Twas the Night Before Surgery...

It's almost here. We have waited over 9 weeks, knowing this surgery would come and now we are counting down hours instead of weeks or days. It is with a mix of excitement and a bit of nervousness that I write this. I can't wait to look at my son's belly and NOT see his intestines (sorry if that sounds disgusting, it is a fact of life for us.) I am still concerned about the actual procedure, especially since they were unable to successfully put a central line or picc line in today. They mentioned that they will likely put one in during the surgery tomorrow. When I heard this my heart dropped since one of the more serious complications occurred when trying to do this when they put in the ostomy. Here is where the rubber meets the road on faith, I suppose. I know that Benjamin is in some of the best hands in the northwest and even the nation, and better yet I know he is in God's hands.

He did well today, but they removed his normal food at 6am and replaced it with Pedialite. It was not nearly as satisfying as his normal food and he spend most of the day a little fussy. This is new to us as we have not really heard him cry much. He would only settle down with a paciifier in his mouth and some good snuggling. He is not able to keep the pacifier in by himself for very long, so I called for backup and his aunt Jenny came to hang out for a couple hours to help cover when I needed to step away from him. For about a 30-40 minutes in the afternoon, he was accidentally unplugged from his oxygen, but amazingly he did not drop in oxygen saturation - basically he was breathing on his own with room air and did great! That was so encouraging!

My mom was able to hold him for the first time yesterday. It was the first time Benjamin had been held by anyone other Brian or me. He sure loves his Grandma!

We have to send out a big thank you to some of our neighbors and members of Bethany Church. Last weekend we were totally blessed by this wonderful group of people lead by our neighbor Jeannine that did a total yard makeover for us. Our grass was really tall and seeding out, weeds were taking over the flowers, and our vegetable garden spot was looking really scary. This amazing group of people transformed our weed patch into a beatuiful, welcoming yard. It looks better than it ever has! THANK YOU! May God give you back the hours you gave to us and then some!

Thank you for continuing to pray for us!

Jamie