We stayed at the Hyatt Place downtown, which is an awesome hotel not only because the rooms are huge and there's free (hot!) breakfast, but also because they have a shuttle that runs within a 1-mile radius of the hotel. We took advantage of that, and took the shuttle down to Pier 57 to ride the "Great Wheel" - Seattle's new tourist attraction, a giant ferris wheel that sits on the edge of the pier and extends 40 feet over the water. We all thought it was pretty cool.
We went to Red Robin for dinner next, where I took the liberty of ordering the biggest dessert they had after dinner - Mountain High Mudd Pie. It's kind of like Paradise Pie for you Hawaii folks. I'm pretty sure they just filled a mixing bowl with ice cream, put more ice cream and crust on top, flipped it over and cut it into fours. Amazing. Grayson really liked the car game at Red Robin - I wish we had one of those for our house!
For you cranio moms, I took one last picture of Grayson's head this morning. You can see his trigonocephaly really well. For those of you saying "trigono-what?", trig means that his head is triangular shaped because his forehead was unable to grow any wider from birth. So as his brain grew it just grew toward the back and sides where the sutures were open and able to expand. Despite the fact that I don't want Grayson's face to change AT ALL, and I love him just the way he is, pictures like this remind me that he does need this surgery, and we're doing the right thing. Sometimes I forget that he has trig because he has so much hair!We got to the hospital around 9am. Grayson had pre-ops and labs scheduled in the morning and then surgery check-in at 11am. He didn't cry when they drew his blood. Didn't even flinch. I was super impressed (both with my son, and with the person who drew his blood!) I sure hope they don't need extra anesthesia to put down our tough little rhino... "we're gonna need a bigger boat".
For the second time, we checked in at the surgery center, and began the waiting process. And... it turns out once again that they have an ICU bed problem. But we weren't turned away. He just won't be spending the night in the ICU after all, but in a recovery room, until a bed opens up. So instead of being checked in at 11:00, they weren't able to take him back until 1:10pm until they got it all sorted out. We got more cuddle time though, so I was okay with that. He should be done sometime around 7:10 tonight (one hour to put him to sleep, another 5 for the surgery). I can't say enough wonderful things about the Seattle Children's staff. Everyone that interacted with us was so great with Grayson, and so thoughtful and considerate of us. They even brought us lots of toys to play with while we waited in the room, although after 7 hours without food or water, only Baby Einstein on the iPad was going to cut it for G-man! We changed him into his hospital gown, and they apparently only have big kid socks, but I put them on him anyway. They were like big red legwarmers :)
The last 10 months have been wonderful and amazing, but there have also been times (emotionally) that have not been easy. But by far - the hardest thing we have ever had to do is to hand him over to the anesthesiologist today. Grayson was just about to fall asleep. We were standing and rocking, and he was listening to Iz on Josh's phone. He was super cuddly, and resting his cheek on my cheek. I had to give him up, and of course he starts bawling. The nurse (awesome like the rest) told me (now in tears) that he would go to sleep really fast because he was breathing so deeply. I thought that was nice. Nothing painful happens while he's awake - no IV lines, no poking or prodding. And once he's asleep, he won't feel a thing. He won't miss us, and he won't be hungry or sad. But we sure miss him already.
