Ellie is home!

After the frustration of Friday night, Saturday morning came with a fresh perspective for all of us. Instead of an "any day now" mindset, we switched to "any week now" for Ellie's discharge from the NICU and the hospital. And wouldn't you know it? That's when Ellie turned the corner and got a whole lot stronger. 

I got to meet Sally at the hospital for the 5pm visit/feeding on Saturday night.  As we entered the NICU, I heard a baby crying. I knew instinctively that it was Ellie, even though I really had not heard her cry other than when we saw her right after she was born. Ellie was crying because she was hungry!!! And she downed an entire 60ml bottle of breast milk and was looking for more! She ended up taking another 18ml. A good sign. 

Yesterday, Sunday morning, Sally texted us this picture:

And asked us, "notice anything missing?"

Ellie's ng tube was out!!! Another very good sign. 

Sally and Matt went back to the hospital at noon. The nurse asked them, "are you ready to take this girl home?"  Sally called to share the wonderful news. The best news ever! No one was really expecting Ellie to be dismissed so quickly, just like that! 

Matt and Sally took their girl home around 4 pm yesterday afternoon. We offered to come over to their house for Ellie's homecoming, but they preferred to do it quietly, just them. I think maybe they had just about enough excitement and drama to last them awhile. 

Welcome home, Ellie!