The call

On Wednesday, September 12th we got the call-Lucas was coming home. He was scheduled to be discharged the next day. I didn't know what to do first. I was so overwhelmed with joy, nerves. My mother in law was going to take me into the hospital so we could spend some time with Lucas that afternoon but I called her to ask if we could stop at Babies R Us first-there were a few things I needed. I remember her coming into the house and I just falling to pieces. She was wonderful and told me it would be OK. This would be scarey but we would make it-Lucas was coming home, something we had all been waiting for.

We found out that day that he had a hernia so that meant surgery. This was news to us. Just when we were trying to live a more normal life with our new son, we learned there was yet again another hurdle. They said that hernias are normal in preemie boys and the surgeon we were referred to was wonderful-more on that later.

We had dinner with Marc's parents and his grandmother. At one point someone said, this will be the last time you have dinner alone! We all went up to the hospital to get the final instructions on when to be back in the morning and to bring in his car seat. Lucas needed to pass an oxygenation test before he could be released. That meant sitting him the car seat for 90 minutes.

Driving home that night was surreal-he was really coming home. We had been praying for this but now that it was happening I was filled with such doubt. Were we ready? I don't think either of us slept that night. We told that cats that their world was about to change in ways they didn't even know.