So far so good

We've just come from the boys and things are still looking good. As you can see from the photos, we had a big night in the NICU. Both boys got baths and we took photos and got ready for what we are calling Griffith's "transfer." The word "home" seems to be a bit of a jinx so we aren't telling him where he's going exactly. We had a big time. They both got cleaned up and, as you can see, we took a bunch of photos. We also took the "official" photo of the two of them which was hilarious. They stick your kid in a trough with a camera above it and take photos. Which would work fine if we had two kids who were the size of Griffith or one kid the size of Allan. As it was we had to cram Griff in beside Allan which didn't bother Allan at all -- he seemed to think it was nice to have someone to prop him up -- but irritated Griffith immensely. Then, of course, we had to get them to: 1) open both eyes at the same time; 2) put their arms down so you could see their faces; and 3) not look as if you had just been goosed (Allan) or as if someone had just pinched you (Griffith). It was all a great deal of fun. For us anyway.
So tomorrow Griffith gets his final inspection from the docs. They check the oil, kick the tires, fill up the tank and say bon voyage. We aren't real sure when we'll get out, but some time tomorrow afternoon is a good bet. It is going to be hard to leave Allan, but it isn't as if he isn't in good hands -- without Griffith there to distract the nurses, Allan is going to be the center of attention in Nursery 9. As he should be. There are no guarantees on his release, but we are hopeful that he will get home within a couple of weeks. We figure that they want to make sure that we don't break Griffith and then they'll send Allan home.
We are really excited about getting Griffith home and we know that a lot of you are excited, too. We are very grateful for all of the love, encouragement and prayers and we will continue to need all of them. Griffith is doing great and has come a long, long, LONG way. We can't wait to introduce him to every one, but coming home is going to be an enormous, stressful change for him (not to mention us) and it is really important that he has a chance to adjust. As they keep telling us at the hospital, he doesn't have a lot of reserve -- just being held and passed around takes a lot more out of him than it would a full-term baby. Plus his immune system isn't as robust as that of a full-term baby and we have to make sure that he doesn't get exposed to any more germs than already reside in our (very clean, nearly spotlesss) home. So, for the time being we aren't receiving visitors. We will be keeping up the blog and will let you know when we are all able to party like (very small) rock stars.