Together at Last

I wish I could say that this photo was taken from the comfort of our own home.  But unfortunately, Veronica was not discharged today as we had hoped.  We found out early this morning that she had an "event" overnight in which her heart rate dropped (bradychardia) and she required stimulation before her heart rate stabilized.  The concerning part was that the brady occurred while she was sleeping which is not usual for Veronica.  Later in the morning, when I was giving her a bottle, she had another brady and became completely limp and unresponsive for several seconds.  These two events were enough for the doctors to say not today, and probably not anytime soon.  We were assured that this is still within the normal range for a 24 weeker but needless to say it was extremely disappointing.  We woke up this morning thinking this was the day she would finally come home.  To find out otherwise was nearly devastating.  I had my typical mini meltdown in the NICU.   Later, however, I found some strength when I spoke with the charge nurse who agreed to allow Josephine, who has never seen Veronica in person, to look at her through the observation window in the term nursery.  I immediately called Andrew at home and he loaded the kids in the car and made the trip into DC.  What I wasn't expecting was what you see in the above photo.  The charge nurse spoke with the attending neonatologist and he agreed to allow us to have some family time.  So we were snuck in through the back door of the NICU and were allowed to be together for about 5 minutes in the breastfeeding room.  So for the first time in 117 days, all 8 of us were together....and Josephine finally got to meet Baby V in person.  It was emotional and wonderful and certainly made a difficult day a little less difficult.  We're still hoping we're all be together again soon....but only when Veronica is ready.  Please keep the prayers coming.  Thank you!