The Hourglass

Thank you for the prayers and good thoughts! Mom and Dad slept well last night (ok, not well, but better than expected). We woke up on time (thank you for the phone call H.D.!). James did wonderful this morning with his 4:50AM wake up call, his strange, early morning bath, and the car ride. In fact, he hardly cried at all until it was close to time to eat breakfast. Here he is in his car seat as we arrived (blankie in tow):

At 7:15am, they gave him a sedative, so he wasn't so upset about not eating any more. All of the staff have been wonderful...the neurosurgeon, the nurses, the anesthesiologist, the check in clerk. We even had someone bring by a musical toy to try to distract James before we go the sedative. The only surprise that we had was finding out that today is considered Day zero...so James will definitely not leave ICU until tomorrow at the earliest.

At 7:45am, we walked back to just outside of the operating room, and then had to let the nurse carry James in. It was hard to let him go while he was awake, but his eyes were already half mast from the sedative, and they let him keep his blankie. Here he is in his tiny hospital gown:

8:47am we were informed that surgery had started.

We sit and wait as the sands of time slide through the hourglass....we have a dear friend here, and another who works at University Hospital stopped by this morning too. It's hard to connect (no wireless), but I'm going to try to upload several times today.

Upcoming: Between 11-12 we should hear as they start to finish surgery. Then the surgeon will come out to talk to us about how it went. About an hour after that we should be able to see James in ICU. They will decide after surgery if they will need to leave his breathing tube in. They want him to be as comfortable as possible, so that may mean he stays sedated for a while.

Keep praying: We are at peace right now, but the thought of seeing our baby after surgery has loomed over our heads for 3 weeks now. We hope to have strength in the next day.