Day one in the big city!

We *finally* made it to Seattle! We got to Moses Lake last night, after making quite a few extra stops along the way to accommodate our cranky toddler. Wade, for some reason, isn't a very big fan of being strapped into a car seat for that long. Leaving from there this morning, we got about ten feet before it started dumping snow, which quickly covered the roads in slush. Snowqualmie Pass was under heavy restrictions (we had to stop to buy chains a few miles before we got to it), and the east-bound side was actually closed for a few hours while they cleaned up wrecks. It was a nerve-wracking couple of hours, spent crossing our fingers that they'd leave our side open long enough for us to get through. Everything worked out, thankfully, and we got to Seattle around 11:30.

Kelly checking Brandt's stats.
They like to do this by hand
every now and again, even though
the machines do the same. There's
just something about human
intuition that can't be replaced.

Once there, we dropped Wade off with my cousin and sister, who promised to take him off on a day of adventure...after lunch and a good nap, of course...and took off to the hospital to see Brandt! He was bellowing his lungs out when we got there...obviously displeased that his pacifier had fallen out and his loyal cronies weren't responding quickly enough. (On a side note, I was bound and determined that this child would never use a pacifier, after the issues we went through with Wade. Funny how priorities tend to change.) He really seems to have settled in and is enjoying the room service.

Wires everywhere, but somewhere
in that mess is our cute little
booger.

We met up with the doctors that had been on call this weekend soon after. It was nice to get to put a face with the name and voice we'd heard over the phone a few times as they updated us. We also got to meet Nurse Kelly, who had been taking care of him all day...Brandt is one of her two patients, so we've seen a lot of her (and will see a lot of his other nurses). It's good to see him getting such good care!

All of our updates lately have just been that he's doing very well, and stable...essentially operating under the "no news is good news" mindset. Yesterday, however, he was able to take his first bottle of breastmilk! He's been fed via IV since reaching the hospital, to make sure that nothing interfered with his meds and oxygen and whatnot. But yesterday's feeds seem to be the first of many, as he took to it like a champ! Tanner and I got to spend quite a bit of time holding him as well, for the first time since he was born. Hopefully that'll turn into a daily occurrence.

One wouldn't know it, with as much
as he sleeps, but this boy has some
very pretty eyes. 

He did have one procedure done today, that consisted of having a PICC line put in. Doctors love their acronyms...this one stands for "peripherally inserted central catheter", and it's essentially an IV line that is threaded through his leg, up a blood vessel, and ends near his heart. So "peripherally inserted" because it goes into his leg rather than a vessel in his neck or chest. "Central" because of where it ends up in the body, sending his meds more directly to his heart. "Catheter" because it's a tube delivering substances to the body. PICC lines are handy in that they can be left in for a few weeks at a time without cause for concern, and they can be used both for delivering IV liquids and for blood draws, so they don't have to stick him with any more needles. In previous attempts to get Brandt what he needed, they tried to get veins in both hands and legs (have you seen how tiny baby veins are?) which did nothing but bruise him up. Alternatively, they went in through a vein and an artery in his umbilical cord, but that's not a good long term option, as there's risk for infection. The PICC line replaced the latter...I got to "help" (i.e stand by and talk to Brandt while she did all the work) when Kelly removed the umbilical catheter...pretty neat, and he didn't even squirm, aside from the adhesive removing.

Brandt also got his first visitors, in the form of Tyler and Alexa (Tanner's brother and his wife) and, of course, Shawna (my sister) and Allyson (cousin) when they brought Wade by at the end of their day. We were more than pleasantly surprised to find out that the hospital would actually allow our rambunctious two-year-old in to see "beebee broyer"; this was their first time meeting, as we never did get to bring Brandt home before taking him to be checked at the hospital. He was fascinated by this new little being, but not quite sure what to think! We pinned him down long enough for our first family picture, then let him go run off with his Aunties again for a little bit.

We've got quite a view from our 6th
floor window...It started pouring
rain not long after we got in, but
the rainbow it caused seemed
oddly fitting.

We have finally heard more about the condition of Brandt's heart, although there's still nothing really set in stone. I've been in the process of writing the post explaining it all since the day we left, but we keep learning more and discrediting what we previously thought we knew, so it's been kind of difficult to get it done. I'll keep plugging away at it, though, as I know many (all?) of you are curious. We also learned a bit (as in, the absolute bare minimum) about his surgeries that will be happening over the next two or three years, which will also go into that post. As it turns out, because Brandt is so stable, and his heart is functioning decently for the time being, that his first surgery may or may not be this week. They may push it off until next, to make way for other, more critical patients. We'll figure that out, hopefully for sure, when we meet with all of his doctors and surgeons on Tuesday evening. (Apparently, birthing a baby on a holiday weekend isn't a great idea, because when it comes to meeting with specialists...well, they like their long weekend holidays just as much as the next guy!)

Shawna has been lovingly
dubbed "Auntie Do-nuh", which is,
coincidentally, also his word for
one of his favorite foods...

So my plan of attack is to try to get the heart post written up today, and maybe even posted this evening, and then I should have a more conclusive something-or-another to give you Tuesday night or Wednesday after we've had The Big Meeting. I hope you can wait that long! There don't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done that I think I can do!

We're off on an adventure!!

On a side note, I do post these blogs, as well as some stand-alone pictures on Facebook, but the blogs are the only thing I make available to the public. That means that when you share the pictures (that I have set for only friends to be able to see), no one else sees them except those who already have. Sharing posts that I've made public means that everybody and their brother can see them, so you'll have better results with that, I think. I will try to put most of the posted pictures into the blog so all who are interested can see them.