Ulterior Motives

Cameron finally got to have his first bath at home the other day because his cord took forever (!) to fall off. Kimball was my little helper, wanting to wash his brother's belly and hair. I think Kimball mostly enjoyed it because he got to stand in the bath to help, and as you'll see in the pictures perhaps had ulterior motives for helping me :)
Here's Cameron after his bath, followed by a picture of Kimball after Cameron's bath.

Is this not the cutest picture ever?

Home, Home on the Range

Big news! Cameron came home today! I was at the hospital and our pediatrician walked up to me and, without any warning, said he was having the neonatologist look at Cameron's charts to decide if he could come home today. After reviewing all of the variables involved, both the pediatrician and neonatologist agreed that it was safe for us to bring our baby home. I was blown away that suddenly we were taking our baby home. I rushed home and called Dale, who left work early and we rushed to prepare everything. The discharge procedure went smoothly at the hospital and we are now a happy family of four, all under one roof.

So far Kimball has enjoyed hugging his brother and giving him rides in the infant swing. It all seems surreal to suddenly have Cameron home, but we are loving it!

Life

So, life for the Rexes has been a little more hectic than we had anticipated before the arrival of our little bundle of joy, but we're handling it pretty well so far.
Cameron is eating like a champ and amazes the nurses at how much he devours when he bottle feeds at night. He's over 8 pounds now and has graduated to size 1 diapers because the newborn diapers just aren't absorbent enough for him. So far, he has been such an easy baby when I'm with him...he'll cry to let me know he's hungry, and as soon as he knows I'm there and getting ready to feed him, he will just wait patientlyuntil I pick him up. Some days he sleeps up to 4 hours at a time. I just hope this lasts until long after he comes home so I can enjoy it! After the spinal tap results came in, it was decided he needs treatment for a total of 14 days, so we should be able to bring him home this Saturday.
For me, the days are all blurred and I can't keep track of what happened when because of all of my trips to the hospital. While I nurse Cameron, I get to hear a lot about the other babies in the NICU and am grateful that all we have to face right now is Group B Strep, and for only 2 weeks, though it seems like forever right now. Kimball is doing well and loves all the time and attention he gets from Grandma who keeps threatening she's going to kidnap him. He gives me a hug and kiss every time I leave to take care of Cameron and gets excited when he sees Cameron through the window, since he's too young to actually go into the NICU.
Dale has been able to return to work and keeps busy commuting up to South Jordan and is able to visit Cameron at least once a day.
All in all, we're doing ok and are excited to bring our baby home soon.

Update

It probably looks weird to our neighbors to see us coming and going without a baby so I thought we'd post a quick update as to Cameron's situation.
I tested positive for Group B Strep while pregnant, which is very normal, but if the mother isn't treated before the baby is born, the baby can contract it, at which point it becomes dangerous. Normally, they just give the mother antibiotics via IV while in labor, which are then transmitted to the baby to protect them from contracting Group B Strep. This requires the mother to be on IV for (I believe) 4 hours, and since I was only in labor for just over 2 hours, there was no human way to treat me. Cameron happened to be one of the few babies that contracted it and is now in the NICU until at least Saturday afternoon.
The doctor did a spinal tap to see if the bacteria got into his spinal column which would result in meningitis. As of today, the results didn't look the best, so Cameron could be in NICU up to 21 days. We're really hoping that he can come home Saturday, but we know a healthy baby is the most important.
Even with this situation, we've seen many blessings. Normally, results from the baby's blood tests take quite a while to come back, but Cameron's came back the night after he was born, so they were able to put him on antibiotics immediately. So far, he has not been symptomatic and looks/sounds healthy. He's a beautiful, sweet little boy, and all the nurses enjoy caring for a baby so big since they normally take care of preemies.
He's been quite the trooper throughout all of this. He's nursing great and staying at a healthy weight, so we're counting our blessings that this isn't much worse. My mom is up here taking care of Kimball so Dale can go to work while I go back and forth to the hospital to nurse Cameron. In the picture, you can see all the monitors that he has, the feeding tube they use when I can't make it to nurse him, the IV in his foot, and the bandage on his other foot where they keep pricking him for blood tests.