Escaping the Hospital!

Friday was the day!  Evvie was going to escape from the hospital!  We arrived late morning, and as we weren't sure how long discharge was going to take, we quickly grabbed a bowl of soup from the Cafe (one last meal in that place, which is actually pretty good).  And then we headed upstairs and flashed our "parent bands" one last time . . .

I had gotten a phone call that morning from one of my favorite nurses in the Special Care Nursery, Martine.  She was calling to let me know that Guinevere was discharged.  The paper work had all been signed.  We just had to let her know an approximate time for our arrival to come get her!

In the above picture she is wearing what was supposed to be her hospital picture outfit, but it didn't get used for that purpose.  In fact, Evvie never really got any "real" hospital picture taken, and she never even got her second week picture taken by the professional photographer who comes into the hospital to photograph the preemies.  Oh well.  The outfit served a far finer purpose:  It was her going home outfit!  We couldn't get a good picture, but it is kind of difficult with a baby that small to figure out how to prop her to show off her cute little duds.  I had made the booties (and a scad more for other babies) months earlier.

This was the first time I got to photograph the whole going home process.  Before, I had always been too close to my surgery to think that clearly to get all these classic shots.

As Evvie and I waited for Dave to pick us up, we sat by the Christmas tree that had been put up near the front entrance earlier that week.  I looked down and realized that she was the most perfect little present sitting under this tree:

You may need this closer shot to see that she is actually there!

It was a gorgeous day.  Dave and I did not even need to wear our coats!  It was probably about 50F and sunny.  There could not have been a more perfect late November day to bring our little girl home.