Whether you have spent days, weeks, or months visiting and leaving your infant at the hospital, the homecoming is a long-awaited event. Your premature infant is considered ready to go home when he or she is able to:

• Take all feedings by nipple and continue to gain weight. In rare cases, infants are discharged while still on partial tube-feedings that are given by parents at home. If your infant is sent home with tube-feedings, you will be trained by the NICU staff before discharge.
• Maintain body heat in an open infant bed.
• Breathe well. (An infant whose lungs have suffered damage may be sent home with portable oxygen.)
• Have normal breathing and a normal heart rate for a week. (An infant who is otherwise mature enough yet still stops breathing occasionally or has lung disease or other breathing problems may be sent home with an apnea monitor.)

Some infants are ready to go home as early as 5 weeks before their due date. Other infants, usually those who have had medical complications, may be discharged later than their due date.

Preparing to go home As your infant's discharge from the hospital approaches, you may feel excitement, impatience, and a new kind of anxiety. Responsibility for your infant's care, which has so recently required high technology and medical training, is now being transferred to you. You can best prepare yourself for this transition by learning:

• Infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), as taught by a certified instructor.
• How to safely transport your infant in the car.
• Basic infant care skills.
• How to handle any necessary medicine or medical equipment at home.

You will also want to:

• Discuss your questions and concerns with the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) staff and your baby's doctor.
• Make a pediatric appointment for a few days after your infant's homecoming. Weekly medical checks after discharge are especially important for a premature infant, as well as reassuring for you.

If home-based health care and supportive therapies are available to you, take advantage of them. Home-based services spare you and your infant the physical and emotional stress of traveling to numerous appointments.