The Best Surprise

I think I mentioned before how amazing every single nurse and doctor has been here at INOVA Fairfax hospital, but today they really went above and beyond. Bill and I went down to the NICU this morning around 9:30 to say good morning to our little guy, but couldn't see him because they were changing his tubes and things. So we went back to our room to shower and would go back later. While we were back in our room, the dialysis nurse came by to chat and mentioned she had seen Stephen and that you could really see his face really well today, so make sure we had our camera when we went to see him. We also got a call from Kelly, the nurse coordinator and our champion, saying she was sorry we couldn't see him earlier but that he would be ready at 11:30 for us.

So we got cleaned up, grabbed the camera, and headed back to the NICU. When we got there Kelly was there and his day nurse, Belinda, who we also love. After washing up, we were told the amazing news; we were going to get to hold Stephen. Kelly and Belinda championed for us and Dr. Lazarte agreed that we should be able to hold our son. So they made it happen. And it was the most amazing, emotional moment for Billy and I. I don't think there was a dry eye in the NICU when Belinda handed me my baby. I held him and rocked him and sang to him and told him how he would always be the most special boy in the whole wide world. And I also told him how famous he was and how many people want to meet him! I held him for about 30 minutes and then Billy got held him for awhile. Words just can not express how special that time was.

Afterwards, we learned that all our doctors and nurses were in on it; my obstetrician, the nurses, the doctors, and our social worker. They are all such fabulous people!

Here are a few pics we took from today:






































We also found out today when trying to figure out if we could donate blood for his surgery on Monday in case he needs a transfusion, that Stephen's blood type is O positive. Which means he can only get O blood type, which neither Billy or I have. Hopefully that won't affect him receiving a kidney from a family member, but I am thinking that might be w problem down the road. But, we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Up next....discharging from this bubble we have been living in for the past 3 days. We will be heading home tomorrow (Saturday) evening. So I think tomorrow will prove to be another difficult day as we are leaving the hospital, but our baby is staying.