We're home!

We were finally discharged from the hospital yesterday(Friday) at 5:00pm! We were supposed to arrive at the hospital in the morning, but when I called the NICU, the nurse told me that they were unable to complete Bennett's sleep apnea testing because they could not get a machine in time. This delayed his carseat challenge because they wanted to do the apnea testing first. I was really upset by this news because I had hit the point that I really felt I needed him home right away! After a few phone calls, they found out that another machine would not be available until Monday, but they could send Bennett home on a monitor if we would come back to do outpatient sleep apnea testing. I quickly agreed, but that meant that Andrew and I had to attend a class later in the day to learn about the monitor and infant CPR. We decided that we would do anything if it meant we could leave the hospital with our baby. I felt that with a monitor, I would not worry quite as much while he was sleeping, so I wasn't too opposed to the idea. On my way to the hospital, I got another call from the nurse. She said they could not start the carseat challenge because our carseat was not working properly. They wanted me to bring the manual so we could figure out what was wrong. I decided to stop at Babies R Us and just buy a new carseat to get the process moving. It turns out that a button on our old carseat was broken, so it's a good thing I opted to buy a new one! We arrived at the hospital at noon and spent the next five hours listening to discharge instructions, filling prescriptions, taking the monitor class, and setting up future appointments. It was a long day with a few setbacks, but we luckily were able to bring Bennett home! We were so happy to be home last night as a complete family! We had dinner together and watched a movie. Matthew was a great helper with baby Bennett and seemed a little overwhelmed, but definately happy that his brother was home. Bennett did well during the night, although his monitor alarmed many times because it was not sticking well to his skin. I was up at least 20 times trying to restick the censors! He did have a great 3.5 hour stretch of sleep from 4-7:30am that I was really thankful for!

Today was great! First, I took both boys to a bridal shower while Andrew got some work done at the office. After the shower, Andrew helped out with Matthew a lot. He even took him to Toys R Us and bought him a special new sand/water table. Matthew was so happy and played for hours--until we had to drag him to the bath to get ready for bed! Bennett slept a lot and was mostly content when he was awake. The times he was upset seemed to be mostly at diaper changes. I can't blame him with the surgeries he has been through. His back dressing needs to be changed when it is dirty, which is often. His skin is so sensitive and gets so red when you change the dressing. His stomach incision is still covered and his umbilical cord hasn't fallen off yet, so it takes a while to fold the diaper properly in front and back. Also, he has a powder, non-stick barrier, and diaper rash cream that needs to be applied to protect his bottom from the constant bm's. And, his circumcision is still healing. Poor guy has been through so much! Even so, he doesn't show that he's upset too often. He's such a sweet and strong baby! We're so happy to have him home!