Coming Home

Preston was READY to come home! Yay! Secretly, I was terrified but I put on a good front b/c I knew Tim was nervous too! There was a stipulation in order to bring him home......KU required we 'room in' for a weekend to solely care for Preston to ensure we were ready to bring him home. That required us to bring all of our home medical equipment (machines and all) to the hospital, set it up, and make sure we knew how to work everything. Even though we were receiving nursing care at home, there was going to be a time that a nurse got sick, overslept, stuck in traffic, snowed in, etc (and all of these happened sooner or later) and we needed to make sure we knew EVERYTHING about his care plan and didn't rely on the nurses. It was intimidating and tiring but so glad we did it!

Bags are packed for 2 night stay

Equipment set up in our private room (his humidity, pulsox, suction bag, extra trache, favorite mobile.....you name it, we had it! :) I think I slept a total of 2 hours that weekend! I was SO nervous!

Waiting to be released! Someone is tuckered out!

And then there is Reid who had a ROUGH TIME lol lounging in his swing and hung out with Grandpa and Grandma Walker all weekend! God knew we needed an easy baby in him with all that was happening with Preston.

Then the hard part came.....having to say good-bye to Preston's nurses who became family to us!
The one thing I LOVE about KU's NICU is the 'primary care' nursing each baby receives. Nurses can sign up to be a babies 'primary' so when they work, they always have that same baby. Preston had 2 special primaries.....his fabulous day nurse, Liz, and his fabulous night nurse, Alex, and both of these ladies are a HUGE part of Preston's life (and our families life) still. We have kept in touch and they come over on a regular basis, celebrated Preston's 1st b-day at his party with us, and are dear friends of mine now too! :) DOUBLE BONUS! If it weren't for them, Tim and I would have never made it through our journey at KU in one piece! They were a shoulder to cry on, a smile and hug when we needed it most, and 110% total piece of mind that when we couldn't be there with Preston as much as wanted to be, he was in the BEST OF THE BEST hands day and night. We called and talked to them around the clock to get updates and I grew to love these AMAZING nurses so much! It was even hard to say good-bye even though we were excited to bring Preston home. I saw them every day for over a month and it was my 'normal' routine to head to the hospital and get updates from them etc. Preston was such a little social butterfly in the NICU once he was much stronger and healthier. Liz would tote him everywhere with her while running doing other things in the NICU and he would smile and coo at everyone! They all just loved him. Preston came home with us on Feb

This was how Liz toted Preston around everyday! He LOVED it! Nose stints are in and he hated those...and I hated the way they looked :(

Liz and Preston.....saying Good-bye

We were terrified but we did it! We brought him home!!

There was a time I thought we would NEVER see this day come. Hooray for going home!

Back together again! Preston was a mess and we didn't realize how much withdrawl he was going thru.....he would NOT stop crying without the binky!

Then we had a set back and Preston wound up back in the NICU for a short period to be weaned off a drug that was causing him some withdraw issues. 

So we say Good-bye again........this time to BOTH nurses!

Waiting to be released for the 2nd time. We felt like pro's this time around!

Looking and feeling MUCH better and those stinkin nose stints were long gone! :)

And now the real adventure begins at HOME!

Back together for good! :)

1st night at home in his crib! 3 months old :)