And Down The Stretch She Comes!

Today Ellie got bumped up to taking a bottle at every other feeding! When we talked to Ellen she said she felt that Ellie had been nippling (i.e. eating from a bottle) very well yesterday and was ready to take the step to nippling at every other feeding. That's a big step toward going home! Ellen also said that if Ellie continues to improve and do well we might go home in as little as a week! Wow! That's really exciting! But it also brings up feelings of anxiety from wondering if we're ready to bring her home. We had a talk about all the preparations that we'll have before we take her home. Ellen ordered Ellie's home monitor and when it comes we'll have about an hour of training on how to use it. We'll also take a class on infant CPR, we'll have to check the schedule to find out when. When the results of the acid reflux study come in we'll know whether or not she will go home on Prilosec. And close to when Ellie goes home Ellen will calculate how much caffeine she'll go home on based on her weight at the time. (Ellie's weight, not Ellen's.) Also the dietician will come by and show us how to mix the formula. We've already talked a little bit about how we will administer the caffeine and the vitamins she'll go home on, but I'm sure they'll go over that again around then. The day before she goes home she'll get an RSV shot. And a day or two before she goes home we'll have to do a car seat trial. The nurses will make sure Ellie fits properly in the car seat and she'll have to sit in it for an hour and they'll observe her. We also need to install it in our car before then and go have someone check it to make sure it's installed properly. Hopefully I'm not leaving anything out, but I'm sure they won't let us forget anything. (By the way we did get her social security card. It is safe and secure in Manhattan ... and we can't remember the number. Oops.) Please pray for us as we try to cope with the news may be going home sooner than we thought. We have to remind ourselves that this is an answer to our prayers. I'm reminded of the old saying: Be careful what you wish for. As I said we are very excited to bring her home, but we are also anxious about having her all on our own. We're anxious about how our life is going to work out, how our schedules are going to work out, when we're going to sleep ... Please keep us in your prayers. Oh, also pray that we won't get too excited/frustrated if she takes another step back. Update: The discharge nurse / educator just came by and talked to us about the CPR class. We're going to take it Thursday evening. They also go over medications during the first part of the course. Hopefully by then we'll know if Ellie needs Prilosec.