Day 4 - Getting Ready for Home

The first thing I did when I woke up at home on day four of Eliza's life was reach for the phone and call the NICU to make sure that she was still doing okay.  They told me she was doing really well and nothing had changed over night besides them removing the feeding tube.  YAY!  I was so excited and anxious to get back to the hospital and see her again so I immediately got up and ready to go to the hospital.  Drew stayed home with the boys again but I knew he would be over at the hospital later because we had arranged for someone to watch the boys for a couple hours.

When I got to the hospital I was super excited to see that she was off oxygen too!  They told me she had actually been off oxygen for a couple hours and they were testing to see how she would do without it.  So far she was doing pretty well, but her oxygen levels would occasionally keep dropping too low, especially if she got upset or while she was eating.  In the end they had to put her back on the oxygen, but they said that is really common for babies here to need just a little bit of oxygen since we are at such a high elevation.  They also said that if oxygen was the only thing she needed they would just send her home on oxygen.  That was great news because it meant as long as she ate well for the next 24 hours they would let her go home the next day which was way faster than the originally thought when she was born!  I was so excited to hear that I might only have one more night away from my precious little girl.

It was wonderful to see her face with no tubes on it for a little while before we had to put the oxygen back on.  As much as I wanted her to be okay without the oxygen, I would rather she have it and be healthy, even if it means a little more hassle for me for awhile.

Her beautiful face with no tubes!  It was the first time we saw her like this since she was born.

My beautiful Eliza!

Drew seriously loves holding his baby girl!  He was not happy when he had to leave and give her back to me.