Lazy Saturday

Wow...the past 48 hours have been amazing. Part of me can't remember life any different than it is now--and part of me wonders how people do this without a 2 month tutorial before taking your baby home. We have the advantage of knowing how much Par "can" eat, how many times he "should" poop and how long he "usually" sleeps--so we have something to gauge how he is doing--I couldn't even begin to imagine how a new parent just figures it out.

So much has happened since we left the hospital. For the first 4 hours Par didn't make a peep--he just panned his head from side to side--taking every thing in. The drive home was long--but Par did great! He slept a good bit--I'm sure the hum-drum of the car was a peaceful sound (reminiscent of the sounds from the NICU). As I said before, we arrived into Birmingham around 12:30 AM. It was so nice to drive on familiar streets knowing we were almost home. When we turned on our street we noticed baby blue bows adorning each mailbox--I looked at Rusty and said, "Wow. There sure have been a lot of baby boys born on our street!" I was tired--now I know how ridiculous that comment was--the bows were for Par! Every mailbox on our street and the streets leading to our house was adorned with a baby blue bow to celebrate Par's return to Birmingham. It was so touching--we are so blessed to have had such a warm welcome--even in the middle of the night.



My brother Joe and his wife Julie came over with their 2 year old, Elizabeth to welcome us--and take the pictures of us walking in our house for the first time with our son. We had only lived in this house for 6 weeks before we left for Gainesville, so it is like we are in a new house--and as I write this, stuff is all over the place--hopefully the clean up fairies will come while we are sleeping tonight.

Friday morning we were up early to head to Par's first pediatrician appointment at 8:45AM--as you can see, he was so scared that he would be put back in the hospital that he went undercover(s) to hide--but Dr. Farr wasn't fooled and found Par. He gave Par a good "tire kickin' and then sent us on our way.



We hurried home to meet Orlando, the respiratory therapist who was dropping off Par's oxygen tanks. He showed up with a concentrator--but we had been told that Par had to have a tank--so we had to call Kerry at Shands and figure out what to do--Kerry handled it for us--and by the end of the day we had a bunch of tanks--and the concentrator was gone. We are very happy with the tank situation because we don't feel tied to one room--we are free to go inside and outside and from room to room.

Of course, our family (my mom & dad and rusty's mom) intermittently came by to see Par--as you can imagine, they were just dying to see him in person. It was nice to have someone to hold and love on him while he was awake so we could attempt to start unpacking and putting stuff away. My grandmother was sweet enough to bring us a yummy dinner for our first night home. We got a lot taken care of (which is a nice relief)and so later that night we had my cousins stop over to have a peak at precious Par. They all washed their hands, sprayed their hands and then finished it off with a handful of Purell--I think they were more germ free than most hospitals by the time they saw Par! We look forward to the day when we can pass him around to every one.

We gave him a bath to wind down from the day--he loved his bath and it was nice to be able to cuddle with him for a while afterwards instead of having to hurry to put his leads back on as in the NICU. He ate and then fell asleep for a while. He woke up as on cue to receive his medicine at midnight. We all went to sleep for about 3 hours and then we all woke up for Par to eat. We all slept late and took our time getting out of bed this morning--it was so nice to cuddle with our family--Tiffany included.

Today has been even better than yesterday--Par has been very laid back and eating well. I wore him and his oxygen tank around the house while I unpacked--he slept soundly in the pouch--a great gift from the NICU is that Par can sleep through anything. Even so, we put him in his crib tonight for the first time--thinking he could get a peaceful nap in before he eats again (he was crying like he was really tired)--it was too quiet and he was upset so of course I scooped him up. I am wearing him now as I write the blog--I love having him right next to me--I think I'm going to be the one to have separation anxiety when he leaves for kindergarten...






I can't believe I'm already home--it still seams surreal to me--I honestly feel like I just found out that he has CDH. But looking back, I feel good knowing that I wouldn't change a thing about each step we took--going to Gainesville was the best thing we could have done.

Please continue to pray for all of Par's friends and their families--Jasmine called me today, please pray especially for her as she continues to deal with her great loss.

We are so glad to be home.
Love,
Liz, Rusty & Par