Home Sweet Home

This morning when Stella and I were at Starbucks with Grandpa and Nona we got a call from Megan saying "we're out". We finished our coffee and chocolate milk and headed home where I dropped Stella with Gigi and headed for the hospital. On my way I got a text from Brooke who was taking Megan St. Honr'e knowing she'd had a long night on a hospital cot. I got to Emanuel to find Megan in the shower and Brooke holding Hunter...all the bags were packed, all we needed was to sign our bill for room, tax and incidentals and we weren't going to look back...to bad my credit card was declined, I wanted the miles (I wish, not really)...

As I said earlier, the little things are what please us now...like the fact that on Hunter's 13th day of life he finally got a breath of the beautiful Oregon air. Like the fact that Brooke happened to be there to help us hoof our 13 days of accumulated stuff across the campus...like how 6+ pounds in a car seat feels like 25, but it never felt better. We were so excited as we loaded him into the car and headed toward Lake O. As we pulled into the driveway we saw a large butcher paper banner written (spray painted) in baby blue across our garage "Welcome Home Hunter", it was from Aunt Ashley, Uncle Tucker, Parker, Ryder and Kiki and Papa. It was hard not the tear up at the reality of it all. Stella and Gigi waited at the gate and we were so excited to walk in, set our stuff down and be the four of us in our home...

We were careful not the lose sight of the fact that we have an extremely sensitive and sweet 2 year old so we set up a family picnic in the living room with PB&J's and the 4 of us just hung out...Stella is so cute with Hunter, she constantly has to go check on him. She is constantly saying his name, wondering if he's awake or "talking" (making any noise). She loves to watch him nurse and get his diaper changed...she is already taking to her new role. We got everything set up and unpacked and tried to keep it equal between the two them...

Tonight I got a phone call from a friend who asked an innocent and appropriate question that I think will be a common one..."are you worried about Hunter?" Our answer is "no more than we were with Stella at this age". Yes we look to see if he is breathing just like any other baby you'd just brought home, but we are confident that Hunter "has a fully repaired heart". He is not fragile, he is not sick, he is not weak. He has a scar and that is the only thing that differentiates him from Stella when we brought her home. Yes we have to give him 2 very important medicines twice a day that have to do with fluid retention and heart beat and we have to check his heart rate twice a day with a stethoscope (makes me feel smart), but other than that we feel very normal about being home. But we feel very lucky. We had hardened ourselves to the fact that this little guy may not have made it, that things could have (a small chance) gone horribly wrong. But we aligned ourselves with the right team, starting with that first ultra sound tech, Linda Bond, who found the defect and our first OB, Dr. Stewart, who who sent us to Dr. Peter Watson and Dr. Doug King...everything else is history. We are the lucky ones. There are kids who are born every day who don't get out with one surgery, who don't get to come home after 13 days. The kids that we left behind today at the NICU and PICU, may be there for months...it's a harsh reality that not all cases end as happy as ours did. We still have a long road but we'll take it any day vs. the very real alternative. We were millimeters away from being diagnosed with very different abnormalities, instead we got lucky and we met Dr. Watson, Dr. King and Dr. Iguidbashian. Three giants of men who have chosen careers at which they excel but who change lives daily, because they care. At some point we'll thank them and their teams. We'll properly thank Dr. Watson and Pandipoti for making the right decisions and giving the right advice to get us to 40 weeks and 6 lbs 13 oz's. We'll thank the angels (nurses) in the NICU and PICU for doing what we all wish we could do on a daily basis; be patient, work long hours and effect total strangers lives. One day we'll pay it back and forward, but for now as I write this my daughter is sleeping soundly 30 feet away snug in her bed, my wife is laying next to me in our bed and between us, on a pillow, with his little blanket on him is our miracle son who has been eating like a pig, pooping like a machine gun and sleeping soundly (for now)...happy to be home, we all are.