I am happy to report that Audrey came home from the hospital on Saturday. Her target weight gain on Friday night was 30g. If she gained more than 30g in that 24 hour period, she could go home. Of course we were rooting for her and feeding her as much as we could leading up to the big weigh in. She actually gained 50g, so she was allowed to go home.

During our hospital stay, we began a new schedule of feeding her every 2 hours, basically round the clock. I spent the first night with Audrey in the hospital and did all day shifts after that because my job is such that I can work from anywhere. Dave spent the other three nights with her and went to work during the day. We all four spent some family time together from about 4PM – 9PM at the hospital before I left for the night with Andrew.

One night, as I was dragging myself to our car, I encountered a woman who was also loading up her car. She wanted to stop and chat with Andrew a bit, so we struck up a conversation. She told me that she had adopted a foster child a few months back and that the child had “failure to thrive” and was inside the hospital. I realized that we were not the only people with a baby in the hospital struggling with growth. I asked her some questions and learned that the girl was about a month older than Audrey. We each shared our juicy stories of vomits, feedings, weights, and of course poop (one of my favorite subjects!). I thought that it was really special that she had taken this little baby girl into her home. We ended our conversation and I went home, thinking a bit about her on the way. Even though I was completely wiped out, I was glad that I had stopped to talk to her.

The next day, after many long and boring hours in the hospital room, I began to pity myself a little bit. I was completely exhausted and had several more hours by myself until Dave could come and relieve me for the night. After that, I still had an hour or two of prep work at home to prepare for the next day. Just when I was really getting wound up thinking about how bad I had it, there was a knock on the door and one of the nurses told me that I had a visitor. I looked up, and it was the woman I had met the night before, holding one of the sweetest little girls I’ve ever seen. She was a black baby and her hair was pulled up into many different little pigtails sticking up all over her head. She had beautiful big brown eyes that took in everything about my face. She was nine pounds of adorableness with a big smile. I asked if I could hold her and her foster mom handed her right over. She stared at me for several minutes and I just so enjoyed looking into her wide eyes. Her mom told me that her name is Treasure.

I learned that Treasure was born addicted to drugs due to an addiction that was ongoing throughout her mother’s pregnancy. Her father has been in and out of jail since she was born. Neither of them would be fit to be her parents, so Treasure was put into the foster care system. Her foster mother was doing a great job of taking care of this child who has had a lot of challenges in her short life. As I was holding her, she vomited on me a little bit. I was told that she vomits many times a day. She then showed me her sweet smile again.

Audrey was released from the hospital the next day, which was Saturday. Between the chaos of packing up the incredible amount of stuff we had managed to drag to her hospital room, the medications, feeding schedule, and formula mixing instructions being thrown at us, along with caring for Andrew, I completely forgot to say goodbye to Treasure and her foster mom. I really regret this. I realized it as I was almost arriving at home and I debated going back, but the next feeding was fast approaching and there was so much to do at home.

As hard as last week was for all four of us, I keep coming back to the challenges that Treasure and her foster mom will face. I hope to always be thankful for what I have. But sometimes other things get in the way of thankfulness. Sometimes fatigue, anxiety, and fear can cloud vision. I’ve been thinking about Treasure a lot and I’m going to keep doing so for a while. She really made my day a lot brighter. For her, I hope for growth and healing and happiness with her new family.