The "D" word

Woah. They are talking the "d" word, people...and that "d" word is discharge.  In a week!!!!!!

Oh. snap.

But to get to that point we have to learn a few things...a few things that are freaking us both out.

But Dave's a take charge kind of guy and has already started taking his first step.

He's inserted his first NG tube in Isaiah.

The NG tube is Isaiah's feeding tube.  He's having some trouble sucking and taking a bottle...we're still working on it though; we have a great new bottle that he took 20 mLs from today! Progress...but we still have to know how to put the tube in.

Personally, I'm ok with that being Dave's job.  I mean really, I did 99% of the work for 9 months. Plus there's that whole pumping every 3 hours thing...but alas, they are making me do it. 

So tomorrow it's my turn. Bah.

The positive of this practice is that we get a moment to see Isaiah tube free:

Boy, he's beautiful.

Anyway, I have to get over my fear of putting the tube in.  The quicker I get over it, the quicker we can move on to the next step.  

Besides going home with the NG tube, Isaiah will also be going home on oxygen.  It's tough to understand/explain, but he kind of doesn't really need it, it's just more beneficial for him to be on it than not.  He has moments where he breathes too quickly and having the oxygen helps him.

The staff is also working with us to make an appointment with our local pediatrician.  They're getting us started with Early Intervention (where physical therapists will come to our house to work with him), home nursing care, and working on getting us a car bed to take Isaiah home in (our car seat isn't quite safe for him yet). 

Once we have all that in place, we'll be able to take him home.  In the mean time, we get to finally hold him in our arms (with advice from the physical therapist...which most of it was to "trust ourselves").  The picture below is me jumping in and just doing it...while trembling and crying  It's such a terrible picture of me but I think you can tell I was a little overcome with emotion.  It was amazing because he was having some serious fuss time because of tummy troubles and once I started swaying he relaxed.  His heart rate went down, his breathing rate went down, and he was just calm and happy. 

And right where he's supposed to be.