I finally met him, sort of.

He was awake when I got there, finishing a bottle. (My daughter really wanted to breastfeed him as she did his big sister, but commuting to the NICU and NICU rules craziness blew that plan. Whatever; he's doing great on formula.) I could do an essay on the NICU system craziness, but basically, they could take a lesson from Disney Cruise Line's rotational dining. (Your servers go with you to each dinner experience.) 

He was rotated through various positions in the NICU, and each time saw different doctors who had to catch up on his chart and start over on getting to know him.  This baby saw ELEVEN different neonatologists and three cardiologists during his 3 week stay in the most expensive day care ever, and he's only home now because my daughter had a "Come to Jesus" meeting with the last Dr. who got thrown into the rotation and who finally got him discharged. I swear to God he'd have been home at least a week ago if they had assigned one set of doctors to him from the start.

Daddy handed him off to me and we all watched golf and chatted for a couple of hours. I held him, he fell asleep immediately. He slept for over a solid hour and a half on my lap, and we could have continued like that forever but I had to go home. He faked us out by stirring now and then, he'd stretch and make faces and noises, and then pass out again. Big sister played with his hands, we all talked normally, but nope, this kid was determined to sleep.  Apparently grandma's lap is a particularly awesome nap spot, his parents were surprised he'd slept that long. I'll meet him when awake next time. 😂

I did take that close-up photo, though it's not even the cutest face he made. He does have that newborn flaky skin thing going on, but is otherwise absolutely perfect. He's on that very minimal oxygen and nobody's sure he really needs it, but whatever.

He sees his normal pediatrician next week, then gets to just be a baby for a while until he checks in with the cardiologist at the end of the month. Hopefully by then the heart issue will have sorted itself.

When I left, the big sister who hadn't been very excited about getting a baby brother was happily settling down to give him a bottle for the first time, after begging to do it. I can already tell she's going to be a teasing, joking, loving and protective big sister. As I pointed out to her, by the time he's old enough to be a really annoying younger sibling she'll be picking a college, and then he'll be excited to get a t-shirt and come visit for a football game weekend.

When I got home both dogs quietly wagged and sniffed me excitedly for the longest time. They don't know what I was doing, but they love it.