The 1st week

All I can say about the first week is thank goodness for grandparents! :)

We arrived home later than expected on Monday afternoon. Noah hated the car journey and was quite grumpy by the time we arrived home. He had been breathing without his machine for most of the day so we thought we would put him on his machine for a rest once we had set everything up. We eventually worked out that our nurse had changed all the hoses on all the machines while we were busy packing at the Ronald McDonald, so that we had nice clean ones. A nice thought but we found out that we had leakages and it took us a while to work out where. We weren't very stressed at all!
Noah's night machine decided to work as a steam machine, which loosened Noah's phlegm (slijm) very nicely. So we had 0.005 seconds to suction him when he woke up before he sounded like he was drowning. We maintained our composure throughout!
The front room, the hallway, our bedroom, Noah's bedroom and the bathroom looked like an explosion in a medical supply warehouse. We had great ideas of getting organised but then came 'The Pampers Problem'.

Noah loves being home but the change gave him diarrhea - who knew there was such a difference between Rotterdam water and Den Haag water?! So we would no sooner get him washed, changed and dressed when a large trumpeting sound would signal our need to start again. Undress, wipe, change pampers, "PaaAAAAARRRRPPPP", wipe, change pampers, dress. "PaaAAAAARRRRPPPP", undress, wipe, change pampers, "PaaAAAAARRRRPPPP", wipe, change pampers ... and so on and repeat! It was time to phone for the cavelry!

Chris and Lex came to the rescue and we were so relieved to see them. They went to the Ikea to buy some storage for us. Lex helped Thijs to put it all together and then Thijs even managed to do a massive shop, so not only did we have some food in the house at last but we also had replenished stock of Pampers! Chris looked after Noah while I managed to cook some meals for the freezer. Finally some order is restored.

Since then it's been a lot better. We're still busy with the Pampers and we found that 2.5 hours isn't long enough to get us and Noah ready to leave the house and get to the doctors on time! But still it's all good . He's home and we love it!

Noah spends most of his day playing, sleeping and pooping just like a regular guy. Apart from the diarrhea he's still happy and doing well off his breathing machines. You can tell that it's all a bit tireing for him, but he's very relaxed and loving being home. He even ate a full bowl of food, which was unheard of in the hospital. We sit him in the corner of the couch when we have our breakfast and lunch so he has seen us eating. This obviously payed off.

Lilo hasn't really paid much attention to Noah. She's had a good sniff of him and licked his hand. She sleeps beneath the couch where Noah is sitting so it seems to be going well.

As you can imagine we haven't taken very many photos - hands are busy with pamper changing, but we will try and take some in the next few days and post you some home photos.

Thanks for all the fabulous cards, and a big shout out to the Drostens for the fabulous home decorations. Fantastic, it really made it a welcome home. Thanks also to Hans, Marloes, and the ICK1 team at Sophia for helping us out through this Pampers Problem, it was great to have you on the end of the phone to answer all our questions.

xxx The Drosten juniors.

We're going HOME!!

So it's 05:30 in the morning, Noah is being suctioned for the 10th time this night and ... WE DON'T CARE - Only the weak need sleep! :)



We're all excited, it feels like Christmas morning only better. Our gift has been long awaited. We are so looking forward to starting our life together at last as a family at home. Thijs is off to the car to pick up all the crates we need to load Noah's equipment safely into the car.


Later we have to pack and clean our room at the Ricky McD', (we were told at 17:00 that we needed to stay another night in the hospital so we're not as prepared as we'd hoped- oh the best laid plans of mice and men!!).

So it's wash time for Noah, we'll all enjoy a lovely relaxed bath later at home. :)



After that it's a last physiotherapy session for Noah a final wave to the nurses and we hope to be out of here around 10:30, but as long as we leave - the time doesn't matter!

Right, it's time to get busy and stop blogging - at least for now!

xxx The Homecoming Kings and Queen (I've watched too much American TV!!)

