Pre-op this morning

This morning was Ben's pre-op appointment. Nate, Gma Peg and I took him and in all we were there 4 hours. He had blood drawn, a physical, a chest xray and an EKG. Can you believe our little boy now weighs 14 pounds 1 ounce? He gained nearly 2 pounds in three weeks. Go breastmilk! He is exactly two feet tall too. He was given a clean bill of health and the surgery is only 10 hours away.

We took a tour of the PICU and got to see the rooms and all of the equipment. It's hard to picture him hooked up to them and I know it will be tomorrow when we do. That moment scares me but I also know that I will want to see our strong boy as soon as we can.

It was comforting to hear from various people how healthy he looks for an infant with AVSD. It is great that his surgery is at Gma's hospital and so many people know about him!

We will be given pagers or get calls from the nurses I believe three times tomorrow with updates on how the surgery is going which will be nice. We plan to be there most likely all night. We cannot sleep in his room but can be in there all but between 7-9pm and 7-9am for shift change. Please understand that it will most likely be hard for us to talk to everyone tomorrow. I'm not sure that we will be making many, if any, phone calls. We will likely have someone else do that for us. We know that everyone is concerned and will want to know how it went and how he is doing but I have to think that the first 24 hours are a very private time for Nate, myself and Ben. I will also compose an update for someone to post since I'm unsure if I'll have computer access at the hospital. So please don't get angry if your calls/emails go unanswered throughout the day. We may find the strength ourselves to get in touch during the 7-9pm time but no promises.

Tonight at the house we had a Heavenly Blessing for Ben's surgery and for our family to have strength. We are so thankful to Jeff and Dean for that. It's wonderful to have so many caring people in our lives and Ben is very lucky to have all of the love and support.

It's time to give him his last bath and prep him for the morning. After he gets home he can only have sponge baths for awhile. He cannot have milk past 11:30 tonight and only sugar water before 3:30am with nothing past that time. Poor little guy will be starving I predict by 6am for some milk. I imagine there will be a lot of snorting going on!

Think wonderful thoughts tomorrow!