Lily's FAQ: when do I get to come home?

Hi, everybody!

The most common question we get about Lily is when does she get to come home. Just to debunk the common myths, it's not a set time, and she doesn't need to be a particular weight. Here's the deal on how it works:

They say the rule of thumb is, expect to stay in until your due date, but most babies beat that so I think it's a parental placebo to keep us chilled out. What it actually comes down to is (and Lily's status regarding said items):

- off any IVs and medication (check)
- no assisance needed to breathe (check)
- can maintain own body temperature (check)
- remembers to breathe, i.e. no apnea episodes longer than I think 20 seconds at a time (check)
- can suck, swallow, and breathe in a coordinated fashion, i.e. eat (check)
- is consistently gaining weight without help (wellllll...)

Basically, Lily just needs to get stronger and bigger. She actually feeds really well for her "age", but she gets tired and can't consistently eat as much as she should for them to feel comfortable taking out her feeding tube. SO that's really her last major hurdle. When they think she's almost ready they give her essentially a 3-day "trial period" where she has to do all those things under supervision in the NICU, and if she passes, home she goes! If she backslides on any of them (which can happen, and is totally normal, nothing to get concerned about), she's bought herself an automatic 5 days more.

She's doing really good on all of this, so we think she should be home pretty soon!