Saturday, Oct. 19th, 2013

Eli is EXTREMELY swollen...he looks fat but this is all swelling.  He is so swollen his neck pushes out his ear lobes.  I got really emotional seeing him like this this morning because it reminded me way too much of the way my Grandpa looked when he was in kidney failure.  The nurse said it is normal...a combination of surgery recovery and being sedentary.  She gave him a diuretic to help get rid of some of it.  Then Eli started crying really hard (although no sound because of ventilator).  I lost it, it is so unnatural to watch your baby in so much pain and crying and not be able to pick them up!  (I still have never held him).  She gave him some more pain meds and he calmed down.  They are kind of weaning him off stuff but at the same time trying not to make him too uncomfortable.  All of his stats are really good...sometimes his meds make his blood pressure drop though.  Today they finally fed Eli for the first time with pumped breast milk through a tube in his nose.  (Prior to that he had just been getting "IV nutrition/vitamins).  He has made progress with his ventilator settings and his blood gases look great.

He is so swollen!

(Eli crying.....saddest thing ever..)

1:41 PM
Look who just came to visit us! This is Brian's mom's cousin. We found out she is the director of pediatric neurosurgery here at Riley! Jodi said she was actually in surgery in the OR next to Eli and had the same anesthesiologist nurse assistant later in the day...and the nurse said "I got a really complex heart case today...I had lots and lots of equipment I was prepared to use because they did not expect him to do well at all with the state he was in going into surgery but he did so well! Everyone in the room was SHOCKED, he is a little miracle and handled everything so well, we were even able to close his chest and he did not require ECMO( machines that do the work for the body after surgery)" and Jodi cut her off and said "was this by chance baby Eli?" And she said "yes! How did you know?" And so Jodi told her who she was and our connection and the nurse kept going on and on about how he surprised everyone and Jodi told her about all the prayers on his behalf and his priesthood blessings he received, and that is why she felt he shocked everyone.

It was pretty emotional hearing Jodi talk because not once did anyone tell us exactly how worried about his surgery they were in any way. It's interesting to hear the other side, it shows even more how much of a miracle my sweet little Eli is. I know this is no coincidence. I know that because of all or your prayers and faith in him he made it ok. I'm sure he had many angels in that OR with him!

5:53 PM

Seeing my baby's eyes for the first time and I'm so in love!!

This is the first time we have seem him awake and HAPPY!  Yes I know he doesn't look much awake...he's a little drug addict haha...but it is so sweet to see him alert but not crying his eyes out.