Sleepy Sleepy Baby

Yesterday morning we transferred from the University Hospital to Children's Hospital. The Transport team came and loaded up Kimble for the incredibly long ambulance ride... across the street.

He looked like a plate of spaghetti when they got all his cords together.
Soon after we got settled, the nurses were fiddling with him a bit, and I asked one of them if I could hold him. She looked at me and said "Of course you can!" Heath and I were so shocked. We told them that we hadn't been able to hold him yet. It was so very sweet to have him placed in our arms. I cried immediately.

Some of you are wondering about his hair. It's actually pretty long in back, but short on top...exactly the way Keaton's hair was.

Heath got to hold him too. It was very tender to see.

Soon after that, one of the Cardiology doctors came over to chat with us about the upcoming meeting our team of doctors was going to be having about Kimble, and the plan of action they were going to take based on the echocardiogram they had just done. While we were talking, I mentioned pumping and saving my breastmilk, and wondering when he could start getting my milk (he had been on IV fluids up to this point)
and the doctor said "You can breastfeed him anytime you want."

I think I almost fainted. First, I had just gotten to hold him, which was so wonderful. Now, he was saying I could breastfeed him immediately?? It was too good to be true. I was so excited. We got set up and tried to get Kimble to nurse, but he wouldn't wake up from his medication-induced sleep. Apparently the prostoglandin that he is on makes babies very sleepy. We spent the rest of the day and night trying to get him to wake up enough to nurse, and although he has made a bit of progress this morning, and latched on for a few minutes, he is still so very sleepy. The doctor's reduced the medicine a bit, and we hope that this weekend we can work towards him being a full-time breastfeeding baby!

Also, there is more good news. The doctors think there is a very high chance that his right ventricle might possibly develop into a more capable chamber. They want to balloon the pulmonary valve (which is closed off currently) to open up bloodflow, and hopefully that will make the right ventricle start contracting and could, eventually, (years down the road) function capably enough to give him a long and healthy life. There are lots of procedures, possible surgeries and stuff, that will happen along the way, but the doctors see this route as the best possible thing for Kimble, and have very high hopes that it will be successful.

At this point, sometime next week they will do an extensive Cath test, and if it looks as they anticipate, they will balloon out the valve immediately. After that, it could be 2 weeks, it could be 4-6 weeks, before they know if he will be well enough to be released, or if they need to place a shunt in his heart, or if they need to do something else. So right now, it is a lot of waiting. We'll see what happens.

Last night my mom flew into town, so Heath will bring up her and the kiddos to visit with me. The kids can't see the baby, but my mom will be able to. So this weekend, it's just visiting with family and relaxing with the baby and hopefully getting him awake enough to breastfeed! It's been a busy 24 hours, full of fresh hope for the future.