What's This You Say?

I hear that after all this fun sun-tanning and hanging out in the air lounge, I have to go home? Can I keep these cool shades?

That's right Ava. As it stands right now, we'll be taking Ava home tomorrow afternoon from the NICU, after a long and arduous first week as parents. While we have heard the old adage "your life will never be the same again", we didn't exactly envision these set of events as the type of change we were anticipating. Nevertheless, we couldn't be more thrilled and excited to finally be bringing Ava home with us, happy and healthy.

Ava isn't completely off the hook yet though. Yesterday the NICU doctors challenged her pulmonary system by removing the supplemental oxygen, and her saturation once again was lower than ideal. This being the case, the team is taking the precautionary measure to have her on supplemental oxygen for approximately the next 4 weeks, until her pulmonary drive becomes more robust, and/or the slight subdural hematoma responsible, is resorbed fully. It is our hope, and the NICU team's feeling, that after 4 weeks, her pulmonary system will have matured to the point where supplemental oxygen is no longer required.

As of now, all tests have come back negative for signs of infection, structural defects, or any other sort of pathology that would lend itself to a more chronic condition. So, as they say, "this to shall pass", and Ava will get on the road to becoming a self-sufficient little breather. Luckily, Chris has another week off from work to help Emily get settled at home, and we know we're overdue on getting in touch with a lot of you, so expect to hear from us in the next week as we get caught up with life.

Thanks again for all your thoughts, kind words, and prayers for Ava, we know she appreciated them, as did we. We look forward to the opportunity for all of you to finally meet her, she's cute as hell!

And yes Ava, you can keep the shades.