Emerson Meets "Bobby"!

Today was much better day for Robert! Yea! We spent the morning with Emerson and my parents with Robert at the hospital. And then after Emerson's morning nap, a bath, and a snack, we took her to see her new baby brother, "Bobby". She was so cute. She wore her adorable little whale dress and "tigtails" (what Emerson calls pigtails). [I will have a post with mainly pictures soon when I upload my camera.] It's a pretty long walk from the parking deck to the NICU. We have to cross over 2 skywalks through 3 different buildings. So as we encouraged her to walk, run, march, and hop the whole way there, it still took us quite a long time. (She is 35 pounds and wiggly...So carrying her is a little hard for long periods.)

We brought her baby doll so she could hopefully understand when we constantly remind her to be gentle with the baby doll (and baby). She was a little shy at first...The nurses just loved her. And why wouldn't you with those tigtails??? ;) She showed off her babysitting skills to Robert's nurse of the day by rocking it, then promptly dropping her on the floor, then picking her up by the head, swinging her around the room by the leg, and then dropping on the floor and leaving face down. It gave us a good laugh at least. For the most part, Emerson completely ignored "Bobby". She gave him a good look and smiled at first, but then she wanted to watch her video on the portable dvd player we brought in too. Oh well, not the sweet baby brother moment I was hoping for, but I guess completely being uninterested in him is the next best thing actually.

The doctors came in a while later (Emerson was still there on the couch watching her dvd). They gave him a good look and discussed his stats and dsat's from the night before. Emerson promptly starting singing (I guess she needed some attention to??? Lol.). I am sure the doctors liked the serenade from the 2 year old with the tigtails. It is so hard to read these doctors. The resident or nurse practitioner reads off the stats and info in such a mundane voice that it makes the biggest episodes seem like nothing. The main doctor just asks a few questions in the same unconcerned tone of voice, they all discuss while we catch a few words that seem to make any sense, and then they leave. So who knows...I am still unsure as to what they are thinking.

Then for the rest of the day, Phillip and I were able to relax and just hold our little baby boy. We took turns holding and feeding him. He is on a strict feeding schedule so we are given the bottle by the nurse (which is currently at 67 ml every 3 hours) and hold him in between. He had a few dips in the oxygen stats today...lowest being in the 50s. But for the most part, it was a great day. Towards the end (10pm'ish), we definitely cuddled up and took a nap together. I hated leaving him tonight because he finally seemed very comfortable and content resting on my chest.

We hope to hear something from the doctors tomorrow. They have been telling us that they hoped to have a more long-term plan of action on Monday. I know they are waiting on some of the genetic testing to be returned even though they said that will not actually affect their plan of action on his heart. Obviously, we are hoping for good news on the genetics testing no matter what. Jury is still out (for me at least) on my thoughts about surgery before we are released to go back to Mobile. I can't decide if I would rather him have some sort of immediate surgery so I have peace of mind that he is more stable at home (increase of oxygen in blood would lessen the likelihood of tet spells) or put off surgery until he is somewhat older (and just constantly live by his side until then because of the possibility of tet spells).