What a difference a day makes!

Well, what a contrast. Patrick had a very restful night with no seizures which was great news. When we got to the hospital we were very relieved to see our favourite nurse Fran was in, especially after the last few days we've had, Fran is such a bubbly person and never fails to make us feel at ease and positive.
Anyway, on to the important stuff...
Patrick is getting more and more awake now which is fantastic to see, he even managed to open his eyes! Very briefly and only half open but he definitely opened them voluntarily so we all whooped for joy! He has been responding to touch and sound with very subtle movements but it is all encouraging. Since they dropped the phenatoin yesterday evening he hasn't had any visible fits, not even any twitches, this is all positive signs and Dr Thomas, Patrick's Neuro has also said this is encouraging.
Another great thing from our point of view is that they have managed to remove half the wires and needles from his tiny body. They've taken out his catheter so I can now change his nappy! Little things like that make so much difference to us, everything we would normally take for granted or turn our noses up at, mean so much to us now after more than a week of not being able to do these things for our baby. Having less wires etc also makes giving him a cuddle easier which is fantastic.
One bit of not so positive news today is that Patrick has developed a slight infection in his left lung. This is fairly standard for someone who has been on a ventilator for any amount of time because of the build up of fluid. They are giving him anti-biotics for this (another one to add to the list!) and don't expect this to cause any problems for him. Fingers crossed, as long as his chest has cleared up enough they may be able to take him off the ventilator by the end of the week.
I know we have a long road ahead of us and are still no closer to getting any firm diagnosis or prognosis but for now, just the prospect of seeing our baby breathing for himself is enough to give us strength and hope that we may eventually get to bring our baby home.