Free at Last

They finally let us come home. By last Tuesday, I was starting to think it was going to take us another week or more before they would let us come home. Then on Tuesday afternoon they started feeding Izzy. They were only giving her 5 mL an hour which is equivalent to about 1 tsp. each hour. They left her at that rate for 24 hours and I feared that if they were going to go up only 5 mL each day it was going to take us at least another good week as normally she is at a rate 75.

Well, after that first day they started increasing her by 5 mL every 6 hours. And by Thursday they were increasing her by 10 every 6 hours. So by Thursday afternoon they were up to 50 already. Which was great because 50 is what she had to be at in order to come off of the TPN and lipids they had her on. And then they told us, that if things stayed fine they would be discharging her on Friday! Man we went from extreme slow-motion to hold on to your hat cause here we go. Which I am not complaining about, I was just surprised.

So Friday morning I went and ran some errands and then was off to the hospital to go get my little princess. By the time I got there, Jeff had already signed all the papers and we were technically already discharged. So we cleaned up the room and were out the door.

The surgeons had given the okay to take her up to my parents for the weekend and even said we could take her straight from the hospital, so we did. We drove about half way to my parents and my dad came and got Isabelle and myself as Jeff was not coming up until Sunday. She did great on the car ride! Not a peep! Which I was not expecting, but it was great.

Overall, she has done really well. Nights are probably our hardest as I am still struggling with positions for her as her new J-tube is on her far left and her giant incision is on her right side, so when I try to put her in a position that isn't on her back I'm not always successful because I think it's all still a little tender. The best news is that the J-tube seems to be working. She has not had 1 formula spit-up since it was put in. Yeah! The only thing we are still having is some mucusy spit-ups. So in a few weeks we'll make an appointment with the saliva clinic (yeah, I didn't even know a clinic like that existed before we had Isabelle) to see if we can cut down on some of those kinds of spit-ups. It will be so nice to not have to carry a whole bag of spit-up clothes with us.

I'm looking forward to seeing where things lead on this new medical endeavor. Thank you again to all who have sent their prayers up to heaven. Your prayers mean so much to my family and me.