Wireless at last!

After a night of little sleep, Patrick and I packed up this morning and headed to see his pulmonologist. His monitor went off a bunch last night (all false alarms due to the leads coming off of his skin), so whoever wasn't feeding Patrick got to wake up, too. The monitor is our nemesis, so Andy and I had our fingers crossed that Patrick wouldn't need it anymore.

Things went really well at the appointment. Not only did we get the doctor's clearance to schedule his hernia surgery, but she also said that Patrick doesn't need the monitor anymore. I was so excited to peel the leads off of him one last time. The monitor rode home from the doctor's office in the trunk!

After that, we decided to make a special trip to visit Aunt Katie. Her second grade class made Patrick cards on the day he was born, and then made some get-well cards when he was readmitted to the hospital for reflux in mid-May. As Patrick and I approached her classroom, a little head poked out of the doorway and shouted "He's here!" Katie's students all sat down on the carpet and took turns asking me questions about Patrick. They were so excited to meet him after hearing Katie tell stories about his time in the NICU. The questions that the students asked were priceless -

"Can Patrick walk yet?"
"What does Patrick like to do?"
"Was it hot in his incubator? Did he get sweaty in there?"
"Does Patrick eat hard food or soft food?"
"Why does he wear a brace on his feet?"
"Does he sleep a lot?"

Patrick held his audience captive for about 10 minutes, then had a minor meltdown since it was time to eat again. We said goodbye to his littlest fans, met a few of Katie's colleagues, and made a mad dash for the air conditioning in the car.

Patrick holding court in Miss Linn's second grade class