Day Eight: SURGERY!

Today was an extremely long, emotional day. We were at the hospital for almost eight hours. Elliot went back for surgery at about 12:30pm, and I cried like a baby as I watched them wheel him away. It is so hard to say goodbye to your brand new, five pound baby boy before he leaves for surgery. His surgery lasted until about 3:00pm. Once they had him all settled back into his isolette, we were allowed to see him. To my surprise he was AWAKE and just laying there helplessly with his mouth hanging open, with his eyes barely open. I wasn't prepared to see him like that. So of course, I started crying again.
While he was still sleepy/drugged, they went ahead and gave him a new PICC line (30 centimeters long!) in his leg because the one in his head didn't go far enough into his chest. This means he should be able to wear his hats soon! And that also means he has less cords to pull on, which is good.
All is well now- he is still on the ventilator, morphine, and tylenol... but they are hoping to extubate him tomorrow. He's sleeping peacefully now which makes me happy.

Some Pre-Surgery pictures (because the post-op ones still make me cringe):


Daddy holding Elliot before he was prepped for surgery.


Elliot swaddled for the FIRST TIME EVER- he loved it!


Moving into the transport isolette.


Doing what he does best- yanking at his tubes.


Just looking around at his new surroundings.




Right before they wheeled him away.