Home Sweet Home!

Those words have never meant more to us!

Travis is home. He was released from the hospital on Monday around 2:30pm. We knew we were probably headed home that day since around Friday but we did not want to tell anyone for fear we would jinks ourselves. Anyway, that morning we were waiting for final word from the doctor. 8 rolled around...nothing. 9 rolled around....nothing. At 10, I finally went out and found the doctor and said "so, what's the word?" He said that from their end we were good to go. We just had to wait for Kaiser to get the medications ordered and we had to wait for the delivery of the pulse oximeter (a machine that is attached to T's wrist and measures his heart rate and oxygen in his blood when he sleeps). The pulseox came around noon. Then we had to go over medication instructions and discharge info with the nurse. At 2, the nurse said "you're free to go". Roger and I almost cried....tears of joy and anxiety all at the same time! Roger took off Travis' heart leads and we loaded him into his car seat (see pics below). We had to drive over to Kaiser to pick up the meds on the way home. Travis did not like the car ride at first....he was hungry. So, I fed him a bottle ad lib while we were cruising to kaiser.

On to our first "issue". I tried to drop off our prescriptions (7 of them) at Kaiser pharm. The technician told me it would take 2 hours to fill them because they are all compound mixes. We didn't want to wait for two hours with Trav in the car so we asked them to send them up to Wildomar and we could pick them up later (more on this later). So, we were off. We got home without incident. Coming into our house was very strange. We had so much stuff packed in our car from our room at the McDonald house. We took turns holding the baby and carrying in 50 million bags. When the dogs came in they were not sure what to think. To be honest they were more excited to see us. They didn't really care about Travis....they just wanted attention.

The grandmas were our first visitors. They both, of course, were very emotional. It was cool to watch our mom's hold our baby. We did not want too many visitors that first night so they did not stay long. While Roger's dad came over, I ran to get the prescriptions. Keep in mind it was 8:30pm and they were faxed over at 3:30. When I got there the pharmacist said they were having trouble with them because two of the meds they did not have in stock (the 2 HEART MEDS!!). He said they had them in the Riverside pharmacy. I had a major meltdown at that point as he needed to take one of them by 9:30pm at the latest and I was PISSED that no one had called me to tell me that they were unable to fill it. The pharmacist saw my emotion and said he would drive to Riverside to pick them up and come right back. While he drove, I contacted the cardiologist to ask if he could take it later than scheduled. The cardiologist told me to relax and that it would be fine. I, however, could not stop crying. I was just full of emotions after all we have been through. So, I finally made it home at 10:30pm. We gave Trav his medicine and headed upstairs to get ready for bed. Roger and I decided we would trade off on the feeds. We turned on the heart monitor only to find out that the company sent us a sensor for an ADULT. It could not fit on his tiny little hand. ARGH! We tried to jerryrig it to work but it kept alarming every five minutes. SO, we ending up taking it off. SCARY! So, it was a pretty sleepless night for us. Travis, however, did fantastic!

Roger is working 1/2 days this week (then has two weeks off), so my mom and his mom have been visiting and helping get laundry and stuff done. Yesterday, Roger was able to get the right sensor for an infant and last night the machine worked well! We got much more sleep last night. It was so nice to sleep with our new little family in our own bed, with clean sheets. AWESOME!

When we left the hospital, we asked if there was a reflux medicine that tasted better because Travis hated the prilosec......They switched him to Zantac and we tried it. It isn't working b/c Travis has been eating a little less and has barfed for the first time since we started the prilosec. Anyway, after a call to the doctor (and another trip to the pharmacy) we are going back to the prilosec. So pray that it helps his tummy and he gets his appetite back in full force!

As for visitors....as much as we would LOVE to see everyone right away, we have to think of Travis first. Travis' immune system is compromised due to his heart condition. The time period between this surgery and his next (late Feb to late April) is his most critical time. We HAVE to keep him away from germs. Our house is now looking much like the NICU with sanitizer at every turn. Because of this, we need to limit visitors. Sorry! We want to see you but you may have to wait to meet our little Bug. His grandmas even HATE the fact that they can not kiss him on his face or hands (we can't either). Trust me, I would LOVE to show off my adorable son to anyone and everyone. I dream of it actually. But, we just need to hold off on that. We hope you understand. We will try to keep posting pictures so you all can stay a part of his life. Please continue to keep in touch. Roger or I could meet up with you all for lunch or whatever (just without the baby). :)

You can definitely tell that a baby with medical needs lives here....lots of syringes, medicines and the monitor...but, not as scary as I thought it would be. Not to mention all the baby gear that everyone bought for us at my showers. Travis is a lucky little guy. :)

More later.......Love to you all from us all!