Nolan's first couple of weeks

Nolan passed every test with flying colors. Overall, he was super healthy. One thing was keeping him in the NICU....eating. Or lack thereof. He just wasn't into it. They kept telling us- "he will just get it". That's all great when you don't have 3 other kids at home a half hour away from the hospital.

We are so blessed with family that drops everything and comes to help us.  My mother-in-law drove up the day that Nolan was born and stayed with the kids the first week. My gram came up to relieve her and stayed for the next 4 days. After that, we were on our own. Thankfully, Ryan's company was very understanding as well.  We spent the next week coming and going. I slept at the hospital every night, except when I had strep and pink eye. Ugh. I would do the 5 a.m. feeding and then head home so that Ryan could go to work. He would get home around 4 and we would eat as a (nearly whole) family before I would drive back up to the hospital for the night.  We were nearing the day when Ryan had to leave for 10 days on a business trip. We were ONLY in the hospital because he wasn't eating enough by mouth. We asked for a team meeting to get a plan of action together. And boy did we get an action plan! There we sat, with 8 professionals looking at us, as our 3 other kids played around us. The Neo basically told us that he trusted us and that he would send Nolan home with his feeding tube to be monitored by our fab family physician.  So, the next day, we sprung him from the joint at 2 weeks and 4 days old. 
That first day home was crazy town! The family doc came over to meet our little man. How amazing is that?! Forever grateful to have Dr. W in our lives. 
 Then the home nurse came and taught me how to use the ng tube. Well, I kinda already knew from watching the nurses but she watched as I did the first one and calmed my nerves about the situation. I was ner.vous.
It was killing me while he was in the hospital to not be able to take his newborn photos.  I quickly took care of that situation. I wanted to capture his tube and that sensitive time in our life. Boy did I capture it. This photo makes my heart melt into a million tiny pieces.  I finally had my full and complete family under one roof. I was one happy, exhausted momma.