"I'm coming home, to the place where I belong..."

So I headed up to the hospital for Bean's noon feeding on Friday the 18th and a handful of nurses and the Peds doc on call were all huddled around his crib and passing him around. It startled me. I walked a little faster over there, and Nurse Amanda said, "Yay, mommy can hold him! He's fussy because he just got circumcised...and you know what that means?" I put my hand over my mouth and said, "He's going home soon!!!" Amanda smiled and responded with, "Yup! And that's the first real smile I've seen from you!" I said, "Well, it's the first real smile I've had in here!"

So I snuggled my poor little guy, fed him, and got my orders for taking him home. They would release him if I could get a Monday appointment with his pediatrician. I rushed right home, called B from the car to tell him the good news, came home and filled out the paperwork, then went directly to the pediatrician to schedule an appointment. Let me just say that the ladies at Chesapeake Pediatrics were awesome and did everything they could to help me out. We scheduled Caleb's appointment and I headed home to clean up and get ready for his homecoming.

For moms who have a baby that stays in the nursery for a while, Leigh offers what they call a "courtesy stay" the night before the baby comes home. Basically, it's like staying in a hotel; they give you a leftover room and you're on your own for food and toiletries, but they will check in on you to make sure you're doing well with the baby staying in your room. It's sort of like a step-down transition for mom and baby. They couldn't guarantee me a room when I was at the hospital (it's a full moon; they were crazy crowded!) but said they'd call by 8. I told them I didn't care either way; we'd be ready to stay but as long as Caleb was all ours on Saturday, it didn't matter.

I got a call at 6:30, just as B was putting the car seat in his truck. I've never been more excited to stay in a hospital!

B holds Caleb on his last night in an ugly hospital blanket!

I may be staying in the hospital, but I was all grins that night!

It's the last night we'll ever have to use our Parent Bracelets to see our son!

We made it through the night. Nurse Lyn, who seems to have worked most of the nights we visited Caleb, was his nurse for the last night. She took him for his car seat test and I finished the thank you notes for the church ladies. He was supposed to come back to me by 11:30, but at 12:15am I went to the nursery looking for him. I quickly saw why he hadn't come back--there were 14 other babies in there! Yipes! Nurse Lyn said, "Sorry, we got a little busy." No worries, I took little man to my room myself. She still came in with a bottle every 3 hours to check on us and get his vitals.

In the morning, I had a doctor come in to ask how I was feeling after my c-section...and I had to inform him (at 6am) that he was in the wrong room. He apologized and said, "Congratulations anyway!" Housekeeping also came in (6:30) to clean up the empty room. Not empty yet, sorry! I gave up sleeping and got up and got dressed. The 7:30 nurse came in to check him, at 8:30 the new nurses came in to tell me how discharge would go, and at 9:30 the Peds on call came in to give me my orders. And then...

We got dressed and packed up to go!!! He's swimming in his little outfit, lol...

We got ready and texted Daddy "Come get us, DAD!!!" Our sweet nurses, Jenn and Heather, were both on that morning and came in to say goodbye. I don't know what we would have done without them. I love that during his last night, Caleb got to work with Amanda (Friday day), Lyn (Friday night), and Jenn and Heather (Saturday day)...our four faves all got to say goodbye to our Jellybean. Jenn took him for a farewell tour around the nursery once he'd gotten all dressed up. Heather came in for hugs and well wishes. Finally, after 12 days of having to visit our baby in the nursery, we were taking him home.

Ready to go! So tiny in his big ol' seat!

This ride was better than any park ride I've ever been on! Way more thrilling!

Let's GOOOOOOOOO!

We threw my stuff in the truck and I hopped in the back seat, just to be with Caleb for his first car ride. Brandon brought a little stuffed animal he had when he was a kid and put it in Caleb's seat; it is the only thing we have from B's babyhood, so it made me smile that he'd thought to grab it from the nursery and bring it on Caleb's "going home" tour. =) From the hospital, since we were already near Towne Center, we hit up the Krispy Kreme for some celebratory Hot 'N Nows (hey, it's how we do!) and finally headed home. Brandon hasn't driven that carefully since...well...ever.

Caleb and daddy's toy

His first, of many to come, Hot and Now runs =)

Finally, we were home. I've never been more thrilled to pull into my driveway!

Daddy wouldn't take him into the house until he'd had his first "official Mustang picture"

Maggie meets her little brother for the first time

Home. At last, our sweet little Jellybean was home. It was an exhausting, heart-wrenching 12 days without him. But he's home. Bring on the stinky diapers, the late night feedings. I welcome the crying and the fussypants. I'm excited about the laundry and the spit-up and the millions of bottles. It's all worth it because Caleb is finally where he belongs...

...home.