Bringing Home Baby

After 76 excruciatingly long days spent in the NICU, Layla was finally ready to come home. Tipping the scale at 3 pounds 7 ounces, I was still terrified to break her! I asked them if they were sure about a million times, because God knows I wasn't! haha She has to be the smallest baby to ever come home. Seriously. Is there a record for that somewhere? Poor baby's car seat swallows her whole!


Britax B-Safe Car Seat
JJ Cole Car Seat Cover

When you have a baby in the NICU and it's drilled into your head about cleanliness and washing your hands and hand sanitizing and sterilizing everything and staying indoors...it becomes a little surreal that taking this fragile little baby home only requires a few signatures and the snip of a band.

It kind of sucked because I had been looking so forward to that "mommy moment" of carrying your baby out of the hospital as everyone smiles at you and congratulates you...After watching countless mommies leave with their babies over the last 76 days, I wanted that. A part of me NEEDED that moment. It might be small and stupid, but after missing out on a lot of pregnancy moments, this moment kind of meant something to me. Instead, the nurse carried her out and it was insult to injury when a passerby congratulated HER on her new baby. :( And she said thank you. It was all very awkward.

When we got home and took her out of her car seat, we kind of just sat there. I think we both got that new parent feeling of "What the hell do we do now?" It's only been a month and I think I still have that feeling. haha

I'm not sure if it's a "preemie thing" or not, but Layla has a home nurse visit her 1-2 times a week to check her weight and eating habits and things like that. She's gained almost a whole pound since being home and I'm so proud of her. She has always been a slow grower, even when I was pregnant with her. As of today, she weighs 4 pounds 3 ounces and 17 inches long, and she's worked so hard for every bit of that! I love so much having her home and getting to see how much she changes each and everyday. Being a mom, being her mom, makes me happier than I have ever been.