Still On Target For a Monday Discharge

So far everything is still a go for Monday! The nurse practitioner told us today that "barring a drastic weight loss or a spell" that both boys should be able to go home on Monday. Yippeee!!! Bill and I have had big grins on our faces all day and night. We actually left NICU a couple of hours earlier than usual today so that we could stop by Toys R Us in Roanoke and get some baby necessities, and also so we could try and get the house ready for their arrival. Bill brought up the mini-crib from the basement tonight and it is now at the foot of our bed, and we have turned our dresser into a baby changing station :) I also cleared out a bunch of stuff from under the kitchen island to make room for formula, bottles, and more bottles. And Bryce came over today and assembled the baby dresser in the nursery which was a HUGE help! Anytime we need some extra help I'll just remind Bryce that we named Colin after him. Nothing like a little guilt trip to get things done, heh ;-)

Tomorrow is likely to be a very emotional day for me. I've parked in that crappy garage, taken that slow elevator to the 14th floor, used that God-forsaken disgusting 14th floor bathroom (ha), and walked through those NICU doors every day for the past 7+ weeks now so it is going to be a little surreal to know that I'll be taking that trip for the last time. And we've come to know so many of the wonderful NICU nurses that they're almost like family. I honestly don't know what we would have done without having our primary nurse Dee there to help us get through the last 5 weeks or so. I'd probably still be in the corner crying, worrying about our boys and wondering how we were going to manage in the new and different "E pod" :) Since then a slew of nurses have taken care of our little boys including Doreen, Ann, Judy, Donna, Jeanette, Gail, Rae, and several others, and I can't say enough good things about those nurses. Nor will I forget the "A pod Angels" (Melinda, Amy, Sondra, Diana, Lori, and Sharon, etc) who cared for Brandon and Colin when they were their tiniest and most fragile. All of those NICU nurses are miracle workers in our book! :)

Bill just called the NICU and the boys continue to do great. Brandon is now 5 lb 11.5 oz and Colin is 5 lb 9.2 oz, so both gained over an ounce since the previous night. And both of the boys took 55ml at their last feeding, which is 10 ml more than they have to take (Dee removed Colin's NG tube earlier today, Brandon's was removed yesterday). So given all of that I'm feeling pretty confident that both boys will get to come home tomorrow! I should probably go to bed now and get ready for the big day :)

I'll just post a couple of pictures from yesterday before I retire for the night. The first picture is of Brandon all kocked out in his car seat during his car seat test, and the other is of Colin wailing away. Colin's picture reminds me of a card we got recently from Uncle Bill and Aunt Kathy. On the front of the card is several different pictures of baby faces, all of which are crying. Inside the card said "Congratulations on your new sound system!", heehee.
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