No Place Like Home

Well, we arrived home late in the afternoon yesterday. There's nothing like it.

Miss Caroline is doing well. Every day is marked improvement. Her oxygen levels continue to get better, her coloring is better and she just looks healthier by the day. It's amazing how resilient kids are. Her schedule is now thrown completely off. She has spent a lot of time complaining the past two days. I think she doesn't know if she doesn't feel well, is tired, is hungry or some combination of the three. What makes this more difficult is the fact that it's so out of character for her. Caroline is the sweetest, easiest baby ever. My sweet girl is obviously frustrated when she's spent most of two days fussing. Like every aspect of our lives right now, I'm sure that it will be better tomorrow.

Wanna know the two most fascinating facts that I've learned this week?

#1 - Apparently 36 hours after having open heart surgery, babies don't require pain medicine. None. We gave Caroline some Tylenol last night in our efforts to diagnose the fussiness. That's the first amount of pain meds since very early Wednesday morning in CICU. They just don't experience pain like we do. Cool, huh?

#2 - It's nice to know that there's very little chance that we're going to break her. I've been hesitant to handle her too much. I have to hold her sitting up to burp and get nervous that I'm putting too much pressure on her incision, but she's likely to fall asleep in that position. Obviously she's not uncomfortable! When I asked, the doctor assured me that I could put her on her stomach to play starting immediately. Despite the broken sternum, big incision down her chest and the 4 holes sewn together with stitches where the chest tubes were, she's free to resume all normal activity. Unbelievable!! I haven't been brave enough to try it yet, but according to the doctor, I can. If only I can remember to scoop her up instead of picking her up underneath her arms...

While we've been busy in Birmingham, the big sisters have had an epic week. My in-laws spent Monday night at our house and spent all day on Tuesday with the kids. My parents took over babysitting duty after returning from the hospital that night. My sisters and nephews arrived just in time to play play play. Just when they were about worn smack out, my in-laws picked them back up for a fun-filled weekend. They've been fishing, boating, pumpkin picking, and movie watching. They're probably ready for a vacation from their vacation, but it's back to school tomorrow.

It will be nice to be back in the groove tomorrow with our regular routine. Scott has another two weeks at home before heading back to work. In the Lord's perfect timing, He worked it out MONTHS ago for Scott to have these weeks off. He finished up his Meridian training on the Friday before the surgery. Delta will give him another two weeks off between his active duty time and coming back full time with Delta.

We are soooooooooooooo grateful to have this behind us. God is so good and so faithful. He has absolutely sustained us during these difficult days. We are overwhelmed with gratitude...