Yes, it happened! They let us leave the hospital with Ella Bun.

Our official discharge started this morning at 9am at our apartment. The home oxygen service that normally meets parents at the bedside made an exception to meet us at our apartment. They knew we had some concerns about the compressor unit and mobility with Ella, so they gave us all our training in our own environment. That was great.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat (our last without Ella) and headed back to the hospital for all the official discharge information. Everything from a complete medical history to when all your follow-up appointments are scheduled to all the hugs and well wishes from the NICU staff that have come to know and love Ella. It was exciting and sad for us all at the same time.

They had Ella sit in a car seat for 1 hour and monitored her saturations, just to make sure that she could tolerate that position. She passed with flying colors.

The only bummer is that they decided they wanted to check her potassium level before she left, so they could contact us and treat it if there was a problem. This is basically one more set of blood labs, so poor Nurse Kelly had to prick Ella shortly before discharge. That procedure got Ella very upset, but she recovered nicely and started to give smiles again shortly thereafter.

The ride home was easy and uneventful. She was looking around at first and then dozed off for a cat nap.

Once we arrived home around 5pm, it was time to hook Ella back from the portable oxygen to the compressor at home and unpack all her stuff. I could not believe all the stuff that we had accumulated at the hospital over the past 6 months.

I think we are a bit in shock. It doesn’t seem real that Ella is here with us tonight as we write this post.

Yes, I have to have a cheat sheet. Almost every hour, it seems that I must be doing something whether changing a diaper,venting her g-tube, feeding her, giving a med, etc. She was discharged with these medicines: Diamox administered once a day, Bumex administered twice a day (every 12 hours), Reglan administered three times a day (every 8 hours), Viagra administered four times a day (every 6 hours) and a multivitamin with iron once per day.

So far, we have gone through 2 feeding sessions, 3 medicines, a few diaper changes, a nap for Ella and a bath. She is falling asleep in Daddy’s arms right now. We have 3 more medicines before we retire for the night as well as setting up her continuous feed with a pump that will run from midnight till 8am. We will be waking up once to administer a medicine, otherwise we can all sleep through the night…and Ella has been sleeping through the night at the hospital. We will see what happens tonight.

Our first pediatrician appointment is Tuesday, Jan 29th. We’re excited to meet Dr. Kathy Sarantos; we’ve heard nothing but great things about her and her practice. We get to follow-up with Dr. Kays on February 5th and with the cardiologist on February 7th.

We weren’t sure what to expect, but I think all the training at the bedside has prepared us for this day. It has been nice to take care of Ella in the comforts of our home.

We are so blessed to have our baby girl at home with us tonight. It is amazing to think how far God has brought all three of us. We have been stretched beyond our imagination, emotionally and spiritually. And through all the pain, there has been such incredible joy.

Our baby girl is such a reminder of Him and His love. We hope and pray that all of you will continue to seek God and join us as we continue to trust Him in each moment, no matter what He has planned for the future chapters.

Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness
by: Thomas. O. Chisholm