Wednesday morning

As you can see in the pictures above, he has started grasping the valve on his pic line (a line in his right arm that goes into his heart) in his right hand and holding it over his right shoulder. He looks like David holding his sling, which is just an awesome image for us.
We just came from rounds and it is pretty clear that we have entered a new phase, one that will not bring earth-moving news each hour, but will rather be a slow process with much waiting. Patience now jumps to the top of the long list of things we need to muster. But muster we will.
Finley continues to sleep all the time. They are reducing the level of the drug, but it could take days for the amount that is in his system to settle to the new level (for those craving some science-speak, the drug has a long half-life). HOWEVER, we got a brief gift yesterday night when Finley opened his eyes and looked at his Mommy and his Grandma Hannah for almost ten minutes before settling back in for another long snooze. So he has given us a little teaser of what we hope is to come.
He seems to be handling Mommy's milk well, which is great. Everyone who examines him says that he does not have a very good suck, so it will likely be a struggle to get him breastfeeding. But we are all (Finley, too) committed to making that happen. But he won't get to try until he wakes up and has graduated from tube to syringe first.
We have had our stay in the sleeping room in the NICU extended through the weekend. We are very thankful for this as it allows us to maximize our time with him.
We will continue to update. Here are some pictures of his "home", so you can have a sense of where he is hanging out. He continues to get excellent care.
Love to all.
Finley's Mommy, Finley's Daddy, and Finley