Jeepers Creepers . . .

Today Finn opened his eyes, and way ahead of schedule I might add! (This picture was taken around 4:00 p.m.)

Last night was a rough night for the Finnster. Around midnight I happened to wake up and see Finn's legs flailing about. I got up and saw that he had his back arched and that he was desperately trying to get out of the car seat. I sat him up straight to make him more comfortable and he threw up everywhere. I called for the nurse and before she even made it in the door he had thrown up two more times. There was so much that it was pooled in the car seat and all over his body. The nurse called for some additional help and the three of us changed Finn's diaper, changed his blankets and washed him off. He felt much better after that episode and slept well the rest of the night.

The next morning Michael and I noticed that Finn's swelling had gone down a bit (at least in our opinion). Dr. Kelly came in and told us to expect Finn's swelling to get worse through the day and to top out sometime tomorrow. He also said that he was surprised that Finn's wasn't more swollen. After Dr. Kelly left, the drain tube and the foley catheter were removed, and I was finally able to hold my baby.


At first I just rocked and fed him. But then he started acting like he wanted to sit up.
I sat him up to burp him and then we saw one of his little eyes pop open. After about 10 minutes the second eye started to open. The nurse told us that she thought that Finn would not swell anymore. Only time would tell.
We decided to test how well could see so we held his toys out in front of him and low and behold he reached for them. We were so excited!
We didn't get to hold him too much longer because he became interested in all the wires attached to him and started pulling them off. The minute the nurse would get the wires back in place Finn would pull them off again. He also managed to kick off both of his "no-no's"
We were kind of worried that when we put Finn back in the car seat he would throw a temper tantrum and attempt to get out. We must have tuckered him out thoroughly because he immediately went to sleep and slept for several hours. I also was able to catch a nice long nap.
At 1:30 Donald Rush, a friend of Michael's from high school came to visit followed by Shannon and Ron. Around 3:00 Finn was ready to get up and play again. I was amazed at how much the swelling had gone down in just a matter of hours. Finn could really get his eyes opened.

Finn also seemed to feel much better. He started talking and laughing and chewing on things. We decided to try our luck at getting Finn out of the bed again, accept this time we put a shirt on him so that he couldn't pull off his leads. The nurse also replaced his "no-no's" with socks.

We had so much fun playing with Finn. He read his Thumper book several times and he also looked at his animal book. Michael and I attempted to make as many of the animal sounds as possible.

Later on Mom and Mrs. Cindi (MJ's mother-in-law) stopped in to see Finn on their way to the Frist Center. Ms. Cindi brought Finn a sock frog. In honor of Finn opening his eyes and given that the frog has great big eyes, I decided to name him Mr. Peepers.

Finn was almost back to sleep when Mom and Cindi arrived, but Finn was able to give them a great big smile.

After Mom left, Sharon stopped in after work. Next Michael and I decided to leave the hospital to go get some salads from Qdoba. On our way out we ran into Ron and Nina. After getting our food we sat in the cafeteria with Tommy and ate. When we were done we went back up to Finn's room where I fed him a huge bowl of oatmeal. I am so happy that he is eating solid food. He hasn't even attempted to breastfeed today. I am thinking that my little man is just about given up.

At 10:00 Finn finally drifted off to sleep. He had been awake for several hours so I think he will sleep really soundly tonight.

Today was really a great day. Finn has healed much faster than we and Dr. Kelly expected. I just want to once more thank everyone who has prayed for Finn's recovery. Those prayers have certainly been answered. Right before bed Finn's nurse popped her head in and told us that Finn was ready to be transferred to the floor and that we could go the minute a room opens up. I am so excited about moving to the floor. This last picture was taken at 10:00. As you can see, he is really starting to look like himself again.