The story of the homecoming (with photos)

Now that I've got a little bit more time (okay, you're right, I should be working on my school work) I can post the adventure of bringing Theo home from the hospital for your reading enjoyment.

Tuesday was quite an intense day. A previous post captured the details of the story (talking the pediatrician into allowing us to keep Theo in a private room overnight to see how he did), but the behind-the-scenes stuff was far more intense than I thought it would be. As Steph described it, it was like every final exam we've ever written all folded into one night at the hospital. It was do-or-die time--would Theo come through? Stay tuned for the most dramatic rose ceremony yet!

But as you all know, he did gain weight and the pediatrician sent him home yesterday. Of course, it's one thing to say he can go home and quite another to figure that whole thing out. Let me explain.

Theo's car seat/stroller contraption is quite remarkable. Unfortunately, one needs an advanced degree in calculus and quantum physics to understand how to operate the stupid thing. We got him into the seat, and then realized that we'd have to make some adjustments to the height of the shoulder strap. Easier said than done, I tell you. Once we finally figured that out (it took 10 minutes of trying, a trip to the nurses' station, and 10 more minutes of actual doing), we finally figured out how to get Theo in.


Next came the hat (I love those little hats. Notice also the footwork):

Finally, the coup de grace, the blanket:


After that, all that was left was to get checked to make sure he was strapped in properly, and then it was time to come home! Or was it... (*cue suspense music*)

Background: after a baby is born he is tagged with two ID bracelets (wrist and ankle), and matching ID bands are given to both parents. They all have the same ID number on them, so that everyone knows who's who. Before you leave, the bracelets are checked to make sure they match. The problem was that Theo had kicked off both of his ID bracelets. So instead of putting them back on, the nurse just got him new bracelets.

Unfortunately for us, she forgot to change our bracelets, nor did she make a note of the change anywhere. So after waiting for 10 days to bring him home, we stumbled over the last hurdle: his ID bracelets didn't match ours. To add insult to injury, none of the nurses on staff knew us--it was the only shift in 10 days where nobody was working who had seen us before.

We were obviously devastated. But, much to our delight, there was in fact one nurse there who knew us (she was, in fact, the nurse who had assisted with the delivery, lo those many days ago). Where was she? Dinner break. Crap.

Anyway, they had to go find her, bring her back from her break, and ask her to verify that this was, in fact, our son. Then they let us go.

No wonder we were so tired last night. Anyway, more stories and pictures a little bit later. For now, I really do have to get some Greek done.