Diego comes home!!

Let us begin by saying we are totally exhausted! Our night in the Rooming-in room went extremely well for Diego. As for us, we were up every 3 hrs for at least 1 hr all night. At each feeding we recorded the amount of milk he drank, weighed his dribble bibs using a digital scale to figure what he lost, changed his diaper, burped him, took his temp and put him back to sleep. It was rough but well worth the result. At 5:30 am Diego's NICU nurse came into the room to take his weight. He gained over 2 oz while under our care! Words can not express our level of happiness knowing that Diego was finally coming home! All that was left was 10 am meeting with his physical therapist. She met us in the room and taught us how to stretch Diego's contracted joints. Something we needed to do this daily to increase his range of motion. Following the PT meeting Diego was moved back into NICU and we moved out of the room and put our things in the car. We went back up to discharge Diego but were told he still needed a hearing test and his nurse was busy working with other babies. We would have to wait another hour! We decided to have a late lunch at a nearby restaurant to pass the time.

On return we parked at the main entrance reserved for patient pickup. We then made what we hoped would be a our last trip to NICU. We met his nurse 'Maria' and she went thru the discharge checklist. Finally we put him in his car seat and were escorted out the main entrance. Maria made sure his seat was securely in place, gave Romina a hug and we headed home! Finally!!

On the ride home we had to make an abrupt stop causing us to lock up the brakes to avoid hitting another car. It startled Diego and scared us pretty good. The remaining ride went well but very slow.

We finally made it home at about 6:15 pm. Diego's grandparents visiting from Milan, Italy were inside preparing dinner. We never told them he was coming home because we wanted it to be a big surprise. As we walked thru the door we were greeted first by Rocky(our Yorkie) then Diego's proud grandparents. It was a wonderful homecoming for out little boy! Life was starting to feel normal again.
We want to thank all the doctors, nurses and staff at Seton for taking such wonderful care of Diego. Special thanks to Nurse Jeannie who's care and compassion always made things a little better. Also to Nurse Davika for her wonderful support during our last night in NICU and finally to Dr. Hodges who will always have friends in Milan. Let us know when you go back to visit!