When Is Caeli Coming Home?

When is Caeli coming home?

That seems to be the most popular question heard throughout the neighborhood, within our families as well as the church, and even ones my wife and I have inquired throughout our journey in the NICU. To answer it, we don’t know. Saturday will be the original due date yet she isn’t quite ready for that first twenty-minute ride home into Saline County. There are countless classes and other things the trio has to do before graduating from the NICU, so don’t start sizing the little CA up for a cap-and-gown just yet. Also, she will need good supportive care from the team:  mommy and daddy (obviously), the pediatrician, ophthalmologist, occupational therapists, her primary nurse, social workers, chaplains, and so forth. While we pray daily and nightly for a full recovery prior to discharge, I am aware that she may have some special needs such as supplemental oxygen.

Graduation Day from the NICU

Before coming home, a preemie must meet several basic requirements to ensure good health and fewer medical problems. Some nurseries require a minimum weight – thankfully neither UAMS nor Arkansas Children’s Hospital rely solely upon that – but most NICU staff will evaluate on different criteria:

1. Can the baby maintain body temperature in an open crib for at least 24-48 hours, depending on how premature the baby was at birth?
2. Can the baby take all feedings by bottle or breast without supplemental tube feedings?
3. Can the baby gain weight steadily?

Most preemies meet all three criteria two to four weeks before reaching their original due date. However, those infants who have had surgery, were born with malformations, or spent weeks on breathing machines and oxygen are the most likely candidates to stay beyond that date.

Bringing Caeli home is a process, not a single event. It is intended to assure the medical staff that she can survive and thrive outside the hospital, and prepares us to care for her on our own. I know ACH offers a rooming-in period that allows us a few days to take care of her on our own, so that’s quite helpful. This is also reassuring in the fact that help is just down the hall.

We have a slew of other things-to-do on our docket, not limited to:  

1. Checking medical records and insurance coverage;
2. Choosing a pediatrician and making medical appointments;
3. Learning infant CPR and receiving specialized training, such as apnea monitors and administering oxygen if she comes home with it;
4. Outfitting the Malibu and Escape with car seats; and
5. Attending discharge debriefing. ACH holds those twice a week for four hours at a time, so it is a matter of choosing which session to attend.

When we get home with Caeli, the expectation is to live quietly with few visitors for several weeks if not months. After this journey, the last place any of us want to be is back in the NICU – and we’re not going to risk that. Regardless of how long I’ve known you or your familial status, my baby’s health is paramount. Anything that endangers Caeli (ex. cigarette smoke, perfume, dirty hands, etc.) means you’re not welcome until that is rectified. To be even pickier, I strongly recommend taking a shower before holding my little girl!

I know everyone wants to meet our daughter and spoil her rotten.

I want to keep coddling my angel.

Daddy and baby stepping up our selfie game

For her health, expect us to fall off the social map for some time. You may not see us in Wal-Mart, at Mount Zion, or social functions for some weeks or months, but it doesn’t mean we do not love or appreciate you. Forgive us in advance for being aloof or ignoring you in the coming days; if you cannot accept that, then may God bless you. It’s the point where we must dissolve a friendship and move our separate ways.

Of course, we’d be doing a huge disservice to Caeli if we are unable to take care of ourselves as parents. As a reminder, just because our little superhero showed up early according to our time does not mean she was not on time. As we sit at home (one week for me, probably more for Chastity) quarantined, you can still drop a line. This is only a season. We’ll be back in due time.

One hot mama @chatnes staying #CaeliStrong at the baby shower pic.twitter.com/P0s09h3CiT

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) May 15, 2015

Other reference points or needs have been specified in earlier posts from the Dad Chronicles (there are fifteen not including this one), so feel free to move as God directs you. Examples are not limited to picking up diapers or baby wipes, bringing over food, washing the cars or laundry, etc. I know one of you mentioned a GoFundMe page a few months ago to me, so that can also be of help. At the present moment, lending a nonjudgmental ear is perhaps the greatest thing possible in addition to your uplifting prayers for my family. Affirmation is a beautiful thing.

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. – Philippians 4:13

Turn down for what?!!