Matteo is Home!

Matteo is finally home. Even though we were discharged only a day after we expected, it seemed like we were in the hospital forever!

The morning after Matteo was born, we got some scary news. He had been throwing up green liquid in the nursery, which can mean something very serious is wrong with his digestive tract. The number one concern was that he had a malformed intestine, which would mean immediate surgery. Just thinking about the moment the NICU NNP came into our room and told us this makes me weepy. Fabio rushed to the NICU with Matteo and the nurse and my nurses and doctors stayed with me in my room and checked me out. I was healing as nicely as could be expected from delivering a 9 lb. 5 oz. baby, so I got dressed and they wheeled me down to the NICU. To make a long story short, as soon as they got to the NICU, they alleviated our fears to an extent because the x-ray they did looked normal and after the doctor stuck his finger up Matteo's little bum, he pooped a big one. The likely culprit of the partly digested liquid that he was throwing up was this merconium (poop) plug that was blocking everything else from going through. That said, Matteo was now admitted to the NICU, so they wanted to run a series of tests to rule out anything for sure. It was a long day of tests, poking, prodding, screaming and frustrated parents. That, coupled with the circumcision, was about to put Fabio and me over the edge. Our poor baby boy was sure enduring a lot in his first 48 hours! As time went on, Matteo continued to eat lots and poop lots and the doctors and nurses were convinced from this and subsequent x-rays, that the green vomit was just a false alarm. Sheesh. I wish there had been an easier, less stressful was to figure that out!

We are home now, and our angel is truly the cutest baby on the planet. Looking at pictures of him, I realize he is a serious chunk, but in person, he doesn't seem as big. Besides that, he has this sweet little presence that just makes you melt. He is by no means a perfect baby. He kept up us last night until about 2am, but we are learning his quirks and we realized after about 3 hours of fussiness that he was hungry. We were sticking to the regular schedule the NICU kept him on (2 oz. every 4 hours), but that just wasn't enough! Now, I feel like, "Duh!" but last night it just wasn't so obvious. For the most part, he is a good sleeper and eater and pooper and we are so in love with him.

We snapped a few photos last night. Don't mind us. We didn't get dressed up for the occasion.

I put these pictures on facebook, but I think they're cute enough to merit being put on the blog too. :) These were taken in the NICU the night before we were discharged: