Coming Home

Thanksgiving was a day I had been looking forward to. I knew I would be pregnant and ready to eat. I was looking forward to eating all of the yummy holiday food and not having to worry about gaining weight. Little did I know I would have something much better to look forward to. Mitch and I didn’t get to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. Instead, we were at the NICU picking up Ansley! We had to go the night before to watch a CPR video. Although the video was informative, the thought of having to perform that was frightening. During the discharge, we sat with one of the NICU nurses while she went over paper after paper. She explained about 100 things to us, and we both sat there silenlty. At the end of everything, she said, “Do you have any questions?” Mitch and I both wanted to say, “Yeah, can one of you come home with us?” It was a bittersweet moment. We were so excited to bring her home, but we were scared to leave the comfort of the nurses, doctors, and monitor machines. All of the what ifs ran through my mind. I had to find comfort knowing that they wouldn’t have released her if she wasn’t ready. It was also hard because other parents were in there visiting their babies, and they had to watch us get to take our baby home. I wondered what I had done to deserve that special blessing. I still think of those babies, and I hope most of them are home now.

Her tiny body barely fit in the carrier. She looked like a baby doll, and her preemie outfit swallowed her! I rode in the back seat to make sure she didn’t stop breathing. She passed the car seat test the night before, but first time mom was nervous. That was the second longest trip from Macon to Perry! We made it home safely, and we enjoyed a simple Thanksgiving at our house as a family of three. Both our moms brought Thanksgiving food over, so we had no shortage of good eating!

Here she is ready to leave the NICU.