Braden’s grandmother passed away this morning. She will be missed!

Tonight we are packing our bags to head to Salina, UT tomorrow to be there for the funeral this coming Tuesday. As I was prepping my camera bag I realized that I had not downloaded the images on my memory card from our last trip to Utah at the beginning of July. In the batch of neglected photos were some that we took when Patrick met his Great Grandma Robins about a month ago.

Seriously one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. We are grateful that Patrick was able to meet her, and I’m sure he will hear many, many stories about her as he gets older…

This morning little man P was adamant about sitting in the rocking chair. NOT on my lap in the rocking chair. Just him. My baby boy, all alone in the chair…

At first he sat back, pleased with his station in life. The Sultan, we like to call him.

Then he actually sat up and started rocking the chair by leaning forward and back repeatedly.

This made him quite happy!

(I handed him the shoe to distract him from his urgent NEED to have the camera strap…)

Heaven help us, he wants to be just like daddy…I suppose he could do worse ♥

and getting dangerous…

Patrick is 8 Months Old!

He loves pureed veggies {and a few select fruits}.

He has 3 teeth, and one on the way.

Our little dude is now able to sit without assistance and {rarely} tip over.

When motivated, he can roll to retrieve desired objects.

Patrick looks longingly at his stroller or the front door whenever they catch his eye…he loves to be outside. He pats the grass to hear the noise it makes. He rubs his feet in the lawn, amazed by how it feels. He tries and tries to sneak a leaf into his mouth. How frustrating for him that we never let him quite get one there.

He cracks me up when he concentrates so intently on new objects…

{We try not to think about how sad he will be when it gets too hot for his many walks each day}.

I think his eyes have decided to be brown.

He still loves his daddy.

The sentiment seems to be mutual ♥

Patrick’s super nice nurse, Jamie from Alaska, has been great. On his little white board she has written out his goals for today:

✔ decrease bleeding [from his chest tube]

✔ extubate [now he is on oxygen, but otherwise breathing on his own. his breathing is labored and a little painful, but he’s doing it]

rest

pain control

stable BP [they are adjusting his drips and fluids to try to boost his blood pressure–it is a bit low.]

eat [the only time he was awake he was pretty cranky and they upped his pain meds to get him comfortable. if he is interested when he wakes up, we will try some pedialyte first and see how that goes.]

✔ harp @ 1900 [we’re participating in a study to see how harp music affects pain management and comfort for kids who have the Glenn procedure. a harpist came this evening and played for exactly 31 minutes and left us with a CD of harp music to play for Patrick]

Just an update on the blood donations for Patrick: yesterday I took my dad to give red blood cells (they called it a ‘power red’). They were able to pack two units of red blood cells into one unit for Patrick.
Now all that’s left is for Braden, (who is not only a match, but an exact match in blood type), to donate platelets and red blood cells. They are also taking another blood component from Braden, but I’m not sure what it is. At any rate, between Patrick’s daddy and his grandpa, the doctors should have more than enough blood on hand for our liitle dude’s surgery.
We are very grateful to all who have offered their veins for Patrick and especially for both of Patricks grandpas who have compatible blood. It worked out well that my dad is here in Arizona this week and was able to donate.
Braden is pretty pleased that he and his baby boy have the same blood type. Maybe they’re related afterall!

Patrick is doing pretty well. His stats are good and after upping the dosage and potency of his sedatives, he is resting. When we asked him to be a fighter we didn’t mean that he should always fight sleep, but at least he is consistent. Even on morphine.

He came out of the anesthesia, but they need to keep him calm so that his leg stays straight. As the blood thinners wear off, etc. it is important that there not be any clotting issues.

At first he still had a plastic mouthpiece down his throat to keep the airway open and an oxygen mask to boot. It was so sad to see him waking up and trying to cough or cry with that thing in. I wasn’t sure how long I could see him like that, so I asked when he would be able to ditch it and they took it out right then!

The anesthesiologist raved about how cute Patrick was. She said that while they prepped him and put him under he just kept looking around at all the hands and objects moving around. She was quite pleased with how well he behaved. As nurses and others came in and out getting him situated in his room, she brought them up to speed on his condition–the first thing she made sure to tell everyone was that he is very cute. We agree.

We’re getting ready to go to St. Joe’s in about an hour. I woke Patrick up at 2:30 to feed him some milk-hopefully that 4 ounces will tide him over because he refused to drink more than a few cc’s of juice when I woke him again at 5. What child doesn’t like apple juice? At least I was rewarded for my efforts when the little dude spit some out on his dad instead of me (I got desperate and made Braden get up and try too.)
I don’t think I am anyone’s favorite person at the moment…
Fortunately, Patrick went right back to sleep despite my betrayal. With some providence he will sleep at least until they weigh him at the hospital.