Charleston... we have a procrastinator

I'm a planner.  I don't like waiting around until the last minute.  Structure and routine are my friends, my best friends!  I like to have a plan and stick to it.  That is one of the many reasons that this journey has been difficult for me.  Brinkley obviously has no attachment to structure or my plans.  He has made this perfectly clear in every way expect his feeding schedule.  That he insists on sticking to.  

I shouldn't be surprised about this "attitude" of his.  His Daddy is certainly not a planner.  Routine and structure make him a little crazy.  Like Brinkley, he is quite serious about eating routinely, but that is where the routine ends.  

Mr Brinkley has earned many "badges" in his short three months of life.  He is a strong little fella.  Today he added a new badge to his collection.  The Procrastination Badge.  

When I left the hospital last night the staff was satisfied with his pacing at 98.  Ideally, they wanted him to be in the 130-140 range.  However, he was able to maintain is blood pressure with that pace so we were going to go with it.  This morning I arrived at the hospital around 8 am and his pace was 125 with great blood pressure and oxygen numbers. I told someone today that he hit a grand slam in the bottom on the 9th.  

This was further confirmation that no pace maker was needed.  The lungs are continuing to clear up and we were able to have the breathing tube removed today!  

Look at that sweet face!

We still have many steps to take before we can talk about going home, but we are making progress.  They plan to remove the external pace maker sometime this weekend and then I can possibly hold him.  He may be able to have the chest tubes removed this weekend also.  The breathing treatments will continue until the lungs clear up and the nasal cannula will stay as it is basically serving as a humidifier.  They are aggressively treating him with two antibiotics for some bacteria that was found in the lungs.  His cough sounds pitiful, but I am so glad to be able to hear him for the first time in a week.

Though I get terribly frustrated with procrastinators, I'll take it!  Improvement is better late than never.  



*As if Brinkley's surprise wasn't enough to warm this Mommy's heart today, look what greeted me at lunch time: