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.