Just as Will did, Lindy deserves her own post.
Yesterday was her ‘special day.’ In our house, that is the day she came home from the hospital. As I said in Will’s post, we celebrate these days. They will always share a birthday so this is a day dedicated all to them.
5 years ago, December 19, 2007, Lindy FINALLY came home from the hospital. Will had been at home for 43 days and we were pretty used to having him around. Lindy was at Duke for all but one week of those 43 days. Duke is two hours from our house. While she was there, Drew and I would alternate going to Durham. While we were in Durham, we stayed with our best friends, the Bryants. It was a lifesaver to have a ‘home’ to go to each night and not a hotel room. We would go and stay 2-3 days and then drive home and switch off. When you were at home, you were a single parent to Will. That was a crash course for Drew – keeping a baby all by himself. Needless to say – we were ready to get Lindy home. We were ready to be living in the same house in the same city.
Our prayers were finally answered on December 19th. They said she was healthy enough to leave. She did have to come home on oxygen, but that was fine. We’d take her home any way we could.
Drew spent a horrible night with her on December 18th at the hospital in the worst ever ‘parent room.’ It still amazes us how bad those rooms are. There was no bed to sleep on. Most parent rooms have beds you sleep in while caring for you baby. Anyway, Lindy apparently cried most of the night and Drew didn’t sleep at all. He was more than ready to get home after that night.
Bob and Suzette headed up to our house and Suzette stayed home with Will all day while Bob drove me to Durham to get Lindy. Drew had gotten all the training on oxygen and medicines, so not soon after I got there, we were discharged! Then we had to drive 2 hours home with our baby, on oxygen. We were so nervous the whole ride.
It was so awesome to walk in the house with her and know two of our babies were home. She had overcome so much in her 143 days and it was a miracle to lay her down next to Will.
From that moment on (well actually in the NICU too) she has kept us hopping. There are no dull moments in our house. The first 3 years were full of doctors’ appointments and therapy sessions. The last few years have been full of school, appointments, and therapy. But it has all paid off and she is doing fabulously!
Lindy is the funniest thing ever. She says the craziest stuff and has the wildest imagination. I need to do a whole post on the funny things she says. Like how she calls my dad “Kenny” or “Kenny Pop” or how she has named her hands ‘Tock’ and ‘Shock’ (“I sleep with them most nights” she told her hearing teacher). She definitely adds spice to our lives!
Because she had vision therapy scheduled for the afternoon of the 19th, we had to do some of her celebrating on the 18th. We picked them up for school and she picked Chick—fil-A for lunch. We ate and then we headed to Greensboro to a bounce house. We only have Bounce U in town and it is really hard for her to do. We went to Bumper Jumpers in Greensboro and it was great. She could do all but 2 of the bounce houses all by herself and she had a blast. Well really we all had a blast! There was maybe 2 other families while we were there for 2 hours so we basically had the place to ourselves. It was wonderful!
On the 19th, she got a special treat for breakfast, got to pick her lunch – shockingly she picked crackers and dip instead of pb&j -- and then she got to bake with me that afternoon. We had her favorite chicken and green beans and bbq sauce for dinner. Last night she asked me to paint her little toes and her fingernails. She actually sat fairly still and let me paint and then did a great job waiting for them to dry. (Good thing I bought top speed polish last year!)
Here is the day(s) in pictures:
Lunch at Chick---fil-A
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