A Second Homecoming-Hopefully for Good!

It is official-we are home!  And hopefully for good!  James had two goals in order to be released from the hospital:  eat 60 ml's of milk every 3 hours, and spit up less than 5 ml's every 3 hours.  I always thought the 60 ml's was way too much-he has never taken that much in his whole life.  I talked with the pediatric surgeon yesterday, as well as with the doctors during rounds yesterday, about this figure because honestly, I don't see a point in staying in the hospital if they are just watching him eat.  In general, I want him to stay as long as he needs to so we don't have to come back.  But if he is drinking 50-55 ml's each feeding, that's good enough for me-I don't want to subject him to more hospital time just to get 5 more ml's in his body.  The doctors and the surgeon all said 50-55 was a good number as well.  Thus, I went about my day working on getting him to eat that much.  He was taken off IV fluids this morning and his first feeding thereafter he took 40 ml's really fast.  He threw up some of it, but then drank 20 more ml's-his first 60!!!!  Woo hoo!  From that moment, I just decided I was going to make sure he left that evening.  I stayed with him all day and every 3 hours, I coaxed him to stay in between 50-55 ml's.  I noticed if I tried to get anymore than that, he would throw up...I knew that was too much!  As he consistently drank his 50 ml's, the nurse reported to the doctors and by mid day, we were geting the news that they were preparing to discharge us as long as he kept up his eating without throwing up.  I was overjoyed-perhaps this was the end to our hospital stays for a while!

The only thing that concerned me was his throwing up.  I didn't want to go home prematurely if that was really a problem, but I was also convinced, from my mother's instinct, that he wasn't throwing up because of an underlying problem, rather he was throwing up because we were trying to press too much milk into his body.  When the surgeon came in to clear him for discharge (which he did), I asked him if I should be worried about throwing up.  The surgeon explained to me that it was very normal for babies to throw up for up to 7 days post op simply becaue their stomachs are irritated from all the throwing up they do before surgery.  Makes perfect sense!  He seemed completely comfortable with James' progress, so from that point on, I made another decision:  I didn't feel it was completely necessary to report every spit up/throw up to the nurses.  Obviously if he was doing it a ton I would report, but when he threw up once at his 5pm feeding, I didn't bother to tell them.  I can handle throw up and I felt very much at peace with his progress.  So if that's morally wrong, then oh well. I really felt his recovery would progree better at home than just sitting in a hospital.

By 6pm, the discharge papers had been drawn up, James was free from all tubes and IVs, and he was all dressed and ready to go home.  I once again found myself so grateful for his progress and his beautiful little heart that had handled things so well.  The nurses and the doctors were wonderful, PCH is seriously such a wonderful hospital and I can't find words to express how grateful we were for their care.  The support we received from our family, friends and ward...again, words cannot express.

So much for such a little spirit to deal with.  James is now 3 weeks old, has had open heart surgery on bypass, had a second surgery after losing half a pound, has spent most of his life in the hospital, and has been hooked up to more machines and tubes than I thought was possible.  He has also been blessed more abundantly than I thought possible.  The Lord has kept my sweet little baby in the palm of his hand, and I couldn't be more grateful.

Our goal?  Stay home for more than 5 days!  We will be grateful for each one that passes with our family of 7.