the dogs since Ethan was born, we still wanted to make sure that we said hi to them and gave them full-on attention before bringing Ethan in.  Both dogs were very curious and seemingly excited about Ethan, Viktor more so than Buckles.  Jake and I were very pleased with their response to our newest family member and looked forward to adjusting to life at home as a family of 5 :)