Bringing Our Daughter 'Home'

On Friday, November 23 we started the morning by going to see Esther in the nursery.  The doctor we saw on Wednesday was also there on Friday.  This doctor's husband's family lives in the  Portland area so we had made a good connection with her.  

We signed papers with Meg from our agency at the same time the birth family was signing papers.  

Then we had to wait for a nurse to be available to discharge us so we could bring Esther home (or at least to our hotel home).  Esther's Friday day nurse was saying she was busy and had two feedings and an admittance before she was going to discharge.  Esther's doctor overheard this and wanted us to be able to be discharged quickly so she found the nurse supervisor to do the discharge papers.  The nurse supervisor was awesome!      

with our discharge nurse

with Susan from ACF (the hospital discharges to the agency and then we get the baby) 

(Meg would have normally been with us during discharge, but she had been sick)

Esther leaving the hospital with Mommy and Daddy!

Pops had his white balance off for the first  couple pictures (but he quickly noticed) the pictures have a blue tint (but that is something he can fix once we get home). 

  

 

Back at the hotel...a family of 4!

 

Isaiah plays a game with Daddy where he runs up and gives hugs.  It was so good to be together as a family!

Esther got to talk to her Aunt Elise- she loves her!

We took Esther out to dinner at Shakey's Pizza...I think she loved the experience.  She slept through it.

 It was a long, full day for our family!  

We are so blessed to have two beautiful children.

Thanksgiving in the Hospital...Esther is 2 Days old!

The hospital got pretty empty on Thanksgiving day.  All the mom's wanted to get discharged early so they could take their babies home for the holiday.  Our day nurse from the day before was working again and was our nurse (praise the Lord)!  She let us have the private room again...which was so nice!

We enjoyed a quiet morning with our sweet baby girl! 

Nonna and Pops bought Esther some more newborn pj's.  She likes them, except even the newborn clothes are a little big on her.

Around lunch time Nonna, Pops, and Isaiah came for a short visit.  Travis bought the hospital Thanksgiving lunch/dinner box from the cafeteria for $8.  He said it was pretty good.  Since I am not a huge Thanksgiving food fan I was fine with food we had at the hotel that Nonna and Pops brought to me.  

We stayed at the hospital all day.  Nonna and Pops entertained Isaiah for the rest of the day. They also brought us McDonald's chicken sandwiches for dinner.  We made sure to give our baby girl lots and lots of snuggles on this special Thanksgiving day!

This was our last evening of having to say goodnight to Esther and then leave her in the hospital nursery.