Happy boy

Yesterday Eli laid like this with his arms straight out at his sides for the longest time. I think he just enjoyed stretching out with his "free" arms. It was so cute.


More arm stretching


Big yawn

Hello, Mama here. One thing the doctors and nurses have been telling us is that Elijah will have a setback in eating after this surgery, so that is what we have been expecting. That is why we are all in awe about the fact that he's actually eating MORE than he was before. Setback? Not for our man! He likes his food more than ever and that is great great news! Not only is he a better eater now, he's also much more content, smiley and just generally more happy. My best guess is that those lowering oxygen sats were starting to make him feel yucky. It's like we have a new baby! And his cheeks are even pink for the first time.

We should hopefully be moving up to Recovery today. We've now been in the ICU for 9 nights, so a less hectic environment (and more privacy) will be quite nice. We're not sure how long we'll have to stay there yet.

Elijah is still doing great. His breathing is still more labored than it should be, but we are keeping a close eye on it. If anything keeps us here longer than we had hoped for, that will probably be it. He gets nebulizer treatments every couple of hours to open up the airways in his lungs, so that has been helping. We still haven't heard back about the cultures that were sent in, but I'm guessing that if he had an infection we'd know about it by now. The yellow stuff in his lungs was most likely old blood (we hope).

It's been a very trying 10 days, but we definitely feel we are around the bend now and on the home stretch for this recovery. We've appreciated all of your prayers sooo very much, and thanks also for the meals and phone calls and emails. We have the most wonderful friends and family in the world.