5-4 to 5-9

The beginning of May was a roller coaster. We went from hearing that Riya will be discharged no earlier than 35 weeks (Sunday, May 10) to she's fabulous and will be discharged on Thursday. Our emotions and house project planning have been all over the board.

Let's go back in time to the very distant past of Monday, May 4. A new attending started her 3 week rotation and just happens to be the head of the neonatal unit. The nurse practitioner starts giving report about Riya and Dr. Khan pauses, rifles though her progress notes and is completely amazed that Riya is the same 29-weeker that she met about 5 weeks ago. She hears how well Riya is doing, implying that it's basically unparalleled, and says that we're out the door in 4 days so long as Riya gains weight on unfortified breast milk.

Kirk and I were blown away and a little intimidated. Between Jaisal, work and hospital visits we were exhausted and our home was not ready for Riya. What was already a mad scramble of errands became even more chaotic. A friend said don't worry, as long as you have a car seat, diapers, clothes, and a place for her to sleep you'll be fine. WE HAD NONE OF THOSE! (Okay fine, the car seat was delivered at my parents, we had gotten our cloth diapers but hadn't washed them or figured out sizing with a tiny girl, had a few clothes with more being handed down, and plans to borrow a co-sleeper, but it still all had to get pulled together!)

That evening a nurse told us that we could move discharge to Friday since Riya wouldn't start drinking unfortified milk until the next day. Okay, so discharge is now a day later.

We're all set for Friday. I tell my boss and co-workers,"Ha ha remember when I said I was likely back for 4 weeks? Actually I'm out of here at the end of the week." I have to give them credit for how flexible and patient they were. I was freaking out at being back for such a short time. 

Then Kirk goes into the hospital on Tuesday evening and we learn that Riya had a bradycardia episode. What? In our minds she'd never had one before (although we learned she did have one on April 22 that we'd never heard about). The hospital policy is that after a brady, the patient has to be brady-free for 5 days before discharge. Now discharge was back to Sunday, May 10, unless Riya started having bradys. AHHH! We had no idea what to expect.

Thankfully, the next 5 days passed with no events and our little girl was scheduled to come home on the evening of May 10, Mother's Day. And it just gave us enough time to finish the major parts of the overhaul to fit Riya into our home. 

We threw away or donated approximately 10 garbage bags full of items. We also transferred all of our outdoor gear to an off-site storage unit and reorganized our bedroom to let Riya sleep in there. Ideally we would have moved to a bigger place before Riya was born, but the housing market is crazy in Chicago right now. We've put in offers on 5 places, 2 of them over asking, and still get beat out on each place. So for now, we'll hold tight in our current place and learn to live in a cozy space. Thankfully Riya is teeny tiny and can fit just about anywhere. :)