Post Op: Day 1

Lots of machines, lots of beeping.

I'm sitting at the house as I update the blog this morning. I'll be heading back to the hospital in a few minutes and wanted to provide an update. Supermom and I are alternating our stays at the hospital to every other night. The bed in Cooper's P-ICU room isn't quite big enough (or comfortable enough) for two people, and the hospital really prefers that only one parent stays overnight with their patients.

Yesterday included a lot of waiting around. Supermom and I managed to get some much-needed rest Tuesday night, and we both felt (and I looked) better. Neither one of us got much sleep Monday night, and Tuesday was quite exhausting.

Cooper was resting in his room and still hooked up to the ventilator. The plan was to remove the breathing tube at some point, but they needed him to be awake and alert so that he wouldn't relax and forget to breathe. The only issue seemed to be that he just wanted to rest, and the anesthesia was taking its sweet time working through his system. The anesthesiologist said that everyone responds to the medicine differently, so "waking up" really depended on each person and that every case was different.

Our son was being a little difficult in that he tended to thrash around because he was tired of laying in the bed. This had prompted the nurses to tie him down in the bed. They wanted to prevent any lines to be yanked out as he tossed and turned.

So we waited...and waited...and waited some more. Around 4 p.m. they determined he was awake and alert and removed the breathing tube. He is an overachiever like his momma, and is doing just fine breathing on his own. This is also a sign that other tubes and IVs could be removed, but that will be determined by the doctors throughout the day Thursday.

Supermom called around 9 p.m. last night and informed me that she was able to feed Cooper a little (much easier now that the tube is gone). And she got to hold him. I'll admit, I was jealous, and can't wait to get back up there to see (and hold) him this morning.

More later...