It's quiet here today. As I'm writing this, two of the most important people in my life are sleeping quietly in the living room... Wallace and Savannah. Wallace isn't feeling very well, but he did want to be home for Savannah's first full day here. And Savannah, she just finished eating around 2pm, and fell asleep shortly after she finished the bottle.
I'm so lucky, and so incredibly happy.
We've had a bumpy week, waiting and watching Savannah at the hospital. She did fine with her hernia surgery, but it seemed she had a little trouble with the anesthesia used during the surgery. And it took her a little longer to be ready to come home than we had originally thought, but... all is well. We picked her up from the hospital yesterday at about 4:30pm. And we've been here at home as a little family since shortly after then yesterday.
There is a bit I'll have to get used to. And I'm so glad that Daddy was here to help too.
We had tried to make as many of the preparations ahead of time as possible. We had taken a lot of her things home already, and there wasn't much left to take. Which resulted in her actually not having many of her clothes at the hospital to wear, before she came home. But, we managed.
As I'd mentioned before, she's home with a monitor. Which offers great piece of mind to both Wallace and I, since if she does have an apnea or bradycardia episode, we'll know. And it's quite loud. We couldn't miss it.
We got her hospital leads off, and put the soft little belt around her chest for the monitor. I got her dressed in a very pretty little preemie outfit that my sister bought her. And we gathered everything up together, I signed for her after they compared our little hospital bracelets and verified the numbers, and they sat me down on a wheelchair to take us downstairs. (It was a very nice 'feeling like a regular mommy' moment, to let me carry her down while I rode in the wheelchair. They have funny rules at hospitals, but I just went with the flow.)
The nurse took a few pictures of us, as we were putting all her stuff in the car. And it was very nice. We didn't hit much traffic on the way home, and we arrived shortly thereafter, as it's only about five miles from the hospital to our apartment.
We showed Savannah all around the apartment, and brought her little bassinet out into the living room. We got her changed and fed her. All very wonderful, except that the first two feedings were a bit anxious, as she did have bradys during those. But I think it was my fault, as I think I didn't have the feeding technique down quite yet. I feel I'm much better at it now.
It was a very quiet homecoming. Just the three of us. I only called one friend, and told another I saw online. And the rest of the calls were to family. My sister listened to me cry when I first got off the phone with the doctor, and after I told Wallace that today was the day.
I'm a whole lot more calm right now, and it's very nice to have Wallace here with me today too. Even if he isn't feeling well. He's a great daddy...
We're going to have a few trips to the doctors in these next few weeks, I'll bet. But that's fine. Even if I have to go to twenty doctors, I still know that she comes home with me, and won't have to be that far away from me.
Here's to hoping that I can begin to write about the joys of being a 'real and full-time' parent, instead of just the mommy of a darling little preemie.
I'm the luckiest and happiest mommy in the whole world right now. And it can only get better and better with the passing of time. This is what I've been hoping and wishing and dreaming for, to be here, together with my whole family.