Star Patient

If there were ever a perfect doctors appointment, I believe Eli had one on Friday. We had an early morning appointment with Dr. Husayni (pediatric cardiologist) and I was sure it would be a long one due to his recent stent placement. He came in and immediately was impressed with how well Eli looked and how much bigger he is within a months time. Both Dr. Husayni and his nurse looked over him and said things sound and look great. They were happy with the results from the recent cathertization. 

So Sleepy!

 Eli weighed in at 14.25 lbs (he was 12.36lbs on January 6th) and is 24.5inches long. They want us to do mostly bottle feeds and leave the gtube use for medicine and any feeding Eli doesn't want to do by bottle. The bottle rejection happens every once in awhile but typically he loves his bottle. We should also relax on the strict eating schedule and let the hunger kick in. He needs to learn when he is hungry rather than knowing he gets fed at certain times. 

We also got great changes to his medications. Prior to his appointment he was on a few different medications:

 Amiodarone to control heart rhythms from his July hospitalization

 Lasix to keep off excessive fluid, hard for heart babies to handle

 Lansoprazole  "prevacid"for acid reflux

 Sildenafil "viagra" to help blood flow easier through compressed artery. 

Aspirin acts a blood thinner so body doesn't reject the stents

 Now he is just on Amiodarone probably until next month's appointment, lasix until this coming Friday, and half of a baby aspirin. The doctor said that when he comes back for his check up in four months he may be completely off of medicine. Talk about a miracle! It makes me very proud that he continues to do so well. 

As we were leaving, the speech therapist caught us and asked us to spend a few minutes with her so she could evaluate Eli again. She was happy with Eli as well, and said he made nice improvements since December. His neck was favoring a certain side previously and they gave us exercises to do to help stretch him. We no longer see that happening, they were worried about muscle forming awkwardly. 

Using his "big boy" cup

Both Dr. Husayni and the speech therapist said "Eli is one of our star patients". This was two separate conversations in different areas of the hospital so it wasn't like they were feeding off of each others comments. It makes Rafe and I very proud and I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa as well. 

7 Months!

7 months old!

Really? Seven months old already? No way! Well I will say today Mr. Eli was not his usual charming happy self. I'd love to blame it on the full moon or teething but I think it was a lack of stimulation. He had three days of people constantly around and noise a plenty.

Friday morning I woke up at 4:09am due to the carbon monoxide detector beeping. It wasn't beeping like it was an emergency but more of a dying battery. Thanks, it's not like I didn't have to wake up at 4:30 anyways. I got out of bed and went into the hallway and gave that thing a good stare down and said a few choice words at it. What do you know, it doesn't have the nerve to beep again or ever since then. Ugh!

In Recovery

Five thirty in the morning we are on our jolly way to Hope Hospital for Eli's cardiac cathertization. We've been through this before but now we were more than likely facing the placement of a stent. The procedure started and around 9:40am we got the update that they needed to place a stent and it would be about another 45 minutes before we got to see Eli.  At about the 35 minute mark we got another update that they needed to place a second stent because the area was longer than one stent could support. I was not very surprised by this because we knew back in September it was a rather long area of compression. The procedure went well and his only marks are slightly larger than an IV mark, one in his groin and one on his neck on his right side.
 
  We spent the night with him at the hospital and I must say that was not fun at all. I don't do well with noise at night so Thank God I had a pair of ear plugs in my bag, talk about a lifesaver. Before bed I checked on Eli's gums and found that one tooth came out. I originally thought it was two but the second one has yet to come out. I'm so proud of my big boy!

Tonight for his seven month "birthday" he got to try peaches for the first time. Yummy!

Daddy feeding Eli peaches

Happy New Year!

My 1st Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year. It was a very fun one for us celebrating Eli's first. Rafe had a five day break from work so we got a lot of play time in with him and got to go see some of his family also. My mom and I got to do our Christmas Eve tradition of going downtown and walking Michigan Ave and the weather was great so Eli joined us as well.

On to the main topic, Eli, he is doing great! This coming Friday Jan. 6th he is going in for another cardiac catheterization and more than likely a stent will be placed in his left pulmonary artery (LPA).  When we did his post surgery follow up with Dr. Husayni, the pediatric cardiologist, we had a three hour appointment that included two echo's. They found that his LPA was being compressed by a larger artery so they are worried about it and want to check it out better and fix if necessary. If a stent is placed he will spend the night at Hope and have an xray and echo in the morning. There are of course risks and it is always scary when they are put under sedation and intubated. I worry about his throat and vocal cords.

My Un-Birthday! 6 months old

We saw his speech and physical therapist right before the holidays and they were happy with his progress. He has great neck control now and we are slowly working on sitting up and back strength. He eats rice cereal and baby food once a day and LOVES it! His bottom two teeth are about to pop out any day now and is currently causing him a lot of pain. Eli has such a wonderful personality and could spend the day laughing and smiling. He loves to stomp his legs down while laying on his back. I think he enjoys the boom it makes because he sure has some strong legs. He loves to grab and shake things and has learned that his toes exist and that they are fun to grab. He is a major flirt also. Oh yeah he also learned how to blow raspberries and is working on kissing us on the cheek.

New Years Eve!

For this new year I am hoping for nothing but progress and wonderful new adventures in Eli and our lives. He is such a smart kid and brings so much happiness to our world.