Surprise!

Well, we got back to the Ronald McDonald House at about 5 pm yesterday (thurs.) - WITH OUR BABY GIRL!!! Payton was discharged yesterday!!! :) Sorry for the delay in letting you know. Aaron tried to post yesterday morning and couldn't get the sight to work. The rest of the day was packed from there.

We made a less-than-24hr. run back to Eau Claire on Tues. night so I could go to my doctor appt. on Wed. morning. Then, that afternoon we worked on getting the house ready to bring her home since we thought that would happen early next week. Well, we got a call saying that we could bring her home the next day! Short notice! We got back to Rochester at about 8pm on Wed. and stayed the night in Payton's room - we have to sleep there so the nurses can watch us feed her, etc. to make sure we'll be okay. Then yesterday was a blur of getting instructions and seeing some of her doctors.

Payton is doing really well, and mom and dad are exhausted! :) It's a lot of work to have a baby when there's no nurse there to do everything for you.:) They sent us home with an IV pump to slowly pump milk to her stomach to feed her. We're still working on getting her stomach "stretched", and they also sent us home with a "pulse-ox" monitor (heart rate and oxygenation) which I'm very grateful for. This way we can tell if she's not getting enough oxygen or dropping her heart rate. So far so good though! We're also still at the Ronald McDonald house. We're potentially going home tomorrow (sat.), but we won't go home until we know for sure that the home health care nurse will be able to come on Mon. to check her. The woman from her surgeon's service didn't want us to leave Rochester until we knew her home health care was all lined up. So, we're waiting to hear the confirmation on that.

We're so grateful to have her out of the hospital. We knew there were no guarantees when all of this started and feel incredibly grateful to have her and to see the ways the Lord has taken care of her. I unhooked her monitors yesterday before we left the hospital and just cried I was so happy that she was able to leave. She's a really sweet baby as we're finally able to see more of her personality. She's sleeping through the night (she doesn't really wake up when we feed her with her G-tube), and she's been more awake today - so glad she doesn't have her days and nights mixed up! She doesn't cry unless she's uncomfortable and seems pretty content most of the time.

Thank you so much for praying for her - it was prayer that got her out of the hospital. This journey with her isn't done, but we're so grateful that, at the moment, she's doing really well. Those of you that have called or emailed, we apologize for not getting back to you - it's been a very full few days. And at this point we're like any other new parents - just trying to figure out what this whole parenting this is about on little sleep! :) We love and miss you and are so excited to come home! Again, THANK YOU for your prayers! We'll get some recent pictures of her up soon.
MUCH LOVE!!! Aaron, Heather, and Payton - all together :)