Almost Home!

Exciting day! We are here at the hospital 'rooming in' with Grayson.  All NICU families do this before heading home. We spend the night with them without nurse supervision but they are available to help if we need them. I must say, Aaron and I would have been nervous to head straight home with our preemies. Grateful for our practice run!  We will stay here tonight and Miss Hallie will join us tomorrow night (she is 40 minutes into her car seat test and doing great!) Grayson passed his today with no problems and both babies passed hearing tests today.  I couldn't more proud that our sweeties have done so well. I had no idea they would be coming home this weekend until yesterday afternoon. Doctor Hamilton-Spence reviewed their charts and saw that they are both without out feeding tubes (G pulled his out A few days ago and they left it out and he has done great since then), taking their feeds without any issues, nutsing extremely well and continuing to gain weight consistently.  Hallie is a day or so behind Grayson due to a few heart rate dips associated with learning the suck/swallow routine, very common for preemies. It's not overly concerning bc it is caused by feedings but they like them to grow out of that phase before sending them home. The doctor today noted, however, that full term babies very likely do the same but don't have monitors to detect.

Hallie peacefully sleeping during her car seat test.

Weight/length updates: Grayson is a whopping 6lbs and Hallie is 4.15 ready to hit her 5lb mark. Last Sunday, they measured 17 & 18 inches long.  Big brother is about a pound and an inch ahead of his little sister.

We came today for the 2:30/3:00 feeds to spend some time with them both before heading to our room. Grandpa and Grandma Thomas were here and Grandma held them both for the first time. Such a sweet moment seeing her love on her great grandchildren. We are so blessed to have them here with us.

Since coming to our room we have had our very first moments of parenting on our own and it could not be more wonderful.  My heart is so full.  Grayson is the sweetest little boy and has been perfect for us.  He grunts a bit between feeds and I am learning what he is telling us as we go.  He always been our little grunter from the get-go.  I am loving this time with him and can't wait to have them both together tomorrow. It's so surreal holding him without monitors, wires, and nurses surrounding us. We have waited for this for so long and I am soaking each and every minute in.  Funny to think they should actually still be in my belly!

                                      Grayson's first night with mommy and daddy.

Last week in the NICU!