Saturday 15 May... So happy to be home!

We got home around 1:30pm yesterday afternoon. The kids weren't expecting us until Saturday so when I picked up Nikolai he said "Well, this is a nice surprise!" After we had been home for a little bit I told him to come over to me and I pulled him onto my lap and just held him. As soon as I did that he let out a huge sigh and relaxed all over and started crying. I just held him and hugged him and let him let it out. He's been so strong, he is so close to me and he was so sweet. When Sara got up from her nap she was so happy she bounced around the house and wouldn't let me out of her sight all day. When it was time for her to go to bed she wanted juice and since I was nursing Kyle I told her to go ask Daddy and he'd help her and put her to bed. She said, "No Daddy juice, no Daddy Night-Night, Daddy baby, Mommy Me." Which translated means "I don't want Daddy to put me to bed, I want Daddy to take care of Kyle while Mommy puts me to bed". How could I refuse such a reasonably put request from a two year old? I told her she'd have to wait until Kyle was done so she happily climbed up next to me on the couch and tried not to fall asleep until I could carry her to bed. MaryKate walked in after school while I was on the floor and she yelled "MOMMY! You weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow!" and she ran over and plopped herself in my lap. She was so excited and showed me all of her things she hadn't been able to show me in the past several weeks.

The only bad part of me coming home is that I am now responsible for giving Kyle his daily bath and gently cleaning his incisions. The nurses had given him all of his baths in the hospital. I cried when one of his buttonholes bled. It wasn't bad, just when they removed the drainage tube a blood clot came out with it. They got most of it out but there is still a chunk left in there. Since it's a clot and not a scab it is still gooey and when I cleaned it it bled and I cried and Sara was so sweet she hugged me and asked "Baby Tummy Owie? Mommy sad wash?" She is talking so well lately, since I've been gone.
Here is his photo of before his bath. I've decided his long incision is his zipper. And then the two sites where the drainage tubes came out are his button holes. The dark one underneath his zipper is not his belly button, that is the hole. He is so full all the time he has a perpetual outie belly button :). He has an umbilical hernia and his belly button used to only stick out when he was crying but now his tummy is getting so fat it sticks out all the time. When the hernia closes completely he should have an innie again but for now It is so cute.

Kyle and I are still on hospital time which means he was up at 4:30 and once he got me up I was up too. I slept better then I have in weeks though so even though I was up early I feel more refreshed then I have in weeks. We took the opportunity to go on a walk since he couldn't get outside while we were in the hospital and I rarely actually got meaningful exercise. We had so much fun, he is so happy to be home and I feel so content to be here.