April 11, 2009

Well he made it... Demetri is home!!! We have had a whirl wind few days. Demetri lost weight his last night in the NICU, so we were wondering if he would actually get to come home. But Dr. Lancaster made it official when he walked in his room Friday morning smiling and asking what time we were leaving. His Pediatrician also stopped by to catch up on him and say she would see him on Tuesday. (We have a laundry list of other appointments we have to make for him.) We waited for the photo lady to come to the room to take his hospital pictures, but she was not even at the hospital, or so they told our nurse at 2 pm. So we tried to simulate her machine and take our own... we didn't do so well. (So we can't wait for Misty to come to our house and take pictures.) To take the pictures, we took out his NG tube and then daddy got to practice putting it in again. He got it on the first try!Demetri left the NICU weighing 3 lbs 7 oz and measuring 16 inches in length. He arrived home at about 4:30pm after picking up big sister Eleni at school.
Our first night at home was wonderful, but we quickly found we definitely need a better organization system (and we thought we were organized people). We have changed his feeding schedule a little bit to work better with Eleni's schedule. We also had to gather and seperate all of our feeding supplies and create a feeding pole to hang his NG feedings from when he does not finish his bottles.

It has been almost 2 days using his new bottles and he is slowly learning. The most he has eaten is 23 ml of his total 32 ml feeding. The speech therapist warned us it takes 3 days to get used to new nipples, so we are trying to be patient. We are looking forward to taking out the NG tube for good. It is is just really nice to see his face without it!
Eleni is a great big sister. She was very excited to see him in the car when we picked her up. She could not see him in his car seat and wanted his seat turned toward her for the ride home. She gives him sweet kisses on his head and wants him to look at her. She is also good at "shhhhing" everyone when he is sleeping.We are thankful to everyone for supporting us through this journey. It has been a very long and emotional 23 weeks for us, and your love and kindness has helped to get us through. We are so thankful that we have a beautiful boy to bring home. It is amazing seeing Demetri and Eleni at home together (we were not sure that would ever happen).

We are glad you have been able to follow Demetri's progress on this blog and please keep checking for updates as he grows. We love all of you.