We're Home!

Yep we are home, but we are under strict restrictions (see below). Please call to make arrangements before coming over.

True to their word, they informed us of Olivia's release at the last minute. When I showed up for rounds on Friday, they had not waited for me. When I walked in to the NICU, the nurse said, "Are you ready to go home?" I called Petra immediately and she came over with Julia and my mom and my grandma. Of course, there was about 3 hours of paperwork and instructions to get before they could let us out the door, but we were back at my grandma's house by 12:30.

We dressed up Julia and Olivia in matching green dresses for the occasion. They were very cute together. Of course, my camera ran out of batteries ...

It was even harder to get Juuli "released" from the ChildLife program. Miss Rebecca was not ready to let her go when we left, so I had to promise to bring her back for an afternoon play session. They just liked each other so much. When I picked Juuli up at 5:00, she had been given a large banner, a special book filled with printed pictures of her time at Rachel's Courtyard with Miss Rebecca and her crew, and a new stuffed animal. Juuli was so excited to have a big deal made for her.

The drive home was surprisingly uneventful. Juuli slept (wasted from no nap) and Olivia slept (wasted from her first adventure out of NICU). Olivia ate well when we got home (about 50% more than she ever had before). Petra fed her at 9:00 and I fed her a bottle and put her down at midnight. She woke up at 3:00 and 6:30 for food.

Everyone has taken good care of our house and animals while we were gone, and that was a real blessing. Even so, there is so much work to catch up on here. The grass didn't die, but it is over a foot tall! Then there is some more fence repair (thanks to the County) and the legal fight to continue against them. We also brought home SO MUCH STUFF between what we took with us and then asked my mom and sisters to bring us and other stuff we bought in ABQ and the stuff we got from the hospital. Plus a new person... there is a lot of unpacking and organizing to do. I also need to install an A/C (explained below) somewhere and somehow. And it turns out that the dogs disconnected our storage freezer some time over the last couple weeks, so all our meat and frozen food is a big rotten & stinky mess.

Even with all of that, it is so nice to be home and to finally have the whole family together and in one place. This has been an impossibly long 2 weeks (I swear it has been 2 months or more), but I am so happy.

Olivia's Restrictions:
Olivia was sent home with Oxygen, and they expect her to be on it for 2 weeks to 2 months. Right now we only have one tank, so it is a pain to lug up and down the stairs. We should get a second tank this week to keep upstairs. We also have a portable tank in a bag so that we can take her out if we need to. Someone will come check on Olivia at our house every week. And because of the oxygen (which we were told to double once arriving at Los Alamos's altitude), we can't drive with her into the mountains. That's a bummer, but a small price to pay.

Since her lungs are damaged, we can't have her around cigarettes, fire smoke, or other irritants like dust for at least 6 months. This will be hard with the county ripping up our street and using our neighboring lot as a staging ground all summer (by the way, I came home to find they had encoached onto our property without permission even more in our absence and broke another brand new fence panel I just installed to replace others they had destroyed). So, because of the construction dust we will not be able to open windows or doors to cool off our house this summer, so I have to buy and install a window air conditioner this weekend (most Los Alamos houses don't have A/C's) along with a couple HEPA air filters and humidifiers.

In addition we have to follow similar rules in our house as they had in the NICU. She is "not allowed" to get sick, so we need to be over protective of her for a while. We are setting up a wash station when you enter our house, and have a gallon tub of Purell sanitizer for healthy people to use (us included, and especially for Juuli). Anyone who could possibly be sick or was around someone who is sick can't come over or have contact with her. I am not sure when we will take her to church, but we will have to keep her covered anytime we are out for a while.