A Few Firsts

Things are moving along here! Briggs got his first bottle and first baby food, we also got to hold him for the first time, which was painful for him and therefore brief. But it was heaven for me. The latest we're hearing is that they will take out his central line (the IV in his neck) today. Briggs already took out one of his arm IVs himself last night. That was not fun at the time, but ended up to be a good idea as he could suck his thumb and get a little rest. He still has some CO2 in his blood, so he's only high flow nasal oxygen. They are weaning him down today, but he can't leave the ICU until he's off that. He also still has an IV in his leg and his other arm, but one of those should come out soon. The trick are the chest tubes. One goes into his heart to drain any leftover fluid from surgery, but he has a second chest tube because he had some fluid in his lungs which has now been cleared but they will leave the tubes in for a while to be safe. He can't really move around much until those tubes are out because they are each connected to large boxes. But, we're eager to see if he can and wants to walk. That will speed healing too if possible. The next day are going to be tough - he is mad, wants to move, has no attention span - it's basically like taking a 4 day plane flight with a 13 month old who has to stay in his own seat wrapped in wires. At least, thanks to friends and family, Billy and I can occasionally get off the plane :)

Here's are a few pictures of our firsts:

Also, I wanted to say thank you to the people of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church for the prayers, the women who make the prayer shawls (shown below with my friend Andrea whose 4 year old son Drew will be leaving the hospital pretty soon), to Frank and Erica for their visits and prayers.