Tuesday morning

The pictures here are not from today, but you know the saying about 1000 words, so I am including some from yesterday. There will be more later today as we have been told we can hold him lots this afternoon.
We shed our first tears of joy today. The MRI revealed no abnormalities or injuries to the brain. This is the most wonderful news we could have expected, so we are riding a bit of a high right now. That joy is bolstered further by the fact that a line into his umbilical cord is being taken out right now and the EEG monitor has been removed (since he showed no seizure activity overnight) and so we will be able to hold him lots this afternoon... and hopefully continually from here on. All joy, of course, is cautious joy. When the doctor told us what the MRI said, his words were "this is good but frustrating news". Good because it knocked a lot of very serious diagnoses off the checklist, but frustrating because there is still no idea what caused the seizures. But we will take that frustration gladly for now.
Another positive is that they are fully confident there is no infection, so they have stopped the antibiotics he has been on since he was born. Another great thing is that he finally had his first big bowel movement (sorry, no picture available... they took it for testing before I could snap a shot :-)) and has had another one since. And the best thing of all is that they will be inserting a feeding tube today and he will start getting very small amounts of Mommy's milk.
There is still much concern about why he won't wake up at all and he does not respond to the neurologist's tests as well as he would like sometimes. The best possible explanation is that the anti-seizure drug, phenobarbital, is just knocking him out. If that is the cause, it should become apparent in the next few days because its effects should lessen as his body gets used to dealing with it.
The next area of focus for the "wide net being cast" (as the doctor described it) is on his metabolism. There are apparently many possible problems in that area that could be contributing to the seizures. Those results will not be immediate as some of the tests have to done at external centres. So we are going to have to be patient. Of course, lab results are great, but an equally wonderful result would be for Finley to build his strength, overcome the drugs, and open his eyes and look at us. We remain hopeful that will happen.
Thank you for the overwhelming support. On top of everything, Robyn's milk is coming in and she is dealing with some cramping as well. Last night during the 2:00 am pumping I was concerned that she was going to have no reserves at all for today. But she was able to sleep and woke this morning feeling better than I could have imagined. That is thanks to the incredible outpouring of love we have received, make no mistake about it.
We will be back with more pictures later today.
With much love,
Finley and family