It was a cold January 22, yes one day short of his one month birthday, when we got the go ahead to pack our bags, we were going home. Literally that morning after I dropped Norm off at work, the night nurse told me that the carseat test went perfect and he was going home that day, probably before noon. Say what!! Holy crap, I had become so accustomed to my little routine and seeing all these nurses, that now in a matter of hours that would be no more.
To make matters worse Katie, our favorite nurse was off that day so we wouldn't get to say good-bye. Big time pouty lip moment. Corinne was there to walk me through what would happen and when.
Thank goodness for her. First up, she told me very nicely to start packing all our crap up and haul it out to our car. This was no small feat as we had accumulated a lot of crap in this tiny room. Our food supply, blankets and pillows, extra jackets(that room had a mind of its only on how hot and cold it got) all my craft stuff that I had great intentions of doing and never did, and lastly all the christmas decorations we had saved so that we could take a proper christmas photo with Nolan by the tree without any of his cords attached to him.
I had about half of our stuff packed and in the car when Dr. Mishele came in. She looked him over, asked if I had any questions, ummm yes where do I begin! Before I knew it Corinne was telling me to go get Norm. Now?!? Yes right now! I called him on the way to the car to inform him I was coming to get him and he'd better be ready. I believe he was in a meeting and had nothing ready to go. Great. Once we got back to Nolan's room time flew. Corinne was gathering all sorts of supplies that we might need. Norm was taking the rest of the stuff down to the car. All I could think about was getting a family picture by that dang little Charlie Brown tree.
We were totally calm as we strapped our tiny 4 pound little boy into his big boy carseat and headed out the door. Were we really getting to take him home? We actually get to be 100% fully responsible for this little life right now? Holy crap. You'd think that Norm would drive extra cautious and slow going home, but no you'd be wrong. He drove a bit faster than I liked. His reasoning was "the quicker we get home the quicker we get off the road and away from all these idiots".
Once home Nolan just slept. I don't know what I was expecting. For him to be awake and look all around him and notice his new surroundings. Nope, just sleep. A nervous Nelly I was, nervous and starving. So I sat in the rocker in Nolan's room while he slept in his crib and Norm made me lunch. Doesn't get much better than burritos, nachos and watching my son sleep in his own bed.
The kitties were super excited to meet their new house guest as well.
We felt pretty good about what we were doing. The nurses really did prepare us, and set his schedule like clockwork. Sleep for 3 hours, up for an hour. All those little cries and sounds that you wonder what they mean, we knew. We had been hearing them for a month and could easily decipher what he was trying to tell us. Who knows, we might just get this parenting thing down.
