The rest of the story...

Miller's birthday was perfect!  He was perfect, my delivery was easy, and everyone was on could nine.  Just how I had hoped!  We enjoyed having lots of visitors in and out.  Ellie had come to see us on Monday with my mom and grandparents and I was enjoying a little mini vacation in the hospital! We were pretty positive we would be sent home Tuesday afternoon.

Until...Dr. Blake, one of the pediatricians on call notified us of an elevated white blood count and CRP level. They were just going to monitor it carefully and not jump the gun on any decisions to send him to the NICU. Of course the minute I heard "special care" and "NICU" I lost it.  We held our breath and waited for test results the next morning.  Dr. Smith came to by to talk to us that afternoon, and they had gone up, not what we were wanting.  So they said they would re-test again that night and let us know.  Well, they went up again, and again.  So ultimately the decision was made to go ahead and send him over to the NICU for antibiotics.  Don and I were both so bummed.  We had wanted so badly to avoid that place this time around but unfortunately that didn't happen. It's extremely difficult to send a normal, BIG, full term baby to the NICU for treatment when you really aren't sure why or what you are treating.  Deep down we knew it was best to take care of the issue before we went home and it really turned into a problem, but that didn't make it any easier.  Basically, an elevated CRP level indicates inflammation and/or infection.  This was more than likely from the meconium in my water and/or me being Group B positive and only receiving antibiotics for a short time before he arrived.

So, Tuesday night he went.  We went to see him as soon as we could and this was how he looked when we walked in.  Doing this all again the second time around does NOT make it any easier.

My two beautiful babies.  More like twins!  I need to get a better comparison picture together.

 We were zombies.  Just like with Ellie, we were the only crazy parents that never missed a feeding (even in the middle of the night) so naturally, we got NO sleep.  But he was worth it.

After two and a half days of antibiotics, we finally got the big surprise that we were going HOME!  The hardest part about the NICU is the constant roller coaster.  There are so many people telling you different things that you never know what to think.  I have learned to not get excited about any good news because issues always seem to come up and to lead to something else.  It's an exhausting process.  But his levels had continued to decline and Dr. Go, the neonatologist felt it was okay for him to come home!!  We were shocked and SO excited.

Thankfully my mom had brought Ellie up to see us that day anyway.  It had been 4 days since we had seen her and Don and I both couldn't stand it any longer.  Seeing her run off the elevator is still one of my favorite memories of that entire week.  I love that sweet girl SO much!!

Those of you that know Don well can imagine what he had to say about this coming home outfit.  I thought it was the sweetest thing I had ever seen:)

We were finally all together and headed home.  What a sweet, sweet day!