We arrived home at 2AM Febuary 7th. A coworker form a previous job paid for a plane ticket for me to fly down Feb 6th. I purchased and flew out the same day. I arrived in PA around noon and couldn't get to the hospital fast enough. Baby Girl discharged from the hospital at 6:45 PM which cleaerly annoyed the nurse she had for discharge since change of shift occured at 7PM. We needed to change/feed her as we were not expecting to discharge until 8PM. Hospital policy is that a baby can't leave the NICU in the arms of a parent and so the nurse had to stay to provide the transport from the unit to the car.
We hit traffic right away and she wasn't a fan of stop go traffic. She clearly was still having some symptoms of withdrawal but nothing that required additional medication. When we stopped at a rest stop in NY to change/feed her, her tone was so strong and she was inconsolable. She had (and still occasionally does have) this behavior where you put the nipple of the bottle in her mouth and she is so dysregulated that she leaves her mouth open and shakes her head back and forth. She screams but can't close her mouth on the bottle to start sucking. This has improved but when she is overly hungry this behavior still emerges.
Her big sister was ecstatic to meet her. When Baby Girl came home on Sunday morning BabySam was in her crib sleeping. Baby Girl stood and watched her quietly in the dark. Once BabySam woke up she got her step stool out so she could stand at the changing table so she could help. She held her so carefully and it was if her lap was the perfect size for her little sister. She fed her and was so gentile with her. She did have one moment where she became frustrated with me and I think it was a brief test to see if I still loved her. Beyond that the bonding between the two of them has been amazing.
Week one of Baby Sam being home Baby Girl got strep throat. We had to keep them separated until Baby Girl had been on antibiotics for 24 hours.
DH's parents visited and were amazing with us and her. I have been truly amazed at how they responded this time. I know they have done it before now but its been a long time since I have had a visit with them and felt like I still liked them at the end of the visit.
DH's brother and sister-in law visited the following weekend. The visit went well with a few minor exceptions. We have decided that since our little girl is brown we can no longer stay where we live. Our plan is to move closer to where my parents live which is in a more diverse part of the country and there are more families that look like ours. At one point his brother challenged me on why I wanted to live somewhere that wasn't so white. He equated a white area with lower crime. I had to let it go. He also waited until after DH went to bed before he pressured me for more information on our daughters ethnicity. I learned later that DH had shared that her birthfather was unknown. Had I known this at the time I may have been more crass with him. Obviously if we dont know half of her genetic make up we DONT KNOW. DUH!!
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