On May 9th Noah came to St. Mary’s hospital, and on May 29th, he was discharged!  It was hard to contain my excitement as we left those other mommas and their babies in the NICU.

I am so thankful for the nurses and doctors who took care of Noah.  There was one nurse in particular who gushed over Noah and how cute and sweet he is.  She made little signs for me in the night using pictures of Noah.  She listened and let me cry with her when we thought Noah was deaf.  On those days when all I could see was his DS and other problems, she helped me remember his sweet babyness.  She doesn’t know how much she helped me!

We almost didn’t get to leave!  We were waiting (a bit impatiently) for the doctors to come around and set Noah free.  The pulmonologist was insisting we stay another few nights for some more sleep studies, as his oxygen saturations had dropped while on oxygen the night before.  The neonatologist looked at the times they were concerned about, and argued that those were the times Noah was eating, and pooping, and having his diaper changed, and was confident he was ok to go home.  We came home with oxygen, “just for when he is sleeping or resting”  So pretty much all the time.  We will have another pulse-ox sleep study in a week AT HOME!

The discharge process was encouraging.  We discussed each of Noah’s “problems.”  He conquered or is in the process of beating almost all of them!

We return to Mayo every month for the next year to meet with Hematology (more blood draws).  The respiratory specialist will follow him as he grows out of this breathing issue.  Cardiology, Endocrinology, and a Geneticist will also have appointments with Noah several times in the next year, but not as frequently.

We arrived home with lots of hugs, Noah was sung to by each boy, and I got to sing and pray over each boy at bedtime.  Thankful to be home!

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.  Psalm 28:7