No waking so far

Tonight Krassi made it past the one-hour mark without waking up and crying. He did have one short stint in the early afternoon when he cried, but only for a very few minutes, and I rocked him on my lap (facing away, because looking at my face is still too much for him, and I didn't want to stress him out, but still wanted to offer close physical contact for comfort) and it was over soon. He stirred just a few minute ago (2+ hours into bedtime) but nothing came of it.

I don't anticipate these times are over, though. You don't erase nine years of memories in two nights.

We're starting to accumulate a list of some of the not-so-pleasant things that are in Krassi's not too distant future. First is the MRI they want to do - sedated, for obvious reasons, and because they want to get a full scan of his brain AND a slightly less detailed one of his full spine, it will be a one-hour, 45 minute scan! And, because its sedated, he can't eat for 9 hours prior to the test. I am NOT looking forward to not feeding him breakfast that morning. We intentionally scheduled that one a month out from now because there's nothing immediately critical about the information they hope to gain - they just want it for a baseline and to help all of us understand the extent of the damage in his brain from the bleeding soon after his birth - kind of a one-time snapshot, since CP is not a progressive condition of the brain. The damage was done once, and stays that way. Hopefully the time lag will give him that many more days to realize that we feed him and feed him well and make not being fed for breakfast one day a little bit less traumatic. (By the way, we have noticed that he's eating slightly less this week than he did in previous weeks. Still plenty, but he's not quite as bottomless!)

The second thing we found out after getting the results of Monday's x-ray is that both of his hips are dislocated. Although this doesn't limit what he can do with his PT as far as weight bearing and stretching goes (as long as he's not in pain), it is something that they would like to address surgically to increase his mobility and comfort in the long run. Because Krassi was not given any opportunities to use his body for the first eight years of his life, the bones did not have the opportunity to form properly, making them very prone to dislocation. We will be meeting with a surgeon later next week to discuss what the plan is for moving forward. I'm interested in finding a good balance between waiting long enough that he has a better comfort level established with me (and my ability to comfort him has increased) to hopefully minimize his trauma, while at the same time taking into account the huge growth spurt he's expected to go through in the next six months - does it make sense to do the surgery sooner before things grow and develop? Or later when he's sturdier? Interesting puzzle pieces to sort through.

Today Krassi made it happily through a visit to the library. ;) We did not need to visit the bathroom for a diaper change, (that incident is described here) and I think that made a difference. ;)