Pre-Op: Done

Good Evening and greetings from Minneapolis.

We arrived in Minneapolis last night and we are here with my inlaws.  We spent a rare lazy morning this morning since our appointment wasn't until 10:45.  Sully got up at 5am to eat and have a diaper change.  He sat in my arms and held my finger and chowed his bottle like it was his job.  When he was done, he gave me the biggest, cutest smile and I just couldn't bring myself to put him back in his crib so I laid him in bed with me and we just snuggled, watched a little bit of a movie and fell asleep.
I woke up again at 8am to his scrunched up face and it was the best thing to see right when I opened my eyes.

We gathered all of our donations for Ronald McDonald and we set off for the hospital.  Luckily, my inlaws live only 8 blocks from the hospital so we don't have to spend a lot of time fighting the gawd awful Minneapolis traffic. I have been anxious this entire time and I almost had a feeling of apprehension as we pulled into the parking ramp. All my old feelings came rushing back and I had to hold back the tears. I am so determined not to let Sully see me cry, and so far, I am doing a very good job.
We got to the specialty clinic and we were met by the nurse.  She knew us right away.  We did Sully's weight and height, he is 14lbs 10oz and 25 inches long, and took his vitals. All his stats were good so we headed to the echocardiogram.  You'd think that most babies would scream and squirm well someone rubbed an ultrasound wand over their hearts and tummies, but not my trooper.  :-)  He slept through the first part and then played, giggled and talked to the ultrasound tech the rest of the time.  We were waiting to talk to Dr. V when he was called away for an emergency.  They told us to have some lunch and come back in 45 minutes. 
I decided to use this opportunity to run of to the good ole' CVCC floor and see if any of our nurses were there.  To my surprise, our favorite nurse, Christie, was on shift.  As soon as she saw me, she ran over and gave me a huge hug!  It was so nice to see her.  She is my age and was so fantastic to us.  And she was especially loving towards Sully. The first thing she wanted to know was where was Sully?!  I had left Robert and Sully on the 2nd floor.  She decided to come down to see him. 
Oh, man was she pumped!  I took Sully James out of his car seat so she could give him a squeeze. Christie said that she was worried that he would cry when she held him because he didn't know her, but our mister is kind of a flirt.  :-)  He just smiled and laughed at her and they had a nice little snuggle session.  We even snapped a pic:

Sully and Christie!

After our reunion with Christie, we went to talk to Dr. V.  He told us that everything looked amazing and that Sully is the picture of health.  Dr. V said that Sully is how they wish all babies would be prior to this surgery.  He said that he thinks Sully will continue to amaze everyone and be oh so tough!

Dr. V really put our minds at ease.  I was so nervous for this, but Dr. V is more than confident.  WE left the appointment with light hearts and a renewed sense of positivity!

So happy after my appointment!

We have to be up and at it early tomorrow for his CT scan.  He can have breast milk until 2:30am and then Pedialyte until 4:30am.  I am going to wake him up at 1am or so to eat a bottle and then again at 4am for some Pedialyte. He can't eat after that until after the procedure and they said hydration before could mean the difference between having to intubate or getting to skip that step.

Thank you everyone for your posts and comments. You seriously have no idea how much they mean to me.  I love getting all the positivity!

Wish us luck tomorrow!

Courtney, Robert and Sully