Our First Two Weeks- A Photo Update

It has now been almost two weeks since Eli has come to live with us. I can honestly say it has been one of the greatest, and most trying times of my life all at once. We went from being able to go, eat, sleep, and do what we wanted, to having to schedule everything in three hour increments.

So how is Eli?

The first thing we did after arriving home was to go in for our first doctor appointment. They measured and weighed him. He is now 17 inches long, and at that time weighed 4 lb 13 oz. The doctor said he looked good. We went ahead and scheduled the appointments with a cardiologist for his PDA and surgeon for his hernia.

The rest of that week we continued our usual routine. Wake up at 9, 12, 3 and 6.. on both sides of the clock  to change and feed him. Every other day Meagan will give him a bath. My favorite thing is to lay down with him for a nap.

Last Sunday some people from the church threw us a shower. We were able to get lots of clothes, supplies and baby stuff. It was great to have so many people there. We are grateful for the friends we have.

Tuesday we took a little trip to Arkansas Children's Hospital for his Cardiology and Surgery check up. We met with the cardiologist, and they did an EKG on Eli. Meagan and I were both surprised how long it took to put on all the leads, but how short the EKG actually was. Later the doctor came in and listened to Eli's heart. She could not find any evidence of the PDA, it had completely closed.

We then went to our appointment with the surgeon for Eli's hernia. They want to wait a little while to see if he can get off the oxygen before doing the surgery. So sometime in the middle of June we will travel back up to have that surgery completed.

Eli has been doing well here at home. It seems every day he takes more and more formula at his feedings. When we first got home he averaged about 40 cc per feeding, now he's up to an average of 53, and many times takes the complete 60 that we fix right now. I almost forgot, when they weighed him at Arkansas Children's he weighed 5lb 2 oz. So he definitely is a growing boy

Some of you were wondering how the dogs were doing. The answer is awesome. Mia and Honey are the ones who are most curious about Eli. Mia came in for almost every feeding at first and laid down in the room. When I am gone, and Meagan is feeding him, Honey will lay down half in the door, half in the hallway with ears alert.

We have not taken Eli out into the general public yet, and will not for a little while. However we have had a few people drop by and say hi. I'll close this update with some of those photos.

Bringing Home Eli

It's now almost a week late but between feedings every three hours, and the lack of sleep grabbed in between I have worked to get you caught up on how we came to bring Eli home.
I already shared in the about us finding out on friday that we would be bringing him home. I then shared the events of Saturday and the first part of Sunday. So it is there that we pick up the rest of the story.

It was Sunday night that we were to room in. What is rooming in? Up to this point the nurses have taken care of Eli. We have come in and fed him a few times, or changed diapers, but no matter what there was always a nurse right there by our side. This was comforting as we are both first time parents and the thought of a tiny human being depending on us for everything was a bit overwhelming.

The nurses taught us how to hold the bottle to feed him, they showed us how to swaddle him, and they helped us to give him the medicines he needed. They also did all of those things for him when we were not there.

The room in was our chance to go solo. We were in a room next to where the nurses were, but we were basically on our own. We got to feed him every three hours, we gave him his medicine, we woke up to comfort him, we were the ones responsible. Now they were right there at the call of a button, but it was up to us to take care of Eli.

Meagan working on some school stuff during our room in process.

There are a few things you should know about staying all night in a hospital if you don't know. First of all, up to this point every time I have slept on a bed that was created by the creative folding and unfolding of a couch it has been a most uncomfortable experience. This was no different. The couch cushion pulled out toward us and the back of the couch came down to be one side of the bed. Ouch.

Not near as good as it looks.

Second, the food in the hospital cafeteria was exactly what you would expect. They gave us meal vouchers for us to go down and get our supper on Sunday, and then again for our breakfast on Monday. Sunday the choices were vegetable lasagna or hamburgers. You know me, I chose the hamburger. Bad choice. The next morning I went with the eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon. The eggs were good.. and they had cereal.

Finally, no one is designed to get sleep in 3 hour increments. Yep every three hours, 3pm 6 pm 9 pm etc... one of us had to wake to feed the sleeping boy. Now granted he's so cute that of course anyone would give their right arm for the chance to hold and feed the baby boy, however if you are not used to it, the 3 hour naps you get in between can take some getting used to. I especially thought it cruel because we had a 7 hour drive home ahead of us.

Loading up in the car.

It was a night to remember, and we made it through. The next day the doctor signed the release order, the lady from the adoption agency came to help with the sign out process, we loaded him up in the car seat and we were on our way.

7 hours, 2 feedings, 4 stops and many miles later we arrived to the place that Eli will call home.

Well that's about it. Since then we have had many new firsts. For instance our first trip to the doctor. However those stories will have to wait for another time.

We're Getting Closer...

We are getting close to the point where Eli could come home at any time. As I shared in our last post, this is both exciting and very scary. In some ways I am ready for him to be safe in our arms, in our house and not 5 hours away. In some ways I want him to stay there and keep getting stronger, and have nurses and doctors there to take care of him when the slightest thing goes wrong.

But we need to be ready. I shared that he would be moving to take 3 out of 4 feedings by bottle soon, well he has surpassed that and moved on to taking all the feedings by bottle. So now, except for the oxygen, he is closing in on all the requirements to come home.

We still do not have an exact date for when that will be. Meagan will be talking with the doctor today to see what he thinks about it all, and when we should plan to pick Eli up. At this point I would not begin to guess what that date will be.

So now we will wait several hours till Meagan calls and talks to the Dr. Until then I keep praying he gets stronger, and weans off the oxygen.

As a side note he weighed 4lb 12oz yesterday. Seriously? That's up from 4lb 4oz a few days before. Something tells me we'll be buying groceries more often.

-Russell

***UPDATE*** 5/5/11  12:30 p.m.

Talked to the Dr. today and said that though he is feeding by bottle regularly it still will be 5-10 days before he comes home. They are trying to get him off of the oxygen. 

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Want to know what we're talking about.. Check out these other posts about our adoption process.

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