Update (10:05 am)

Just heard from the surgical team. They started the procedure a few minutes ago. If all goes well it should be three hours to handle the repair.

Update from Surgery (9:50 a.m.)

The surgeons took a little longer to get started this morning than we had originally expected. It's 9:50 a.m. and they have yet to start the procedure. They took him back to prep for the surgery around 8:15, so we're waiting to hear when they will actually begin the process. More later...mom and dad are doing okay (so far.)

In Good Hands

Cubby and Supermom after the nurses hooked up his IV. It was not a pleasant experience, especially for dad.

Thanks to everyone that has passed along a kind word via e-mail, text, phone call, or leaving a posting on Facebook. We all appreciate it very much. This has been a very long day, and most of our day in the hospital has been administrative. The nurses did fill us in on the procedure, and we were shown all of the tubes (and corresponding locations) that will be inserted into Cooper over the course of the next few days.

He did sit still for his first x-ray image, and has been picked at, poked, tickled, cuddled, and held by almost every nurse in the building. He doesn't seem to mind the nurses.

Only one of us was able to accompany Cooper when he had his IV inserted. The hospital tries not to perform anything "painful" in the same room where the children spend most of their time. And they only allow one parent in the room at a time. So dad had to try and calm him when the nurses were inserting his IV.

Supermom was in our room and heard him screaming...thankfully that will be the last time they have to insert any needles without first giving him something for the pain. You'll notice the "cast" looking contraption in the picture above. That's supposed to keep Cooper from pulling out the IV tube. He's already tried to shove it in his mouth. We'll see if it holds out.

It's going to be an early day tomorrow, but we are on schedule for a 7:30 start to the process. I hope to have some sort of update in the early afternoon.