Sam continues to shine as we work our way to freedom.  I am very hopeful we will be sent home by the end of this week, but there are no guarantees.  First, nobody has actually told me we should be home be the end of this week and second... nobody has told me we will be home by the end of this week!  I am not sure what is driving my conviction- either a desire to be free or a gut feeling I have.  Either way, Sam has to do his part if we are going to go home.

We decided to test Sam a bit today by removing his NG (feeding) tube.  The idea was to let him breastfeed or bottle feed for all of his meals.  This would have worked great had he woken up to eat.  Instead, he slept from 12 pretty much until 6.  We got him to eat a little by bottle and breast, but not enough.  So, at 6 the tube went back in.  Of course, the second it was back he latched on and ate like a champ!  Silly kid.  Maybe we tried it too soon.  Either way, he will not be coning home until that tube is out!

As we are closer and closer to getting Sam home, some people have been asking me what we need to do to get ready for Sam, and when he can have visitors.  In terms of prep, we don't really need to do much more than people bringing home a term baby.  We need to make sure the house is clean, that we have diapers, that his sleeping area is set up, etc.  The only thing I think that will be different is the amount of hand sanitizer we have in the house.  I am thinking of buying stock in a hand sanitizer manufacturer!  We need enough to be in every room in the house... and car... and purse.. etc.  As for visitors, my guess is it may be a while.  The biggest challenge we have is the fact that Sam will be going home at the start of RSV season.  While RSV can be bad for a term baby, it is very dangerous for a preemie.  We have restrictions on where we can take Sam and we will be asking people to be 110% sure they are not sick before letting them in the house.  Now, that is not to say that we will not be introducing Sam to all who want to meet him.  It is just that we will be very careful about how we do this.

Another question I have been asked is what is on Sam's holiday list.  Since we didn't throw a single thing out after Irene, we have pretty much all the gear we could need.  We are also lucky that most of the 0-3 month clothing we had was gender neutral.  If I had to come up with anything that we need... I would say newborn onesies - long sleeve; anything cute and boy that you like; diapers; donations in Sam's name to the March of Dimes who do really great work in preemie research!  Seriously, we really don't need anything.

And now, your moment of zen taken while Sam was NG tube-free:

Portrait - December 11