Home. Again.

We got to the Children's Hospital at 3 a.m. last Saturday morning and we came home at lunch time today. Only seven days from start to finish, and that was with an eight hour surgery tossed into the mix. Samuel is back on just 1/8 of a litre of oxygen, full feeds by mouth, with his usual ranitidine (zantac for reflux) plus tylenol and ibuprofen for pain management as he recovers.

Last night Samuel managed to do away with his NG tube. Some would assume this to be accidental but I am starting to get wise to the sneaky and troublesome ways of this boy. He also peed all over himself and his new blankets - this after I said, "now don't pee all over the place, Mommy just needs to grab this.... DOH!"

An almost-naked Sam making eyes at his nurses. Heaven help us.

There are a few challenges still - mostly in the pooping department. Poor little dude is still a bit uncomfortable as his guts get sorted out in there. The symptoms of his visual impairment are also noticably worse right now - his nystagmus is almost constant and his eyes get red and watery with fluorescent or any bright light. This is not fun to watch when we've seen such improvement at home, but we'll assume for now that it's a reaction to the stress of surgery and hospital time.

We are beyond grateful. Grateful for Sam's unimaginable strength. Grateful for the ER people who trusted us that something was not right and got on it right away. Grateful that Samuel's amazing angel Dr. Mary Brindle just happened to be on call last weekend to do his surgery. Grateful to the many, many hospital folks who came to see him, celebrate him, and love him up during our week in ICU and Unit 2. Grateful for the blessing that is our Sam and that he is home again with our other three amazing blessings.

And now he is sleeping and I would be grateful if I could nap too. I've been in high gear all week and didn't quite notice how tired I was. I came home, settled him in, fed him, put in laundry (because *everything* that touched hospital must be washed - ew), ate yummy cauliflower soup that my husband made and then... crash. It will take us a few days to bounce back but really, this is a blip on Sam's journey. Hopefully, we will be blip-free for a while now.

Back home playing with big brother Jacob.