March 11th, 2014- The Homecoming

On Sunday night Russell and I visited the NICU for Ally's 9:30 care time and actually remembered to bring her car seat so they could do her car seat study during the night.  Everyone that we had spoken with the last several days kept talking about Ally being discharged Tuesday as long as she didn't have any more breathing episodes and she passed her car seat test.  Basically, she would be strapped into her car seat for 2 hours with her heart rate, breathing, and oxygen saturation monitors on.  All of these monitors need to stay above a certain level for each for the whole 2 hours- if any of them drop too low, she fails the car seat test and has to wait 24 hours to retry.  If she fails a second time, then she takes a car bed test and she would be released in a car bed instead of a car seat which we can borrow from the hospital.  Usually babies who end up in a car bed stay in it for 3 months.

Monday after dropping off the boys Mom and I showed up at the hospital eager to hear if she had passed.  However, we got some not great news- they hadn't been able to do the car seat test because they couldn't adjust the straps to the right level (you practically have to have an engineering degree to work some of these car seats!).  The nurse for the day was able to adjust them for us and got her set up in her seat around 10:30, so she would be done in time for her 12:30 care time.

Mom and I chose to stick around during the test.  Once the alarms went off when her heart rate went just 1 OVER the requirement, because her hat had gone down over her eyes and she was mad about it!  Then, literally minutes before her test was over, her oxygen saturation level went 1 UNDER the requirement, and Mom and I were terrified that she had failed the test with minutes to go.  However, it only lasted a minute (you can't touch them while in the car seat except to adjust their hat, etc.) and a few minutes later the nurse came over and said she had passed the car seat test!  I guess the rate had not dropped below the requirement, even if it did set off the alarm.

She's ready to rock the car seat test so she can head home!

So as long as there were no episodes the rest of the day and evening, she could go home Tuesday!

Tuesday Mom and I again got to the hospital after dropping off the boys.  I was eager to see the verdict during the night.  When we got in and went to her bedside, we saw a discharge certificate sitting at her station!  She was going home today!

Mom and I had to do a discharge class by video, during which they gave her a shot to fight RSV, which is basically like a cold (which can be very serious for preemies).  They got all the paperwork for me and we went through it together, and then we packed up and Mom met us with the van outside!  We were free!  We picked up lunch and went home to eat, and to try to adjust to this new life.

We had to take Ally with us to pick up the boys that afternoon.  Luke was so excited to see his baby sister out of the hospital, and Ben got to see her for the first time ever.  He didn't seem too interested at first but he's definitely warmed up to her since.  He will kiss her and say "The baby!" (He also steals her hat and paci when we aren't looking.)  Luke has been very helpful, wanting to hold her and even asking to help feed her at times.  He is very good at trying to calm her down when she's crying too (he also did this with Ben, so it's no surprise, just still very sweet).

Our 3 kids- all home!

We will be somewhat limited in what Ally can do and where she can go for the next several months.  Being a preemie, she is more susceptible to illness and the doctors and nurses told us she is not to go out much and we need to be vigilant about germs.  We are not usually those parents who make you wash your hands before you hold our baby (we never did that with the boys) but right now we need to be careful with our fragile girl, so thanks for being understanding.  Thanks to everyone for the meals and offers of help, and your continued prayers.  We have made it out of the NICU, but our Dandy-Walker journey is just beginning.