Knock wood
Hester's on the fast track (knock wood): If things keep going the way they're going, she'll be home with us on Saturday. ON SATURDAY! I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but that would be absolutely wonderful. Even if Hester needs a little more time, though, we're talking days, not weeks. Knock wood again, just to be safe.
Now the wheels are turning to get her home with us. Our insurance liaison called today to be sure that we're ready to have her home (um, that would be YES), to talk with us about the visiting nurse and Early Intervention professionals who will be visiting Hester once she's home, and to ask the name of our pediatrician once again. In addition, Hester's nurses have been preparing us for what'll happen at discharge: Hester will have a hearing test and get some bloodwork done, plus we'll have to pick up medicine to bring back to the NICU. At the time of discharge we'll have to bring her car seat up to the unit so they can be sure we're strapping her in properly. And then that's it--we'll be able to go. It's all so wonderful and miraculous!
These 40+ days in the hospital have been joyful, stressful days. On dark days it seemed as though Hester would never be discharged, that she'd always be sick. Even now, it seems impossible to me that our daughter has never had a breath of fresh air, seen the sky, or felt the cold on her cheeks. She is 6 weeks old, after all; she'll be 7 weeks this Friday. But soon the day will come when we'll walk out of the hospital with Hester in hand. There'll be no lojack tracking her every move, no nurses taking her vitals every 4 hours, no cafeteria food or leads or hospital cots or Starbucks by the highway or "Do we have a room tonight?" or Motel Sixes or visiting hours or bath class or midnight weigh-ins or memorized NICU phone numbers or "Who has her today?" or long walks down the corridors of an eerily silent hospital at 4:45am. There will be other challenges to face, of course, but this particular challenge will be over.
Boy howdy, it'll be good to have Hester home.
Now the wheels are turning to get her home with us. Our insurance liaison called today to be sure that we're ready to have her home (um, that would be YES), to talk with us about the visiting nurse and Early Intervention professionals who will be visiting Hester once she's home, and to ask the name of our pediatrician once again. In addition, Hester's nurses have been preparing us for what'll happen at discharge: Hester will have a hearing test and get some bloodwork done, plus we'll have to pick up medicine to bring back to the NICU. At the time of discharge we'll have to bring her car seat up to the unit so they can be sure we're strapping her in properly. And then that's it--we'll be able to go. It's all so wonderful and miraculous!
These 40+ days in the hospital have been joyful, stressful days. On dark days it seemed as though Hester would never be discharged, that she'd always be sick. Even now, it seems impossible to me that our daughter has never had a breath of fresh air, seen the sky, or felt the cold on her cheeks. She is 6 weeks old, after all; she'll be 7 weeks this Friday. But soon the day will come when we'll walk out of the hospital with Hester in hand. There'll be no lojack tracking her every move, no nurses taking her vitals every 4 hours, no cafeteria food or leads or hospital cots or Starbucks by the highway or "Do we have a room tonight?" or Motel Sixes or visiting hours or bath class or midnight weigh-ins or memorized NICU phone numbers or "Who has her today?" or long walks down the corridors of an eerily silent hospital at 4:45am. There will be other challenges to face, of course, but this particular challenge will be over.
Boy howdy, it'll be good to have Hester home.
Labels: Hester Willa
posted by Clementine at 2:26 PM
8 Comments:
IT'S SO EXCITING!!!!
That is great!
Goody! Goody!
Lola
Exciting times! It will feel amazing to bring her home.
My blog address is:
http://www.mommato2.blogspot.com/
All the best to you and your family!
Tara-Lynn
Yay!
Every time I hit a rough patch with Amelia's 4.5 months of colic (NO comparison to your experience, I know), my older "mama" coworker would too-cheerily say, "It's another memory." I growled and said, "Whatever." But now that a year has passed, I've found it's true. As you've noted in prior posts, what you've been through is all part of your set of memories and those are all part of the unique and wonderful story of how Hester became your daughter. (I don't know if I'm saying this very well ... probably not.) So if it helps, you can think of future obstacles as memories to be made. That sounds corny. Sorry.
long time lurker, here. i'm so excited that with any luck hester will be on her way home! fingers crossed that the babymoon starts soon!
That's just fabulous news! So glad for you and Petunia.
Interesting- until now I had only thought about how these past 40+ days have affected you and Petunia, but I love that you write about what Hester is missing too. WOW! When I think about a beautiful little girl not having experienced all those things (simply a breath of fresh air) I'm astounded. How exciting for you...and for HER!
I am SO. Friggin. Excited.
Oh, baby at home. Joy!
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