The End and Also The Beginning

Hi All,

I should start by saying (for those who haven't heard) that we are all home!  Riley came home for good on the 7th of May.  Here is how our last week went:

Stacy and I continued our sign war and ended up getting very creative.

On Thursday I went to the Center for Families to use the printer to print out a new sign for Stacy's door.  While I was down there, a woman who worked there came up and asked if I wanted to go to a Red Sox game.  I was a little unsure at first, but she said the game was that day at 1:30 and I could have a few tickets.  I accepted the offer and before I knew it Stacy and I were out of the hospital a couple hours later for a re-do of our mommy time.  The biggest surprise of the day was yet to come.  When we go there we found out that our seats were in the EMC Club.  We entered through a restaurant above home plate and had the option of watching the game from the restaurant or from our front row seats.  No sooner did we sit down at our seats outside than our waiter came over with menus.  We had cushioned seats, heaters above us, a flat screen tv in front of us, private bathrooms and a great view of the game!

The nurses on that day were great and they even sent us pictures of the girls so we wouldn't worry:

  

Friday came around and it was time for Riley's ECHO.  She did awesome!  Her heart looked great after being weaned off the sildenafil (for pulmonary hypertension).  Dr. Smithers came in to talk to us and asked us when we wanted to go home.  It was about 6 at night at that point so we said we would love to go home tomorrow.  He gave his blessing and Brian and I went out for a night out before we brought Riley home for good.  We had such a great time together going out to eat at Boston Beer Works and then grabbing ice cream at Stone Cold Creamery.

The next morning we went back to the hospital and found Riley sleeping in on her big day!

We were so excited to head out.  We got everything packed up and said our goodbye to the nurses and they left a note for us:

We loaded Riley in her car seat and she waved goodbye to all of the new friends we had made in the last 2.5 months.  This has truly been such an eye opening experience for us.  We would like to thank you all for praying and thinking of us.  It has really meant the world.  Our little girl is home now and in great shape!  All feeds are eaten by mouth and I will be working to switch meds over to mouth as well in the hopes that we can take the tube out at our 1 month appointment.  For those of you that haven't heard, I have left my job as VP of Blue Thunder Technologies, for the job of mommy to two perfect kids.  I cant wait for the fun times ahead, and to see all of you.  Please check back in the next week as I will be posting a date for a Welcome Home Riley party that I would like to invite EVERYONE to.  Even if we have not met you before, your thoughts and prayers and support have helped to get us to where we are today!

With Love,

Brian, Sandy, Chase and Riley