We are home!

Well I thought the day would never come! We made it home Monday night. It took forever for us to get discharged! But we did it. Mom and I got to the hospital a little before 8 so we could be there during rounds. The Walgreen's lady with all of his portable oxygen stuff showed up around 11:30-12 I want to say and then maybe around 1-2 he had his cranial ultrasound done. Then gave him a bath, fed him a bottle and after that we thought we were going to be headed out! BUT no, all the discharge paperwork and getting his room packed up and all his follow-up appointments took forever. We made a stop at Target at Smokey Point so he could have a break from his carseat. Mom stayed in the car with him and held him while I ran in quick and got him a bathtub, some baby shampoo/lotion etc- a bunch of stuff I hadn't had yet but NEED before we get a shower put together for him. 

Here are some pictures from when we left then I'll talk about how our first days at home have gone...

Getting his ultrasound... 

Bath time to get all the goo out of his hair from the ultrasound

In his new Husky gear! 

his pulse-ox monitor- I HATE this thing- will explain below 

Going home outfit...

Ready to go!

Coming through the NICU doors 

Getting some paperwork from the NICU front desk. 

Heading to the elevators 

Getting loaded in the car to go home! 

This was taken on Saturday- he loves his mamaroo! Seriously BEST. THING. EVER. 

Pictures of his room at the end 

nurses computer 

The thing on the left with the blue light is a towel warmer- I want one SO bad! Just bigger! 

His room number 

Oxygen gauge 

The door to his room

His blank monitor! 

Alright... the drive home was tense. Mom was nervous, I was nervous. When we got home I started to immediately stress. The house was a mess and of course I wanted everything to be perfect. The home oxygen guy showed up not long after we got home and brought in his home oxygen tank and a few portable ones and trained me on how to use it all. In the middle of all of this I started to have a panic attack, I kept it together in front of the guy but after he trained me he had a bunch of paperwork to do so I went into the bathroom and started to have a meltdown. I quickly pulled myself together, finished everything with him but once he left I completely lost it- could not breathe, crying my eyes out, and felt like I was going to puke. Once that passed and everyone left we crawled into bed, by this time it was about midnight. However we did not get ANY sleep. We put him in the bassinet in our room and every little peep he made I was up checking on him. Plus his pulse-ox monitor was going off all night long. They had the high heart rate alarm setting too low so any time he would fuss or try to poop it would go off. And it is LOUD. Plus it goes off all the time because it's not reading anything. The probe goes on his foot and whenever he kicks around it doesn't pick up anything. I've been experimenting with different things to try to keep it on there.

Tuesday night went a little better. However as the night comes each night I start to have major anxiety and panic attacks. It's getting better but I still get them. I also haven't been able to eat anything really. Darren had to practically force feed me dinner the other night. But things have been going better. If we start him off in the mamaroo at night and then put him in his bassinet later he does better. Though I still hate nights. Days go great for us but at night I am so exhausted I just want to sleep and last night he was up every 2 hours starving- and today he's been sleeping practically all day. Must be having a growth spurt.

Took him to meet his pediatrician Tuesday. That went well. She wants to see him twice a week for a while to make sure he is still growing adequately. So we go back tomorrow. On Monday we will head to the Children's Pulmonary Clinic in Bellevue. They will be the ones monitoring his oxygen and deciding when to wean him etc. It is SUCH a pain to take him anywhere with his oxygen and pulse-ox monitor. There is NO way I could do it by myself.

I checked my e-mail yesterday morning and guess what!! I won a Mamaroo in their Share Your Story Sweepstakes. I entered before mom and dad had even thought about getting him one. Mom said she wanted to get one for her house too but they are spendy. So she was extremely excited when I texted her and asked her what color she wanted!

I will continue posting updates and pictures but want to thank everyone for all of their prayers and support! Brant still has a long way to go but we are on the right track. I pray that he won't need to be on oxygen for long, and the pulse-ox monitor too. The other night I wanted to throw it against the wall I was so annoyed with it!

Oh and a weight update- Tuesday he weighed 6 pounds 15.5 ounces!