Maddie is Coming Home!

There will probably be many typos & grammatical errors in this post, but I want to get everything down as fast as I can because we are scrambling to get things ready.

Over this past weekend we asked the doctor if she had a timeline for us taking home the girls. She somewhat laughed and told us that it looked like around 2 weeks. The girls were still 36 weeks, not quite full term. We were disheartened, but knew when they first arrived in the NICU, the prognosis was they would be there till their due date {May 24}.

Fast forward to yesterday. The doctor called me in the morning & started with "Looks like Madeline really wants to go home! She's doing great on her feeds & I see her going home by the end of the week!" So after letting out a big "woohoo," I was thinking by Saturday or Sunday we would have one of our girls home!

Now on most days I take the train up to the hospital. I don't have to worry about traffic & I can get in some good reading.  Just as I plopped myself down to wait for my next train at Five Points the doctor calls. I figured it was just the daily check up, but right off the bat the doctor says "Looks like Madeline can come home tomorrow!"

I cried. I was so happy.

She explained more that the nurses had fed her all her feeds off the gavage & pending a car seat test she would be able to go home tomorrow.

When I finally arrive to the hospital, little Madeline had no feeding tube in.

She's beautiful.

I fed both girls & then we get ready for the car seat test.  During this test Madeline cannot suffer from apnea or experience any oxygen desaturation.  This test is one and a half hours long!!!!!!!! So we start to buckle her in & quickly realize she doesn't fit. Not even close. Even though she is 5 pounds & that's what are seat starts at, she was so far away from the crotch strap.

Crap. We got these off our registry way back in December, so we didn't have the boxes & we weren't sure if we could return them. After a quick phone call to Babies R Us, & an explanation of our situation, they kindly agreed to let us return them for ones that would work. {Thank you BRU for amazing customer service & being so easy to work with! You just earned a customer for life!}

So note to all...if you have preemies a Graco Snugride is not for you. However a Graco Sungride 30 is! Yay!

So after a quick exchange we hustled back up to the hospital. {Ok, I lied we actually grabbed some Galla's Pizza First. Yum!}

The traffic on Peachtree-Dunwoody was hell. This is a nice reminder why I don't want to move back to Dunwoody any time soon.  I was nervous we wouldn't make it in time & would have to delay the test.  But, once we finally made it, Madeline was finishing up her bottle. Perfect timing. We got the car seat all strapped up into the mock seat & we were on our way!

Maddie didn't seem bothered by the test at all. A few cries here & there. Some straining {probably working on her nightly poop.} Some sneezing...which actually scared me because she started to dsat, but the nurse said not to worry, that didn't count. Phew.

{Princess Leia}

An hour & a 1/2 later...

SHE PASSED!

Madeline is coming home tomorrow!

Little Amelia is still working on things. She is an amazing breast feeder, but with both the breast & bottle, she gets a little over zealous & can choke or forget to breath.  Hopefully in the next few days or weeks she will get better at her breathing & eating coordination. We want her home with her big sis!

{Amelia}