What a Wonderful World!

Hey peeps! I write to you tonite with a heart so full of happiness, it might just bust. Our sweet boy came home today! Jr. passed his car seat test with flying colors on Saturday, so we waited for word from the doc this morning whether Sam would be sprung today or Monday. When I called in for the morning update and got the news, I was stunned. He's coming home? Seriously?? We sprung into action, putting the finishing touches on the casa, got the hoopty washed and headed to the hospital. We were so excited. Giddy even! It didn't seem real that we were going to bring our boy home.

We arrived to find Jr. hungry and poopy. I changed his diaper then removed all his leads. Wireless, baby! I handed him to Steve to feed and found myself still making accommodations for all the wires. Steve had to remind me they weren't there. Oh yeah. It felt so strange. Anyhoo, we got him fed, dressed him up in the Team Martz uniform and got him set in his car seat. We said our goodbyes to the nurses in the intermediate care nursery and signed out for the last time. Woooo hooooo!

We headed up to the NICU to say goodbye to Bridget, Sam's first primary nurse. She was all smiles and hugs for Sam. We also saw nurse, Caroline Lamont. For those of you that know my parents, yes, that's her name! She always calls Sam Lamont. I told her it was quite alright, as I'm sure my Dad would too :) Oh! The other night, I ran into one of Sam's primary nurses in the NICU on the night shift, Alice. She was in the delivery room when Sam was born, so she holds a special place in our hearts. She was transporting a baby to the step down nursery when I was on my way out for the night, so I was able to get a picture of her with Sam when she was finished up. Seeing her really reminded me of the early days with Sam when he was so tiny and fragile and we weren't sure he'd make it. How things have changed. Our little man has come a long way.

During the past few months, we've become close to 3 families all fighting the good fight for their babies. You may remember me mentioning Sinthia, Sonny and Santiago before. Santiago and Sam were partners in crime in all kinds of shenanigans in the NICU. The innocent bystander was Nanu, daughter of Narayani and Karthik. She was the 3rd of the 3 Amigos. We have been there for each other during some of the scariest times of our lives and have loved and supported each other through it all. Well, we headed out the front entrance of Packard, Steve was off to get the car and who's moseying in? Narayani, Karthik and Naryani's parents who have been visiting from India since Nanu made her appearance. We embraced and squealed excitedly. It was plain to see they were as thrilled as we were that Sam was being sprung.

A couple minutes later, I spotted Sinthia walking up the driveway. Steve pulled the car up and couldn't believe it! He thought I had orchestrated the whole thing, but I didn't. Everything just cosmically aligned to create the perfect send off for Sam. We were always trying to visit each other between procedures, feedings and pumpings and it was HARD, so we couldn't have planned this perfect moment if we'd tried. It made Sam's farewell to Packard that much sweeter to have these wonderful friends with us who have been with Jr. from the start. I'm smiling right now thinking about it.

Funny, it felt like we were on a covert mission, sneaking Sam out. I was half expecting someone yell out, "You, with that baby! STOP!!", but we passed the exit gate without incident. Our journey had begun. We'd be home in 10 minutes.

We arrived home to find Auntie Maggie and Uncle Frank waiting for us. They filmed us coming in to mark the occasion and took lots of pics. We then proceeded to do what we do best. We had a little wine, cheese and tasty treats on the patio with Sam! He was perfectly behaved and oh so comfy with Maggie, who's given Jr. the moniker Snugglepants. LOL! Love it!

Thank you so much to every single one of you that lent love and support these past 3 months. It meant more to us than we can ever express. We look forward to sharing the joy of raising our son with you all.

I'm sitting here watching my boys snooze. And snore. It is indeed a wonderful world :) This is our favorite lullaby as of late. I heard it awhile ago and it brought me to tears thinking how much wonderful our world is with Sam in it. Nite nite all.

Surgery Update

We are happy to report Sam did very well! The surgery went off without a hitch. He was intubated for the procedure, but came out of the anesthesia so well, the tube was taken out and he breathed on his own in stellar fashion. Downside is he was in some pain and would cry in this plaintive, whiny sounding way that broke our hearts. We took turns just holding him until well after 12:30. It really seemed to comfort him. The nurse sent us home when it was evident we were struggling to stay awake. We hated leaving him, but felt better that he ate small amounts twice before we left. I just checked in with the night nurse and he's now close to being up to full feeding again. He also seems to be less irritable. Way to go, Sam!

Btw, Sam is back in the NICU as a precaution, but should be back in the step down nursery this afternoon since he's doing so well.

Thank you all SO MUCH for all the texts, emails and phone calls of support. I just know Sam was feelin' the love!

We Are Team Martz!

This week has been good and bad. Sam failed his car seat test AGAIN. :::sigh::: He made it 15 minutes without a desat the first time. This time, 20 minutes. Man! We could tell his reflux was kicking in, then the desat came shortly thereafter. The doc thinks it's positional, as the car seat is compressing his gut. We will try some positional aids to help him achieve success next time. But first.....

