A handsome head of hair

...and a super cute face to go with it! Here are some pictures of James from before his abdominal surgery and then some from today, when Keith got to hold him (for an hour!) for the first time since the surgery. He's such a sweet little boy.

Daddy and his boy :-)

For the past two days our nurses have commented about how he's much more awake and alert, sometimes staying wide-eyed and curious for up to 20 minutes at a time. Up until now, we've only got to peek at his eyes off and on for a few minutes at a time before he's asleep again. Our sweet nurse Nicole made us this precious sign last night and now it's hanging on my bedside table.


A condensed update is that James continues to heal and be stable, but since his PDA (heart-lung valve) remains open and it should be closed by this age and could pose a risk of damage to his lungs and stomach/intestines due to incorrect bloodflow, the surgeons have chosen to schedule his surgery to close this valve on Friday afternoon. We'd been hoping to avoid this week altogether (Maddie will be in the hospital until Thursday or Friday & my grandma just died and her funeral will be on Thursday morning), but no such luck. Please continue to hold us in your prayers, as the phrase "when it rains it pours" has certainly become reality in the last week! I swear, the hospital staff must be beginning to think that we have a serious case of bad luck going on! If one more bad thing happens, I might just have to curl up under a rock somewhere and hibernate for the winter.