Dear Tyler - [NICU Day 24]

Dear Tyler,

You got to come home today!!!  Your dad and I couldn't be happier to be able to hold you in our arms whenever we want without having to drive to the hospital.  On one hand, it feels like we've been waiting to bring you home forever since we've been robbed of hours and hours of cuddles with you your first few weeks of life.  On the other hand, with all the back and forth to the hospital, meeting with doctors and nurses and lactation specialists, etc., time really has gone by quickly.  Regardless, we are all smiles to have you home.

Unfortunately, today of all days, I came down with mastitis.  I am in tons of pain and have a fever and chills and am pretty miserable.  But I'm getting on some medication and I won't let not feeling well hold me back from giving you extra loves tonight.

I got lots of information from your nurse today.  Here are a couple of the things we talked about:

• You gained over 2 ounces yesterday!!!  That puts you at 4 pounds, 9.8 ounces.  It makes me feel so good that you can gain that much weight taking everything through your mouth.  That, more than pretty much anything, makes me confident you will do well at home.  At home I will need to continue to add NeoSure to the milk I pump so you get extra calories.  I also need to give you vitamins every day.  To do that, I will mix 1 ml of vitamins with some milk and feed it to you in a bottle.  Unfortunately it doesn't taste very good.  I apologize in advance!
• You passed your car seat test with flying colors.  I was totally wrong on why you have the car seat test.  Besides making sure you fit okay in the car seat, the main part of the test is making sure your oxygen levels don't fall while you are in the car seat.  The test is 90 minutes and I am told you did very well.
• You have lots of doctor appointments coming up.  Tomorrow you will meet with your pediatrician for the first time.  You'll also be going back to his office on Friday for a metabolic test and weight check. Next week you have a pediatric ophthalmologist appointment to get your eyes examined.  You qualify for the eye exam because you were so small when you were born.  I also received a call from the hospital today that the doctor has placed an order to have home health nurses come to our house a couple times a week for 3-4 weeks to do weight checks to make sure you are growing okay (they want you to gain about an ounce a day) and to answer any questions I might have.

Anyway, enough of that for now.  I need to get back to cuddling you and giving you loves.  And I'm guessing you probably need to eat again!  I love you!!!

Love,

Mom