Sam is having his hernia surgery today at 4pm, so keep him in your thoughts. It should be a pretty quick procedure. He'll most likely be back upstairs in the NICU for a day or two to recover, then we can focus on busting him outta the joint again.

Steve and I celebrated our first anniversary on Sunday! What a great day it was. We had a fantastic brunch at the Village Pub, the site of our wedding reception. It was fun to reminisce about the day and how wonderful everything turned out. I wish we could do it all again :)

There was a family at the next table celebrating grandma's 70th birthday. They'd brought a cake that had 70 freakin' candles on top of it. The staff lit 'em up and brought it out. It was a complete fire ball. If the waiter hadn't had short hair, he would've been up in smoke for sure. Amazingly, grandma was able to blow them all out in one shot.

The plan after brunch was to see Cowboys and Aliens. We know our movie-going opportunities will be slim in the future. However, we were missing our boy and headed straight to the hospital. We had bath time, which has become one of our favorites. I'm really getting the hang of it and not feeling quite as clumsy bathing him these days. Again, I was thankful I was getting to practice before going it alone at home. Steve has become a most excellent bath time assistant. I don't know what I'm going to do when he's back at work and I'm trying to do it on my own! Unless Jr. is particularly funky, maybe bath time should always be a job for Mommy AND Daddy.

Afterwards, we went home and had the top layer of our wedding cake. I was VERY excited, since our best man, Erik ate mine (BOTH PIECES!!) at the wedding. Thanks dude! LOL! The cake had been in the freezer for a year. Guess what? It tasted like it had been in the freezer for a year. BLEH! We should've wrapped it up better. Such a shame. I snipped some herbs from our garden to decorate it like it was a year ago. It was so pretty! Steve tried to power through and eat a whole piece. I threw in the towel after the 2nd bite. I assured him I believed he would still hold our anniversary date sacred even if he didn't finish the cake. He was glad I let him off the hook. He looked like he was 2 seconds from hurling. We washed the wretched cake down with the 1959 Calvados I got Steve as a wedding gift. Now, THAT, was divine. Smooooove.

We reflected on what a fantastic year Team Martz has had and all we've accomplished. We celebrated our wonderful son and dreamed about all the next year would bring. We can't wait :)

I'll leave you with a little Bill Withers, Ain't No Sunshine, our wedding song. Hope ya'll are having a great week! Send healing vibes to Jr.!

100 Days

Today marks 100 days since Sam made his debut. Feels like a mighty loooooong time.

We were hoping our little man was going to make it home this weekend. Unfortunately, 2 things popped up. First, Jr. has a hernia that will require surgical repair. It'll be done as soon as he can be fit into the schedule. It's not considered urgent and it's common in preemies (how many times have we heard that??), especially in boys.

Second, Sam failed his car seat test today!!! Totally unexpected, he's been doing so great. He has to be in the car seat for 90 minutes without having a desat. Completely caught us off guard. We really thought he was coming home tomorrow. So, we wait some more. Obviously, we want him home with us, but we want to make sure he's ready. Poor kid. It's like he's run a freakin' marathon, the finish line is finally in sight, then someone trips him. :::sigh::: No fair!

On a positive note, there have been some great achievments this past week! Jr's MRI came back clear. YAY! Also, the vessels in his eyes are finally mature and he has no disease. If he has to wear glasses down the line, it won't be because he was a micro preemie. Those eye exams were terrible, so I'm ecstatic he won't have to endure another. Again, YAY! Oh, wait! He also passed his hearing test! Way to go, my boy!

Speaking of hearing, I wonder how much of ours we will lose now that Sam has learned to SCREAM so well. Seriously. I was like, "Wow. Your lungs are FINE." The other day, I arrived in the morning to find Sam in one of his favorite joints, the swing. He was sound asleep. Then he woke with a full on scream. There was no working up to it. No gentle coaxing from me to wake. He simply screamed his fool head off. The really funny part is his eyes were still closed. Apparently, he wanted to use all his energy on the SCREAMING, not on opening his eyes.

Yesterday was comedic. I was trying to change Sam's diaper while he was screeching. I got his diaper off, got him cleaned up and got a new diaper under him. What does he do? He peed all over himself and hits me on the arm. I get him cleaned up again and get another diaper under him. A poop missle appears, misses the diaper and hits his bedding. Dear God, boy! I got him cleaned up AGAIN and wrapped up his butt without further incident. I fell into the chair with him and got him on my boob. I looked around and his little area looked like a tornado hit after my frenzied attempt to do something as simple as change a diaper. Oh, and did I mention he was SCREAMING the entire time all this was going on?? GAH!!! Steve heard him all the way from the front desk. What pipes he has.

There have been so many more funny, little things, but my brain is too fried to recall them at the moment. I need to start writing this stuff down right away, lest, it fall right out of my head.

We've been trying to capture Sam's smile for a while. Isn't it just so sweet? A beautiful pic to commemorate his 100th day with us. We love you, sweetheart!