Is this real life?!

So on Tuesday we bid the hospital life goodbye and headed home!  We were so excited to be home and feeling incredibly blessed to be taking our little girl with us. We were on cloud nine as we practically floated out of Primary Children's Hospital and loaded up in our car for the two hour drive back to Cache Valley.  Well as we pulled into our driveway it didn't take long for the "joys" of parenthood to drop by for a friendly hello and to remind us that our wonderful nurses were long gone and now it's all up to us.

I think our first hour of being home is best seen through the eyes of my mother.  I now quote her:

"Kimber came home today at about 3:30 pm.  Alyssa phoned ahead and asked me to get some of her frozen breast milk out to thaw because Kimber would be HUNGRY when they arrived and it takes Alyssa an hour to pump.  So, picture this:  as the kids get out of the car it's obvious that Kimber has messed her pants (which everyone was thrilled about because apparently the last few days she's been plugged up).  However, when I saw "Little Bean" she was soaked in brownish liquid from her knees to her feeding tube sight.  I was so worried that the car trip had caused the feeding tube to leak, so we hustled in the house and began stripping her down.

Luckily the site was clean, but there was brownish muck everywhere else!  She still doesn't cry, but she was squirmy and pulling faces showing us her discomfort and displeasure as we hurried and did an impromtu bath right there on the living room floor. (Sponge baths for another week for her).  Meanwhile, Alyssa's milk is coming in and she's in major pain, but thought it best to get Kimber clean and fed first, before she started pumping.

Next came the challenge to assemble the feeding pump so we could get baby "hooked up" right away, and that was a hilarious site, as we began untangling hoses and checking Kimber's oxygen.  About that time Alyssa realized that they FORGOT TO TURN ON THE OXYGEN hours ago when they loaded Kimber into the car.  Poor little thing had done so well to oxygenate herself for the last three hours without any assistance.  Kimber had the look of "You guys are great, bless your hearts, but please just take me back to where they know how to care for me!"

We finally got Kimber feeding and I get to hold her because Alyssa is still worried about her reflux and it takes a watchful eye to keep her from choking.  Alyssa (with a huge sigh) finally begins relieving her own pressure, and we settle in with our pumps pumping on both ends of the couch, hers with milk output, and mine with milk input.

What's Shawn doing this whole time?  The minute he walked into the door he realized his smartphone wasn't connecting to their Wi-Fi.  (The carpets had been cleaned yesterday and the techs somehow disconnected the box).  SO while everything above is happening, Shawn is interjecting "Why doesn't the Wi-Fi work?"  "I can't figure out what's wrong with our internet!" every few seconds.  He finally goes into the crawl space under the house to find the connection and yells at Alyssa and I to grab the wire he's poking up through the floor on the other side of the room.  We just look at each other, down at our tubes and pumps and say, "Is he kidding??" Alyssa just shrugged her shoulders, and even good naturedly agreed to call the Internet company for trouble shooting directions which she yelled to Shawn from across the room, who was still in the crawl space.

The amount of luggage, hospital items, old mail, dirty laundry, baby gifts and new equipment was thick throughout the kitchen and living room, and about that time, Troy and Jared stopped by after work to see if I'm coming home soon to fix dinner.  I said, "Yes, I think I can leave now that Kimber's feeding is done."  Shawn looked like I had just abandoned him in a stormy sea with no life preserver!  "You're going to leave us??? LIKE THIS??"  Troy said something about "We'll manage" and chuckled his way out the door."

Luckily, after forgetting to turn on the oxygen only two other times now, we have gotten in to some sort of a routine.  Kimber is adjusting well to home life and wowed Dr Brown at her two month wellness check.  Dr Brown hasn't seen her since we were shipped off to McKay Dee over 6 weeks ago.  He got a little emotional as he commented, "this is NOT the same little girl I sent off to McKay" 

We are so blessed and once again so grateful for all of your support!