Home and Adjusting...

Zach had to have a car seat test where they put him in his car seat and hooked up to the monitors for the same amount of time it would take us to drive home. Luckily, we only live one hour away so it wasn't too long and he did great during the test! We weren't even prepared for him to go home that day. They had said that probably Monday, maybe Sunday he would be released. So when everyone got there on Saturday and they said he could go home, we were surprised. Dad and Carlos had to hunt down a store to buy another car seat because they didn't even bring ours with them. It was crazy! So after packing up everything (it's amazing how much you can accumulate, even in the hospital), they let us go!

Here is a very tired dad with our other two boys shortly after we got home. It was fun to see how much they already loved him.

For the most part, it was just like taking care of a regular newborn. Except that he couldn't sleep on his back. That made me really nervous because we are told so much that babies should be put on their backs to sleep. We still had to put his diapers on backwards and use the plastic flap to keep his incision clean. We had to constantly be aware of his shunt and if he was having in signs of shunt failure. I remember that a few days after being home, he projectile vomited, which is one of the things we're supposed to look out for, and I freaked out. I brought him up to my mom and started crying because I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to tell when something was wrong. She comforted me, saying that I would know. He was okay but it was so worrisome.

He also had a lot of doctors visits, to have stitches removed, to check head circumfrence, to check weight and to check his shunt (a couple of other times it was being wierd). These were all on top of the regular well-baby check-ups. We were pretty tuckered out!

He has been such a good baby and I feel a lot of strength from him. I know that he has a lot to teach us and that he will be an example to everyone.