The Homecoming

She's home!  Ringing in the new year, Netta decided she was ready to come with us on January 1st.  She came home at  34 days in the NICU, at 35weeks.  Quite a bit earlier than their initial guess and the schedule kept getting bumped up in the last two weeks.  I originally planned to wrangle homes for Vito for early January as I was going to have to stay in the hospital to work on getting Netta transitioned to a "feed on demand" schedule and transition her off her feeding tube.  But then Christmas evening the staff decided she was showing great signs of being ready for that process that day!  I am so grateful for all who offered to take Vito into their homes so I could do what I needed to do for Netta.  Netta ended up only needing a week to fully get her strength built up to take all meals by mouth, so Netta and Vito ended up coming home earlier than planned again.

A bit scary taking her away from her monitoring systems.  It even felt weird being able to walk around with her past a small radius that her cords would reach!

Netta's 1 month birthday celebrated in the NICU.

Netta passed her car seat test of being able to maintain breathing while being slouched in the car seat, but needed a double crotch roll under her butt in order to be snug.  Netta in the car seat really drove home all tiny she is!  Netta was 4lbs 12oz when leaving.

They gave us essentially a Do Not Pet sign for her car seat as we will be sequestered from crowds for the next several months.  We don't want her ending back in the hospital due to illness as her immune system just can't handle it.

Due to her 10wk early preemie status and the limitation on crowds, I did have to quit my job as a service dog trainer.  They highly recommend no daycare for as long as possible, a minimum of 6 months past her initial due date of February.  Vito will love being a stay at home dog!  And thankfully I still have my online classes at Fenzi Academy to help provide a little income.

The tollers are curious of Netta, but are being very respectful.  I'm sure Zumi will have some issues once Netta is more mobile, but right now she is being an angel.  Lance is such a go with the flow dog that I'm not sure he's done more than the initial courtesy sniff?  He knows he will be in charge of her later but figures I can handle it for now I guess.