Our at home visit and THE last night at the Sophia :)

On Tuesday night I was both excited and nervous. I think I slept a total of 3 hours, not that great a start to the day, but my brain just wouldn't switch off. Thijs and I were at the hospital around 7 o'clock in the morning. We had Noah dressed and ready to go by 08:30, which is when we had an appointment with the plastic surgery department. 2 hours later we still hadn't seen the doctor and were close to leaving. Noah was very hungry and a bit overwhelmed with all the people in the waiting room. Of course that's when the doctors had time to see us. I won't say that it was worth the wait, but the team of doctors were very thorough and gave us a lot of information. After 45 minutes we were finally on our way to Den Haag!

Noah wasn't that impressed with being in a car, but with his sheet over his head he managed to fall into a light sleep and we made it home in good time. We were a bit worried that Noah could be overwhelmed by all the new sights, sounds and smells, but in true Noah style he took a good look around, yawned and fell asleep!

We were glad he fell asleep because although we had been home a few times to set things up, there was still a lot more things that we found needed to be moved. This is really the purpose of such a day at home. We found out a lot of things, but the most important one is not to sit on Noah's oxygen hose!!

Here is me on the phone to Grampy Bazzard, while Noah is asking "Who?!". He was too young to remember my dad's terified face in the hospital, (my dad has a bit of a phobia against hospitals), but luckily he has the whole of March to get to know the head of the Welsh Mafia!

Papa got a few smiles from Noah as he was playing in his box.

He was so relaxed he smilled all the time - except for when we tried to take a photo of course!

Finally we put him in the bath which he thought was wonderful. He relaxed against his papa, kicked his feet and weed in the bath - traditional!
It really was a wonderful day. I thought I would be heartbroken to take Noah back to the hospital but strangely it gave me a bit of a lift. We both must have been a little worried, but this day proved that we can handle it and most importantly Noah loves being home.

So here we are, only 1 more night to go. This is Noah's last afternoon nap in the hospital.

Here is the last night waiting to be ticked off his tastefully decorated countdown calender!

Only one thing to do and that is to sleep this night away!

Good night and God bless everyone. Tomorrow is the start of a new future for the Drosten junior family and we can't wait. :)

xx The Drosten Juniors.

6 more nights!

Hoorah! Hoorah! We're in single digits and it's less than a week till Noah can sleep in his own bed.

Sadly there are no photos in today's posting. Noah has been far too busy to stand still and pose for photos. There have been visits by plastic surgeons, pediatricians, physiotherapists, rehabilitation doctor, helmet fittings, corset fittings, x-rays, and baby massages on top of his normal daily routine. It's GO! GO! GO!

Tomorrow Noah will visit his future home for the first time. Oma and Opa have been very busy taking care of Noah over the weekend so that we could go to Den Haag and try and get everything ready. Of course we have forgotten lots of things, like today we suddenly remembered that we need milk bottles for Noah. Although he still gets his food via a tube, we still need to make the milk up for him in a bottle. Ah well, we'll improvise! This is the main purpose of the visit really, just to see what things we need and where are the difficulties. It's a shame it couldn't have been earlier as we don't really have time before Monday to fix anything. Then again, it must be the same for anyone bringing their baby home, you'll see what you need and send the other half out to get it! :) We're both very excited, but I've been asked by more than one nurse whether they will see me back on Wednesday night. I think they are on to my plan of not returning - Darn it!!

There is also a mountain of administration that has been created since we got our coming home date. Thijs is constantly on the phone or walking around with a large sheet of paper, crossing things out and writing on it, muttering to himself. I hope he's not loosing it now! They say talking to yourself is the first sign of madness.....
Oma has also been working hard, as we decided to put a rush on getting a 3rd person signed off as an official care taker of Noah. So she will take her exam on Saturday, we all wish her the best of luck.

Well there's not much else to say, except thanks for all the great comments. We'll take some photo's of Noah's day at home and post them soon. I'm not really looking forward to coming back here after our home day, but at least it won't be for much longer. I wonder if we've got the theme tune from the movie "The great escape"? It would be so cool to play that when we finally leave here on Monday!

So it's so long from Colditz ... erm Sophia ;)

The Drostens.