It took Phileas Fogg eighty days to go around the world in the Jules Verne novel, and it’s been eighty days and change since the birth of Katie Rose. Our darling baby girl is home. What a gift and miracle!

Yesterday we brought Katie Rose home. When we arrived at the NICU, nurse Denise had started the preparations for Katie’s discharge.

Denise promised to come visit Katie Rose at home in our “four ring” circus. Then Dr Nancy came by to go over the discharge instructions with us.

You can see Katie Rose in the photo on Phyllis’s lap waving good bye to Dr Nancy. Then Denise unplugged the monitor leads, and removed the adhesive pads that kept the leads in place on Katie. The red rings on her torso you can see in the photo come from these monitor pads, but Denise was very gentle, the marks went away quickly.

We put Katie in her car seat, put the car seat on a stroller, and Denise helped us out to the car. There was plenty of congratulatory waving, hugging, and some tearful eyes. The lower photo below shows Katie’s car seat insert, which we’ll use until she gets a bit bigger.

Katie Rose has been home a full 24 hours now. The boys love having her, want to hold her, and tiptoe around looking at her. Sleep is in short supply as Katie adjusts to her new environment and we adjust to her. We love her so much!

Katie is shown below in an ad-hoc basinette on our kitchen table.