Well, when Lexie said this isn’t pretty Wyoming, and she was right. I said it looks like the moon; she said Mars. She hasn’t been to Winslow! Rawlins is actually the Wyoming version of Dave’s hometown with a slightly greener cast and antelope running through the gas station instead of wild dogs!

Here’s what we learned yesterday:
– Tess can’t live without prune juice. Either can we. She missed 2 doses and was miserable all night, writhing and crying. She also eats less. Not good. Prune juice this morning = happy, healthy baby tonight!

– The volunteers at the hospital gave us diapers. They were bad diapers. Do not worry about wasting bad diapers. Throw them away! Dave did a low rider styling that left me thanking god she couldn’t poop last night. Pee everywhere at 4 am does not a happy mommy make. We left the bad ones in the hotel room.

– I knew babies created hella quantities of laundry. Now I’m experiencing it. The burp cloths stay clean. Without fail, she nails her clothes and the blanket she’s wrapped in – and all of me. Some scrambling will happen at her next feeding to dig out more clean everything. I think she went through what I thought she’d need for 2 days in one! I might go back to feeding her in her diaper until there’s a washer in sight. Sigh.

– I hate hand washing bottles as much as I remember. All hail the dishwasher!

– Tess + car = happy sleeper! Win.

– Tess is loud. Ask our nurses. We’re not talking preemie grunt either. This is serious noise-making. She’s very vocal when she’s happy, sleeping, eating, uncomfortable, tired…you do the math. Very expensive monitor going back. This kid makes noise every second of the day. If she stops breathing, we’ll know.

– Coffee and a shower can still fix almost anything.

So we’re crossing Wyoming. Dave got rest because he’s driving. I had my first night feedings with Tess. I am very tired. If she’d slept in between it would have been fine. Prune juice, away!

6:30pm
So we’re in the parking lot at Mount Rushmore as we decided to crash in Rapid City tonight, and we’re fighting Tess over a bottle! Parenthood really has set in. 🙂 I don’t think the prune juice has worked its full magic yet, and until that horrifying relief of a moment, we have a sometimes sluggish eater on our hands.

Dave and I are getting pretty good at figuring out who needs a minute and who needs baby time. I didn’t sleep last night. Dave has been driving all day. He wanted to cuddle his daughter. 🙂

So with the sun setting and president’s behind us, we’re focusing on the important stuff: Tess!

11:20pm
Alright Denise. Are you contacting Tess somehow? Not only did she take more tonight, she demanded more! She’s already had 80 and she’s still going. 🙂 Prune juice: win. Food: check. Sleep? We’ll see. Tess is at her most alert now until about 2 am. That kinda hurts my everything! Still, bathed and fed and snuggled makes for a happy baby.

I’m almost at a loss for words. Today we cleaned, coordinated, talked, learned, worried, and packed! At 7am this morning our nurse called to tell us that not only had Tess passed her stage 4 eating, she’d surpassed it – going way beyond the minimum. So they released her. It was that fast. She was packed up and shipped out by 11am, and we were stalling. Frantic packing, signing, calling, alerting all the nurses, and packing the car (wish we had a before and after! Crazy what you can fit in here.).

Huge thanks to Aly. She had us so, so organized when we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off. At one point, she handed me a piece of paper with instructions to get Tess to the eye dr this week. No problem I told her. She said, “put the number in your phone.” “It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll remember.” Um, looking at this jammed car, let me tell you how happy I am that she did that. I hope we can find toothbrushes and underwear!

Kat, Spencer and Micky came to say goodbye at the house. They were as shocked as we were! Micky held her for the first time, and we all did quite a bit of crying. They are amazing, and as we hugged goodbye the incredible choice they made struck me anew.

We got to see Sara too, and put the poor girl to work! She babysat for a while while we coordinated the clown car. We of course left during the pride parade – the one time we couldn’t see Denise and Beth. Sad!

Then, we left. I’m writing this on the way to Wyoming. Tess is tucked in next to me, with dad at the wheel. And suddenly, it’s like those 81 days magically vanished. Here we are, taking our baby home from the hospital. It’s just a longer trip than usual.

6:30pm
It’s our first break. Tess has rocked it out, sleeping most of the time and popping an eye open from time to time. We’re in Evanston Wyoming; don’t come here. We’re feeding Tess in the car, so when she spit up it went all over me and her. Let the true, messy parenting begin!

Tess has had 2 smaller bottles today, and is finishing up a HUGE bottle, so her appetite caught up with her. 88 ml! For comparison, she normally took 48 before yesterday. Wow. So they weren’t kidding when they said it would just click!

10:45pm
Tess made it through the day like this was nothing new or exciting. In other words, she slept. She also ate, though! She’s over the minimum so far, so hopefully she’ll keep it up. We want her to ace her first weigh-in. 🙂 Dave and I are so tired, and the thought of getting up with her in 3 hours is weird! Weird and awesome. It’s really just us here for a few days. We’ll keep you posted!