Going Home!

After spending about 4 1/2 weeks in the hospital, Kylie finally came home on Tuesday, December 21st. Here are the details...

In order to be able to leave the Special Care Nursery, Kylie needed to be completely oral fed either by breast or bottle AND be able to gain/maintain weight. On Saturday, December 18th we were given the go ahead to start a "12 hour trial" on Sunday morning. That meant we would try oral feeding and check her weight after 12 hours. If she had gained or maintained weight, we would continue the oral feeding for another 12-24 hours. If she had lost too much weight, we would do a tube feed and try the oral feeding again at a later time. We started out the morning by trying breastfeeding. Kylie is excellent at latching, but she gets really sleepy as soon as she gets close to me. So, needless to say, the breastfeeding was not going well...We tried 3 different times about an hour apart before we decided to move on to the bottle. When I say bottle, I mean that she is getting breast milk from the bottle. I have been pumping every two to three hours since the day she was born, so we have quite the supply saved up. Anyway, we quickly learned that Kylie is a pro at the bottle. She took to it immediately and was able to eat quite a bit each time, so things were starting to look more promising. At 7pm, we weighed Kylie to see how she was doing...At that point she had lost 10 grams. I was worried, but the nurses said that was nothing to squawk about so we continued the oral feeding trial. I spent the night on Sunday and bottle fed her through the night. She continued to do a great job, although a few of the nurses were a little pessimistic about the amount she was taking. She was weighed again on Monday evening and she had gained 65 grams!!! We couldn't believe it...The nurse even checked her weight twice to make sure it was right! That's when we got the best news of the year...Kylie was going home on Tuesday!

We brought Kylie home on Tuesday evening. I fell apart as soon as we got in the car...I had no idea how scary it would be to drive with a baby in the car. All of a sudden, this little person's life was solely in my hands...No more nurses, doctors or monitors. How was I going to keep a little baby alive?! I continued to be a disaster through that first night, as I assume most first time parents are the first night their baby comes home. After we got through the first night, however, I started to feel better and we've been doing well ever since!

Through all the excitement of bringing Kylie home, we forgot to take a picture of her in her little outfit. So, here are a couple of her at home the next day. One is of Kylie taking a nap and the other is of Kylie holding her bottle..Yes, I said holding her bottle. I think it happened by accident, but I like to believe she is just advanced...Not that I'm biased! :)