Wow... Wow... Wow

Wow what a week. The pictures to the right document the past week in chronological order (the top pic is the most recent). It has been such a tough week, but Elijah has been quite the fighter and is doing really well. He was born last Tuesday. They took him as soon as he was born and assessed him. I was able to hold him for a minute before he was taken to the NICU to wait for transport to CHLA. Dion went with him to the NICU while they finished with me and I was moved to recovery. Those are some of the most painful moments of my life. Dion was wonderful and managed both me and Elijah, going back and forth all day. The hospital was great and took me to the NICU on the way to my room and I was able to see him again. The transport team also brought him to my room before the took him to CHLA. It took four people, plus Dion and an ambulance to get him to CHLA. All for a little six pound baby.

Once he was admitted, they waited two days before doing the surgery. During that time, we were able to hold him with the help of a nurse. There were so, so many people in and out of the room.  CHLA is an amazing place with wonderful people working there. The nurses and doctors have to be some of the most caring people I have ever met. Not only have they cared about Elijah and his well being, but they care about us as well. There is a nurse assigned to Elijah at all times and he/she stays in the room with us and Elijah. Dion and I worked out a schedule and have been taking turns spending the night at the hospital. It has been hard, but we are doing the best we can.

The day they took him for surgery was heart breaking.  We had so much support at the hospital. I wished I had seen more pictures of babies directly after the surgery. Nothing prepared me for the sight of my little baby hooked up to so many wires you can't count, with chest tubes attached draining blood from him, a foley catheter, and a breathing tube. Not to mention the worst part, the open chest. It was shocking to say the least.

He did well and progressed just as he should. One night his left lung collapsed and they had to manually get him to breath again. But man that little boy is a fighter. The doctors have been slowly weaning him off of all his medicines and they closed his chest on day 3. The chest tubes came out Monday and they were able to take his breathing tube out yesterday. They still have him on oxygen but they have been slowly lowering the levels over night. They also started to introduce pedialyte through his NG tube over last night. 

Dion spent the night last night and they were able to move Elijah from the CTICU to the Acute unit this morning.  This is very exciting. Dion is supposed to be able to try feeding him with a bottle this morning. Dion and I have been  pacifier nazis trying to get Elijah to suck again, so hopefully he will be able to get the hang of the bottle fairly quickly.

Noah has had a rough week. The first several days were so crazy and we didn't really get to see him much. He has been a trooper though. We have had so much family around to love on him and help take care of him. Once things settled down, we have been able to make sure he sees at least one of us everyday. But he still calls for mommy and daddy when we aren't around. He came down with a little cold and we are being very cautious and hoping that none of us catch it as well. We have been repeatedly warned that Elijah can't get sick.

I suppose this has been a long enough update :). I will try to be more consistent about getting information on here as it happens. We have been so very, very tired it has been hard to think about anything but the absolute necessary. As always, we ask that you keep Elijah and our family in your thoughts and prayers.