Most wonderful time of the year!

Things have been moving along at a hectic pace the last few days!  I love this time of year because there is always something going on and something to do, but I hate it for that same reason!  Due to all the loose ends I am trying to tie up before the end of the year, plus Christmas parties, shopping, to do lists and keeping my family moving forward, I have not been able to stay down in the city with Finn like I have been doing.  So added to all the other hustle and bustle are countless trips back and forth to the city to try to bond with and take care of my boy, while still making Christmas special for the rest of my family.  Plus the stress of all the unknowns about bringing a preemie baby home.  WHEW!  I know we will look back on this time in our lives next year and it will just be a memory, but right now, it feels like I am in the last 5 miles of a marathon that I didn’t train for!

As for Mr. Finn, he is just 5 pounds 10 ounces of amazing!  He is really loving being over on the A wing and is doing very well over there.  He is now a bottle champion, and because of that, he got his feeding tube removed early yesterday.  That means he has nothing invasive in his body anymore!  He is still on oxygen support with a nasal cannula from the vapotherm.  As of last night, he was on 2.0 liters at 100%.  His test numbers yesterday were good enough that he could have been weaned to 1.5L, but he was scheduled for a (routine) MRI of his brain, so they wanted to leave the support up in case the testing caused any stress.  For an infant MRI, they sedate them slightly, put in some ear plugs, and will them to lay still! Finn came through his just fine!  He’s a pretty relaxed baby anyway.  We did hear about one of his friends on the ward that failed hers on Tuesday – she “freaked out” and was screaming.  Poor baby girl!  They re-did hers yesterday as well, and she did great!

While we were there yesterday, we learned that there was a “leak” on the 6^th floor Tuesday right above the B Quad of the NICU, which led to some major ceiling damage – right outside Finn’s old room.  So, the NICU was in a tizzy today!  They moved the most well and stable babies from the A quad to pediatrics on the 5^th floor, then, they had to move all the tiny babies from the B quad over to the A quad.  This is not ideal, but they are hoping with the B wing empty, they can get that ceiling fixed quickly and be back in business.  I feel so bad for the staff – it is QUITE a mess.  Luckily, Mr. Finn did not have to move.  I guess if he weren’t on so much oxygen, he might have gone to peds…  Anyway – this is a mess for the nurses, and I feel bad for them.  At one point, the nurse practitioner was at Finn’s bedside, and her phone rang.  She told us to hold on, as it was one of the nurses “out on Survivor Island!”  This has been nothing if not an adventure during my 4.5 months at Mercy – domestic situations, tidal waves… What next!

Britt and I spent yesterday getting schooled on bring our preemie home.  In the morning, he and I, as well as my mom, went to a class to get infant CPR certified.  It was just the 3 of us in the class, and it went really well.  I feel better knowing this information as I bring my baby home. While my mom came on back to go to work, Britt and I hung out with Finn as he got ready for his MRI.  (I just realized I didn’t get a new picture of him without the feeding tube!  It was a crazy day…)  We each got to hold him and cuddle him and feed him, which really makes my day complete.  We also made a quick Target run for stocking stuffers – so Christmas shopping is officially DONE!  While Finn was at his MRI, we went to our last NICU class.  We got a lot of our questions answered about bringing him home, but we still had quite a list left for our nurse practitioner as well. We met with her later in the afternoon and got all of our questions answered, including THE BIG ONE.

We are (currently) set to bring Mr. Finn Weaver home to Stillwater on Wednesday, December 28!

He has a lot left to do to make that appointment, but we are confident!  We has to pass his hearing test, get one more eye test, start his RSV series, get circumcised, pass his car seat test, and most importantly, wean down off the vapotherm to regular oxygen.  I will stay overnight in his room with him Tuesday night, and that afternoon, the home heath people will come out and train us on the monitors and home oxygen he will go home with.  The morning we are discharged, he will get his hospital pictures taken!  SO EXCITING! Today, I have to make his first appointment with the pediatrician here for next Thursday or Friday!  YAY!

So, the hash tag is officially changing. We are planning a fun Christmas for the big kids, including some Finn time.  And we are praying he continues to improve, so we can have him #homefornewyears.