It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving when we finally got the word, Thomas was coming home! He was to come home on oxygen on Monday or Tuesday of the following week.
We found ourselves unprepared for the very event we had been waiting for. All of the sudden we realized we would have juggle work schedules and prepare for his homecoming on short notice.
The game plan was as follows:
We made the appropriate arrangements with our employers, and became incredibly excited about Tommy's coming home.
Wednesdays training was a breeze as we had had four months of NICU parenting under our belt and were not intimidated by the equipment we would be using. We spent a very happy Thanksgiving day in the NICU going over Tommy's medication, thanking his primary nurse for everything she had done and receiving congratulations from the other NICU parents (most of whom would be following us very shortly). We left late in the afternoon in time for Thanksgiving dinner at Tommy's Aunt Liz and Uncle Jim's house.
The overnight stay at the hospital went fine. We even managed to get some sleep between false monitor alarms. With just the three of us in the hospital room together, we finally got to spend time alone as a family. We were ready to take him home.
Finally Tuesday came. We went out to breakfast (it would be a while before we could do this again) and proceeded to the hospital to bring him home.
Tommy received the okay from his doctors and was homeward bound.