NICU Day 113 ~ (March 29th)

~Surprised.  Excited.  Overwhelmed.  Thrilled.  Thankful.~

~Still in her "big girl" crib~

These are some of the words which describe the gamut of emotions today as we heard the new care plan developed by our medical team: NOELLE IS COMING HOME!!!!!  She has basically reached all of the necessary benchmarks, and they have decided that they can do the biopsy as an outpatient procedure in a few weeks after she has put on some more weight.  The current plan is for her to be discharged on Monday if all goes well over the weekend.  The first few weeks will be busy with the adjustment and doctors' appointments, but we are absolutely thrilled to be bringing our baby girl home with us.  Words simply cannot describe the emotions after such a long journey, but we have a new family in the NICU which we will greatly miss and look forward to visiting them as often as possible.  We cannot even begin to communicate the love and gratitude in our hearts for this incredible group of people who have made this day possible for our little family, and we are excited for the day when Noelle will be old enough to begin understanding who these people are and the impact they have made on her life.  God was incredibly gracious to us in placing us where He did throughout this process, and we are so grateful to Him for His incredibly loving care in our lives.  

Noelle still had a busy day today as we began to prepare for her discharge.  She had an MRI on her spinal cord to evaluate her tethered cord {we will receive results later, and it will probably need to be monitored for some time and possibly will require surgery}.  

~Preparing to go downstairs for her MRI with Aunt Donna~

She also received her "2 month" immunizations which made her really cry and broke my heart AND her Aunt Donna's heart.  Donna was her nurse today and even had a different nurse administer the shots so she would not have to be the "big bad meanie!"  

~Daddy enjoying some of the benefits of the open crib~

We still have a few other procedures to complete and some logistical things to sort, but we are on the fast track, and I know this weekend will fly by as we prepare what we can for her to live at home with us.  From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your persistent, continued prayers before the throne of grace.  We look forward to sharing "the countdown" with you!!!