postpone all of our Christmas celebrations until he came home. Yesterday Garrett was moved back into the peds unit once again. The only thing he still had to do, before going home, was improve his feedings so they could take the NG (feeding) tube out. Right now he has 15 minutes to drink as much of 80 mL as he can. Whatever is left, we feed him through his NG tube. Since no one in the speech department will be here to do another feeding study until next Tuesday, we were right on thinking Garrett would be here until then. But, as they were transferring Garrett, his old and new doctors approached Jared with another option. They asked if we would be interested in having Garrett go home with the NG tube still in place. To do this, we
both would have to learn how to insert it, listen to make sure it was in place before each feeding, and everything else that goes with taking care of an NG tube. Then came the kicker, if we did this Garrett could go home on Christmas Eve (today)- that's all we needed to hear to be completely on board. We made arrangements for Tori and Prince and then Jared and I both stayed with Garrett last night.
I have to admit, I was really worried about how well our NG tube training would go. But it ended up being much easier than either one of us was anticipating. We both inserted his NG tube on the first try and got the placement perfect. It was a lot more ambiguous listening to make sure it was in the right place. We have to push a little bit of air through his NG tube and then listen with a stethoscope to make sure we can hear the air in his stomach. Luckily, our nurse last night was awesome and helped us know exactly what we were listening for. It's still a little hard, but getting easier with each feeding!
Our little guy is so happy and handsome- even with an NG tube in!!!
Looking forward to doing this at home!
We sure accumulated a bunch of stuff in Garrett's room over the past 24 days!
We need to pull out Garrett's mobile when we get home, he loved this one!
Having Garrett sedated for almost 2 weeks, I remember looking at him and wondering if he was still there. It has been so wonderful to know that he is definitely here - and he is happy and getting more interactive every day!!!
Getting dressed to go home!
All ready to finally go home!!!
I think Garrett knew he was home! (Lovin' that smile!!!)
Today was a whirlwind of wrapping up everything at the hospital- but it was so worth it when we were able to walk out those doors with our Garrett with us!!! After being in the hospital for 24 days, our baby boy is finally home- and just in time for his first Christmas!!!
whoa that last picture he looks like Parker when he was little.
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