There's no place like home, there's no place like home...

We're home! We came home on Tuesday afternoon. Monday night we were able to stay at the hospital and "room in". They have all NICU babies stay with Mom and Dad overnight the night before they come home. It's a test run to make sure you're comfortable with dealing with baby all alone. (The preemie mom's have it much tougher with some going home on monitors and oxygen to manage - not to mention they are like 4 lbs!) We were grateful to get the test run. Even though we have done the newborn thing, it's a little scary when you are so use to the close monitoring all the time. My mom asked if it was a test, what if we failed? Who would get Dylan!?! I said she could try and fly here and beat Chris to the punch, but it would be an ugly fight. :) I also told her there were some nurses in the NICU that kind of took a liking to him. I pictured them keeping him like the cat at a vets office. Just have him be the little NICU child. HA!
Since we passed with flying colors, off we went back to Pittsburg. We had a car full of stuff we'd accumulated over the week and a "It's a Boy" balloon in the front seat. (I rode in the back to keep an eye on Dylan.) :) Zach came home later in the afternoon to meet his baby brother. He was thrilled and has been such a good big brother so far. All night he kept going over to the bassinet to check on Dylan if he made any little noise. He'd say, "Don't cry baby, it ok." He has quite the heart.
Dylan is doing fabulous. We are all hanging in there and adjusting to life with a newborn and a 2 1/2 year old. The only problem we're having is that Dylan still doesn't cry. The doctor looked at me like I was crazy when I asked about this at the hospital. His first response was, "Maybe he hasn't had anything to cry about. We take pretty good care of him. I'm sure I could make him cry." So I didn't worry too much more about it, but mentioned it to his nurses so they could tell me if they heard him cry. One nurse, Rachel, went with him to his circumcision. We thought for sure she'd hear him cry. He didn't. So when the doctor was dismissing him, she mentioned it to him. Dr. Topper tried to make him cry by pinching etc and no cry. He did note it on his chart. We'll follow up at 6 months to see if anything is still wrong. He thinks it's from the intubation and that his vocal chords are just irritated. The important things like breathing, swallowing properly, etc are fine so it just may be some mild irritation.
Now, you might think, who cares if he can't cry, it's nice to have a baby not cry. Actually, it makes you quite crazy. How do you know when to feed him in the middle of the night if he's not crying? How are you sure that his older brother hasn't thrown a toy in the bassinet and hit him in the head if you don't hear a cry? Just because he can't cry, doesn't me he doesn't need me. I find myself checking on him a lot more than I would have with Zach. Any little grunt/noise, I have to check his face to make sure he's not really uncomfortable. I'm starting to learn his grunts too. I'm hoping this will clear up in a couple of weeks. We'll see.
On top of all this chaos, Craig went to Urgent Care today because he has a kidney stone. Really?!!? This is not the best timing for this. He had one in the past and it was pretty painful. They compare it to childbirth. Ironic, huh?!?! He does have some pain meds to help until he can pass it, but he's pretty uncomfortable right now and not able to do a whole lot around the house. Luckily, I'm recovering nicely and feeling a little more like myself.

I will try and post some pics of Zach and Dylan. They are pretty cute together, if I do say so myself.
***For those of you who know how much I love the Wizard of Oz and now living in Kansas, of course that would be the title of my post! :)