As everything with Matthew has been, it was a rollercoaster ride to get him home. The Thursday before we came home there was a doctor in rounds that I had never seen before. I lovingly refer to him as Hero Doctor, as I never caught his name and didn't see him again. He is the one who said Matthew doesn't need to be in a hospital, and that we could go home with the NG tube (feeding tube in his nose). The other doctors agreed and said we could go home as early as Monday! It was one of the happiest moments of my life! All of the stress about bottles and hospitals melted away.
J.P. and the boys came up Thursday night so J.P. could be there for rounds on Friday. I stayed with the boys while J.P. went to the hospital Friday morning. He texted me later to say that Hero Doctor wasn't there and the plan had changed. They wanted Matthew to get a G tube (surgically inserted feeding tube) before going home. They wanted to see how he did with bottles over the weekend and then make a final decision on Monday. That meant there was no way we were going home on Monday, and all the stress about eating came right back.
J.P. and I felt caught in the middle of a doctor debate about the safety of sending a baby home with an NG tube. The major risk is that the tube is not placed correctly and then the baby aspirates while being tube fed. This can be deadly and is not something to be taken lightly. However, there are ways to double-check that it is in the correct place. The pros of the NG tube are that it is very easily removed- you literally just take it out. On the other hand, the G tube has its pros and cons as well. The major plus side of the G tube is that there is almost no risk of user error. The downside is that is required another surgery and it is slightly harder to remove when it is no longer needed. We picked the brains of the nurse practitioner and our nurses over the weekend. We went back and forth on what we thought was best for Matthew. Ultimately, we both agreed that we weren't ready to sign Matthew up for another surgery if it wasn't absolutely necessary. J.P. and I were willing to take every precaution to make sure the NG tube is used properly, even if that means having to take Matthew to get an x-ray to check placement if we aren't 100% certain it is in the right place. And if he still isn't eating all his bottles in two weeks when we come back for his checkup, we will have a G tube put in then. Our team of doctors begrudgingly agreed and said we could go home the next day!
Tuesday was one of the longest days of our lives. We got to spend the night with Matthew in a parent room in the NICU on Monday night. They have parents do this to make sure they are comfortable with all the care that comes along with bringing home a baby who has special equipment. Matthew has oxygen and the NG feeding tube. Spending our first night with Matthew was wonderful, but we definitely felt the first little pangs of sleep deprivation. J.P. headed back to our Kansas City house in the morning to pack up the car and make sure the house was ready to be turned back over to its owner. We had NO idea how much stuff we had accumulated in two months! We filled up both of J.P.'s parents' cars on Monday when they took the big boys home, and then had our car stuffed to the brim. There was barely room for Baby Matthew and all of his hospital loot in there.
We survived the four hour car ride and our first tube-feeding mishap on the way home. Matthew was not a big fan of the car ride, but as long as we kept going faster than 60 mph he was happy. He has a need for speed! We stopped in Joplin to feed Matthew. He ate about half of his bottle and I hooked up his tube feed in the back seat so we could get back on the road. When his pump beeped at me to tell me his feeding was complete I went to unhook it and realized that it had come unhooked and leaked ALL over his carseat. I just fed his carseat half a bottle! This parenting thing was all on us now. No nurses around to help! We got Matthew all fixed up and finally made it home around 8:30pm.
It felt SO amazing to be home! Happy tears galore. But with that also came an overwhelming feeling of "Oh my gosh, now we have to take care of Baby Matthew and all the other boys too!" J.P. reminded me to take a deep breath and enjoy just being home. Before I went to bed, I walked into each boys room and kissed them goodnight. It was everything I had been dreaming of for so long. All seven Szafranskis, under the same roof, finally!
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