Home Sweet Home...

As I've mentioned in earlier posts...

Kelly's parents were staying with our children at our house.

Well we were a tad sneaky with them and the kids. We opted not to tell them we were coming home with Maddex, we just showed up. Grandma was outside with the kids as they were busy doing what kids do and we caught them completely off guard. They were fully expecting to have just Kelly return for the evening but when I got out...the expressions on their faces were priceless. I regret not having a camera handy but I'll never forget how happy they were to see me along side of their dad. THEN...we took Maddex out of the vehicle and wow...did they scream! It was awesome!

Kelly's folks were with us for two weeks and the kids were in heaven. They adore them both but Grandma is especially amazing with them. The kids were taken on walks every day, bike rides, constant trips to the playground, trips to the stores...pretty much all around fun & activities daily. I still have to thank Grandma for letting Jordan "create" her marshmallow dessert...little sugar, marshmallows, flour, milk...I won't go on, my stomach is turning. Jordan said her favorite part of Grandma and Grandpa's visit was spending time in the kitchen baking with Grandma (she's a retired baker aka the cookie lady!). Wallace speaks highly of the fishing excursions...that'll be the next post!

Maddex was a tad to tiny for his normal crib so we picked up this bassinet...he's so darn cute in it!

Again, Maddex slept in his bassinet most of the time but being summer...there were lots of bugs and such buzzing around both inside and out. We opted to keep him covered with this netting to avoid any annoying pest bothering him. His own little haven...

Let's blow this popsicle stand!

So as I was sitting around...watching the boy eat his bottles and beat the odds in so many ways, a doctor strolls up and checks Maddex's books. Super common practice throughout the day. She's flipping pages, asking the normal questions of me and pauses. Looks at the books again, pauses. Looks at me, pauses...then says those magical words I was waiting to hear...

Let's do his car seat test today.

I was speechless. It was real, he might actually come home if he passes this one last test.

So I cried.

It was awesome.

Last picture of his little world before the big test.

Ya, he had no clue of course but I'm sure he wondered why I was pacing back and forth, waiting for him to wake up. (I may have poked a couple times too hee hee)

Okay so I've made it through some serious stuff in my life both by choice and otherwise. This, however, was the single most stressful thing I've been through yet. In fact, I was so stressed out during his hour long car seat test...the nurses kicked me out. Yep. They told me to walk the tunnels of HSC and not to come back until the test was over. So I did.

Little info, the car seat test is the last test a baby has to pass before they are allowed to go home. This means they are put in their car seats for the duration of time it would normally take you to drive home from the hospital. Course we live a pretty good stretch away so Maddex's test was longer than most. You can see in the pictures he's strapped into his seat, placed on the floor while being hooked up to all the monitors in the world (well felt like that at the time) and there he sits. Waiting for something to happen. HORRIBLE TEST. I can see why its needed but its still HORRIBLE!!!

I stood outside the nursery and stared at the doors. I was so scared to go in and find out the results. If he didn't pass it meant they wouldn't re-test for another 72 hours. That's a long time when you've already done three weeks.

He passed.

I cried.

The nurses cried.

In fact some of the nurses asked to be called if he passed at home, off shift because they had become so attached to Maddex.

I can't describe the feeling. If you've been there, you know. Its amazing.

My folks happened by for a visit before they were heading out of town. Well what a fantastic surprise we laid on them when they walked in and we were packing up. Nana and Papa helped with the clean up while Kelly went and passed the car seat test in our vehicle. Glad they were there...I needed someone to calm me down and help!

So this is the first time we got to put our own clothes on our own little baby. We had been told about this amazing baby boutique, Itty Bitty Baby, in Winnipeg by our favorite nurse Sue. Well we of course went there and bought Maddex's going home outfit and while we were there Kelly thought it fitting to buy a little something for the Nursery to say thank you from Maddex. Well Kelly bought bags and bags and bags of clothes, hats etc for the nurses and boy were they amazed. They saved our son so he wanted all the future babies to have some new threads to grow and heal in! He's such a great man.

This outfit was for 5lb babies. Nuts hey...

Maddex's fancy new car seat. We actually had a car seat and stroller that we bought from a friend but we ended up "paying it forward" so to speak. Turns out that while I was staying at the Ronald McDonald House so was another Mom from the same nursery. Maddex and her daughter had beds close together. Long story short, she was on her own, no money, no family but happy as can be because she had a beautiful daughter to love. She was still in her teens, from Northern Manitoba and had a long road ahead of her until she could take her daughter home. So we arranged for our set to find a new home with her without her knowing where it came from. Worked out well in the end as Maddex needed a specific type of seat that had removable pads etc for tiny babies.

First taste of the sun....

Still amazes me how tiny he appears in his car seat. Wow.

Ready for the big trip home. Ahhhhhhh.

He was pretty content during the trip, slept the whole way home.

Feed and Grow

So as the days went by Maddex continued to do extremely well. We entered into the "feed and grow" stage, so the staff at the hospital referred to it as.

The main concerns at this point was for Maddex to feed from a bottle to the point of coming off a scheduled feeding program and entering into feeding on demand. It didn't take too long for him to master that and then it was on to having him maintain his own body temperature outside of the incubator. Well he wore his first hat, bundled up and entered into the bassinet phase of the program. I was so excited when he was out of the box...so to speak!

Last and the most important of course was being incident free on the monitors.

When he masters all this...he gets to come home!!!

Here are some picture from those different stages of growth!