Closer to Home

Two nights ago, the 18th at 9:15pm, Wyatt took a stand. He pulled out his feeding tube for the last time. Since he had pulled it out and had been eating well the nurse asked for the doctor's permission to leave it out and see if he could do without it. He has been doing great ever since. He was still struggling a bit with his oxygen saturations so they decided to let him start "demand feeding." Their thinking behind this was that he would eat more and breath better if he decided when he was awake enough to eat. It has worked really well. His oxygen level has fallen a few times since then but has been of his oxygen since yesterday at 8am.
He is doing so well that they have started talking about the things we need to do before we head home. We took the CPR class today, went over almost all of the discharge papers (they show us how to take care of the baby on our own), brought the car seat in to make sure it hadn't been recalled and tomorrow he will take his car seat test. He has to sit in the car seat for a little over 2 hours and keep all his vitals strong. They do this to be sure that if something goes wrong he will be able to stay alive for the trip all the way home and back again. This is the only NICU nearby so this is where he would come back if need be.
They have started talking "care by parent" which means that I will get to move into a little room by the NICU and practice taking care of Wyatt without them for 24-48 hours, depending on how well he does. I am hoping to do that tomorrow and be home before the weekend is out...but if not I will still be okay. But, oh to be home, what unspeakable joy!
Tonight he is taking a 12 hour apnea test to make sure that he is breathing well at all times. If the test doesn't go well they will send us home with an apnea machine. I hope he does well, but part of me would like the safety of the machine. I always worry about my babies when I lay them down to sleep. I lie in bed wondering  if they are still breathing and that was with healthy full term babies. So I imagine this will be harder to not worry about. God has taken care of him so far so I'll have to trust Him to keep him breathing if that is His plan. OR I could just keep him strapped to me at all times...
Have been thinking about doing that anyway to make up for all the time lost to us in the NICU. We have some serious mommy Wyatt cuddle time to make up.
I'll keep you posted, as always. Thank you so much for your prayers and support! We're almost home! After 3 1/2 months, we are almost home.