Coming Home!

today (backdated to July 2nd) is the day that we are set to go home from the hospital.  it is such a big day for our family.  A-K has been recovering very well and we have become fairly confident as parents, albeit in the ever watchful, ever helping presence of the midwives of great portland hospital.  we are about to embark on the journey that all new parents fear...being alone without professional help with your newborn child.  all sorts of issues came flooding to our minds:  will we be able to get feeding down, what happens if he gets hurt, what if he gets sick, what if, what if, what if...

the truth of it all is that carson was completely unphased by it all.  he just gave us a big grin of excitement and voila, we were ready to go.

before leaving the hospital, we of course had to join the portly panda club since carson (and his mum) were part of the prestigious members who had been born/given birth at the portland hospital.  portly himself made an appearance to see carson off (and come home with us).  here is portly panda making a rare appearance :)

as we prepared to leave, we were told that carson had low blood sugar and needed to be monitored a bit more and also topped up with some formula feeding.  not exactly what we wanted to hear before we set-off to take care of him all by ourselves...the what ifs flooding back to our minds.  anyways, it gave us a little bit more time to take care of the other things we needed to do, like, carson's hearing test.  the audiologist was in the building across the street, so we had to get ready for our first family trip out into the real world.  since we couldn't very well take carson across the street just in his diaper, we got him ready in our dress rehearsal for going home. 

ak only brought one outfit though...which happened to be my going home outfit.  keep in mind i was 11 lbs 2 oz. as compared to carson weighing in at 7 lbs 3 oz.  ergo, the outfit was never going to quite fit our less than obese son. needless to say, it was good fun though trying to figure out how to put it on him.  at least he got some swimming practice ;)

notice the pants rolled up...at least 3 times

we decided to ditch the "bonnet" for a real hat.

here we are...leaving the hospital for the first time in our new wheels...or maybe not.  we actually just walked across the street, but a man can dream that he drives a BMW 7 series right :)  for ak it was fresh air at last after 3 days of being cooped up. 

it was such a fun experience, even paddington bear made an appearance to cheer carson on at his audiologist test.

crossing the street with carson, our new little boy.  i was well confident, as was ak, but mimi was a bit terrified we didn't opt for the crosswalk...but that's not the london way!  ak just seems proud of me in this picture.  or maybe it was she was just proud of herself for helping create such a studly boy (hidden in this pic).

carson geared up to take his hearing test (basically testing to see if he was responsive to noises and that his eardrums/hammers, etc, developed as they should).  of course he passed with flying colours.  xo good in fact, they gave him a certificate.  carson is a pretty humble guy, so he asked me to take the glamour shot of accepting his award.

i couldn't take all the glory though, as it was really this little guy that did the hard work (actually it was god who ensured carson was fearfully and perfectly made in his own image), so we got a picture of paddington handing carson his award.  as they say, the proof is in the pudding. 

after a successful trip to the audiologist, we headed back to the nursery to check on the results of carson's blood sugar tests.  this gave us an opportunity for one more chance at a supervised diaper change!

 after the diaper change, of course carson needed to get some grub in his little tummy, so mum gave him a good feeding. here is the little guy, happy as a lark with a milk "moustache".  i just love this picture.

 after a good nappy change and a feed, the results came back and carson was ready to go out into the big world!  we got him changed back into his going home outfit (still swimming in it), put on his little hat, and of course, took the obligatory leaving photos :)

father son combo...already more tan than me (although doesn't take much)

three generations!



the happy family (yes, carson is just crying with delight!)

so, how were we going to get carson to our house?  we are in london after all, so the best option is the tube!

 yea, right...taxi!  now came the tricky bit, figuring out how the car seat works.  it's not rocket science, but with the paparazzi all trying to snap photos of the main man, the pressure was on. luckily, i got a phd in buckling up. 

 one last family photo before getting into the addi lee cab.  paddington even made a cameo appearance to see carson off.

 the little guy was all bundled up in his blanket, hat and car seat...i don't blame him for napping.

the addi lee cab dropped us off right in front of our house.  we unloaded everything to make way for the grand entrance. 

 one more family photo.  i promise carson is happy (but he might be making a poo, who knows).

 we gave carson a little tour around the flat and asked him what he thought about it all afterwards...

needless to say from the picture above, he was a bit confused and intimidated by it all as it is about 1000 times bigger than his previous home, but i think he'll acclimate just fine :)  just look at him already getting inquisitive about the wide open space known as the living room/dining room/kitchen/family room (okay so maybe not wide open space, but it'll do)

ak's mum made a smorgasbord of goodness for ak upon arrival to our house, including two things she couldn't eat during pregnancy, soft cheese and turkey deli meat.  holla!

 even with the excitement of soft cheese, she was a bit preoccupied by something a bit better than that ;)

 our first family photo in finborough road.  carson was already saying "awwww yeah"

 after the family photo, carson grabbed hold of our hands.  the little guy has a pretty strong grip...obviously gets that from ak.

 carson loves his mom.  just wouldn't let go of her finger, but i must say, i don't think ak was trying too hard to make him release his hold.

just admiring our newest member - carson david besancon

 because carson had low blood sugar upon leaving the hospital, we had to top up with formula for 24 hours.  that gave me my first chance to feed him. 

i don't want to say i'm a natural or anything, but, well, i'm not... last time i checked, the food was supposed to stay in his mouth. oh well...i tried.

all in all it was a fantastic day and now we get to start the magnificent responsibility of raising a child to be a man of character.  let the fun begin!