She's home!!!

OMG, what a whirlwind day! It's 2:30 AM, and I'm wide awake after just feeding my beautiful daughter IN MY OWN HOME! I'm going to be a wreck tomorrow, but it is so worth it.

To make a very long story short, my favorite NP and day nurse really spearheaded the drive to get Baby H home sooner than later (waiting for the 80). They talked to the neonatologist who is in charge of her care, and he agreed that if the head of the Hematology department downtown agreed it was okay that we could bring her home tomorrow. Then, my NP talked to Dr. B, our pediatrician and to Dr. H, the Hematology head, and they said "if they want to pick her up tonight, that is fine with us." My NP said "you can wait until tomorrow if you want." Yeah right!

Since Baby H has been asymptomatic from day 1, since DH and I have been so diligently visiting and taking care of her (they called us "responsible parents), and since they feel that this is something that we can work on as an outpatient, they agreed to let her go!

After all those phone calls, I called DH to tell him the news and he high-tailed it home! With E and A in tow, I had to bring Baby H's car seat to the hospital for a car seat test. Basically, Baby H has to sit in her car seat for one hour to make sure she has no breathing or other issues. They only do this for babies born before 37 weeks (Baby H was 36w1d). She passed :)

After that, the four of us went back to the hospital to pick her up. The kids were much more excited than I thought they would be. It was so fun to see them googling over her. We left as a family of five at about 8:15 PM tonight. Just having her home was so surreal! We were ready for her, but at the same time, we really weren't ready. We are going to have to make a run to the Carter's outlet tomorrow and/or Children's place because all of her sleepers are 0-3 months, and she is still in preemie size clothes (even though she is 6 lb 11 oz again - back to her birthweight at discharge).

I also have to go see my OBGYN tomorrow for followup and to see if they got my platelet antibody test results because the Hematologist is waiting for those, as it my pediatrician and the neonatal team. We also will be see Dr. B tomorrow afternoon for another blood test (for platelets and bilirubin) and to come up with a plan of action since he is taking over the lead. We really have the best pediatrician -- I found out today from the NP that he has been in constant contact with them since the beginning, and he was thrilled to see they decided to release her and figure out what is going on as an outpatient.

Anyway, thank you all for your prayers and well wishes! I can't wait to start sharing more of the fun things now! We still have a way to go until her platelets reach normal, but at least we can do it with her safe in our arms here at home with her family.