Remembering the Homecoming of Andrew

2012

It's hard to believe that it's 2012.

And today is January 7th. A normal day to everyone else. And to me, and probably me alone, it is the anniversary of the day we brought Andrew home. We didn't know it at this time 1 year ago but, when I went to visit him after work, they told me that today was the day. I was in shock. I was a bit scared and felt a twinge of uncertainty mixed with hesitancy.

He was still so small. Only a little over 6 pounds at this point. And not really any longer. Still a little dolly-like person. But he could feed by mouth around the clock and had figured out the connection between his mouth and his tummy. This amazing turn started at the beginning of the week and quickly accelerated.

The regular nurse said it is not uncommon that once they make that connection, they accelerate into feeding by mouth for every feeding. We were amazed and it turned him around completely.

I frantically called Mark and told him the good news. He grabbed an outfit, his little jumpsuit, and made arrangements for grandma to watch the boys. Meanwhile, I collected our things from Andrew's room, fed him one last time before the journey home and enjoyed my quiet, private time with our little guy. And I told him what was going on and that our house would be a lot noisier than here but that he would be with us all the time now. It felt great and overwhelming.

The task of raising 4 seemed a bit daunting. But we knew we would make it work. And tonight was going to be the first night we would have to rotate the feedings. That was one of the few perks of having him in NICU. The nurses stayed up with him at night and we got to sleep. Boy did we take advantage of that for those 3 weeks!

But the loss of sleep didn't phase us for long. We were just so glad that we would all be together. And that we would finally get to introduce the boys to their new brother in person. They had only seen some pictures of him since children under 12 are not allowed in the NICU.

So at 9:30 tonight, we proudly carried his little infant seat into our apartment and introduced him to his 2 oldest brothers. Grandma let Samuel and Alex stay up for this special occasion and they were so excited to finally meet him. And boy were they amazed. He was so small. They both told him "hi" and giggled and fidgeted around in excitement and gently kissed him on the forehead before going to bed. He was asleep at the time. And I was amazed that we finally had our little guy at home with us.

We were a complete family, as Samuel put it. And so began the next season of our life - raising 4 beautiful boys.