Summer is Home!

Well it actually happened...we brought Summer home last Thurs. Oct. 23 at 3 1/2 months old, weighing 8 pounds, and accompanied by an oxygen tank, 2 IV pumps, and a feeding tube. Our lives have definitely gotten a bit more complicated, but it is all worth it :)

I spent the night Wed. with Summer in her room. We stayed up most of the night cuddling...I think she realized I was there for the longest time I had ever been and she didn't want me to put her down :) So, after only 3 hours of sleep, it was time for the big day. A respiratory therapist arrived at 11:00 to bring an oxygen tank and train me on how to use it. Shortly after, I ran to grab lunch. Tom arrived around 3 and we waited for the Home Care nurses to arrive. We put Summer into her car seat to make sure she was ok in it...After about 3 hours of training on the TPN pumps, we were free to go.

Daddy cuddles Wednesday while still at the hospital

Summer still has tiny hands...wrapped around Daddy's finger :)

Summer's chillin' while waiting for us to go

Cam, one of her NICU nurses, came to say goodbye

Summer wasn't sure she liked her seat at first

We hauled all of our medical supplies to the van and away we went. We got home around 9:00 PM and were greeted by our kids and Tom's parents.

Tom hauled Summer out to the van, yeah :)

This is the walk I have done many many times. There is a safari theme and every time Morgan would come with me she would point at the "baby gaffe, mommy gaffe, baby zeba, mommy zeba, baby hannasee, and mommy hannasee (elephant, how she came up with this name, I do not know!)" It was somewhat anticlimactic after so long here to just go out the door without any fanfare....we were having a party in our own minds!

Summer snoozed in the van...with her new best friends, the little red backpack that holds all her pumps and the portable oxygen tank

A glimpse of Summer's new room while Grandma Julie cuddles her


I was a little worried about how Morgan would do with Summer's arrival, but she was pretty excited to see her come in. She kept saying "Baby Supbo at my house!"

It took us a while to get settled, but Summer slept right through it all.

We forgot to take the bassinet down from the attic so Tom made her this laundry basket bed, haha....I ended up sleeping most of the night holding her while sitting up in the recliner anyway!

Summer took a quick nap drenched in pink :)

The next day was little Tom's birthday. We sent him off to school with some Twinkies for his class. A Home Care nurse arrived and continued with our training. We hadn't unpacked anything yet, so she helped us organize it all and gave good suggestions for how to use our space for prepping the TPN. She was here for 3 1/2 hours, then we were on our own. An hour later I took Summer on her first outing to the Pediatrician. Then it was back home for a while, unhook the TPN and out the door for pizza. It didn't exactly go that smoothly, we changed the cap on Summer's IV line, but didn't have the right cap. A process that should only take a few minutes took a lot longer. We panicked and called the nurse....no problem, we will switch it out on Monday when she comes back. Now we only had about a half an hour to eat, we ran out the door to Round Table just behind our house. After we ordered the pizza, I decided she needed to get hooked back up so I ran home, plugged her in and back to Round Table I went. Breathe here...We scarfed some pizza and then took little Tom to a Game store to spend his Birthday gift cards he got. Summer did great all day. She spent a lot of time in her car seat and slept "like a baby" :)

Little Tom opening some birthday presents
Morgan gave baby Subpbo lots of kisses

Saturday was a lot more uneventful, thank goodness :) Tom did accidentally use the wrong tubing when he prepared the TPN and had to redo the entire thing, but other than that, I think we are getting the hang of it, maybe... The kids love having Summer home and so do we. She is very sweet and sleeps really well. In fact almost too well. Since she is hooked up to her feeding tube 24/7 and we she doesn't cry when she is hungry, it is hard to remember to change her diaper regularly. She slept last night for 9 hours and I woke her up to find a swamp....oops, sorry Summer :) I got her cleaned up and did the binky trainer with her. She is now cuddling with little Tom and very happy :)

Little Tom likes to hold Summer :)


Our week is filled with Dr. appointments...Tom will be home all week...the adventure begins!