A Christmas Craft

All of my creative mama-friends inspired me to do a Christmas craft with Colin. I thought about possibly doing something with construction paper like a Santa head with cotton balls or a hand cut-out reindeer head or a paper chain. I went to Michaels looking for more ideas and found something even better - a wreath and a Christmas tree that came with stickers that Colin could decorate. Although we may still try to do one or more of the other crafts, I thought this would be super fun for him because he could actually do the craft all by himself (something he's starting to enjoy more lately) and he loves stickers. I bought two so one could go on each of the boys' bedroom doors. Colin got to choose who got which - Colin chose the tree for himself and the wreath for Eli. He is so proud that his artwork is part of our holiday decorations.

Eli is 8 Months Old

What an exciting month this has been! Eli had his last surgery and did awesome, and in the couple weeks since then, has pushed up to his hands and knees, started crawling, started pulling himself up on the fireplace, popped his first and second tooth, gave his first hugs and kisses, started finger foods (which he hates so far), said his first word (Dada), did his first sign (clapping hands for "all done"), started riding in his convertible carseat, and has officially started terroizing his brother. Now that he's on the go, he loves to explore. He especially likes to tip over his basket of toys and swim around in the mess. One of his other favorite past times is chasing after Colin and trying to play with whatever he's playing with. Below, you'll see a picture of Colin handing Eli a small car because Colin didn't want him playing with the big dump truck. In the next picture, you'll see that Eli (although normally would be perfectly content with that car) mows over the car to get to the truck. He also seems to automatically hone in on things he can destroy such as lego towers or tinker toy buildings. His weight is unofficially up to 18.6 pounds and his height is 28 inches. He's so much fun - now he just needs to start sleeping through the night.

A Letter and a Visit to Santa

Today we took the boys to visit Santa at the Sylvania Heritage Museum. They had so much fun...just kidding! As you can see by the pictures, Eli was absolutely horrified (but at least we got the classic picture) and Colin refused to look at Santa let alone talk to him or sit on his lap. We've been talking about visiting Santa for at least a month and the whole time, Colin has been adamant that he would not sit on Santa's lap but that he would stand next to him. So I can't say I'm surprised at how today went. I'm happy that I was able to at least get both boys and Santa in the same picture. This morning, to try and hype up the visit, I suggested that Colin write a letter to Santa, telling him what he wanted for Christmas. It was very cute because he didn't want me to help him at all and had so much fun writing the first letter, he insisted on writing a second letter on the back of the paper. That's supposed to be a motorcycle - not sure when he became interested in those. I guess I should have asked for his list sooner. Ha! :) Needless to say, the hype didn't help allay his fears of the man in the red suit. Maybe next year?

Edible Art

Tonight Chris, Colin, and I decorated our annual gingerbread house. Well, technically, we started it last night, but both pieces of the roof were broken in half so we let the repairs harden overnight before putting it all together. We started the gingerbread house tradition last year, when Colin mostly just watched and played with the candy. This year he was actually able to help and really enjoyed putting the candy on the house. Although, I think what he enjoyed even more was "accidentally" getting frosting on his fingers so he could lick it off. I have to say that overall I think it turned out pretty good.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

This weekend, the boys and I finally got around to putting up our Christmas tree. All our other decorations went up the previous weekend, but we waited on the tree until after our dingy carpet got cleaned. Colin was definitely more enthusiastic about the idea of decorating the Christmas tree than the actual process of doing it. However, I was able to convince him to try his hand at hanging a couple ornaments. After that he was happy with just directing - choosing which ones I should hang next and indicating where they should go. Eli had a blast trying to tip over the boxes and send the ornaments flying. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Brothers!

Just wanted to post something real quick since it's been awhile. Will update on Eli's surgery soon!

Surgery #4 - We're All Done!

This post is a little late, but we've been a tad bit busy (to say the least). Eli had his 4th and final surgery the week of Thanksgiving. We went in on Monday to prep his colon. We were told to arrive at noon, but unfortunately the ball didn't get rolling until about 4 PM. The nurses gave Eli his IV, inserted an NG tube, and put on a colostomy bag in preparation for his cleanse. Around 5:00, he was given a laxative called go lightly to flush out his intestines. It took 4 hours and let's just say we went through 2 colostomy bags in less than 20 minutes and I was glad the hospital was supplying the diapers. After that he received an enema for the lower portion of his bowel that was connected to the non-functioning stoma. I was nervous when the nurse asked me to hold him on his side, but not only did Eli not mind the enema, he actually smiled and laughed throughout it - go figure. During both prep procedures, he was given antibiotics and then he was given oral antibiotics throughout the night. Unfortunately, there were two medicines that were supposed to be given simultaneously, but the pharmacy didn't get the 2nd medicine until later so he got started on the first, got started on the 2nd an hour later, and then ended up having to take medicine every 2 hours throughout the night because he needed 4 doses of each.

Tuesday morning he had the surgery to reconnect his bowel and close the stomas. The surgery took about 1 1/2 hours and went really well. When we went to see him in recovery, he had already fallen back asleep and was resting comfortably. Once he woke up, we only stayed in recovery for about 20 minutes before they wheeled us back up to the room. Eli fell asleep shortly after our return and when he woke up later in the afternoon, he was already smiling again. He was given a strong pain medicine right after surgery but after that he only needed Tylenol to control his pain. He was taking the Tylenol every 4 hours for about 36 hours after surgery, then took a couple more doses spaced about 6 hours apart, and was completely off the pain meds by the time we took him home Thursday afternoon. He continues to amaze us at how quickly he recovers from these surgeries.

We were told that it might take a couple days for his intestines to wake up from the anaesthesia and start working again, but he was already having gas gurgles by Tuesday night. Wednesday morning they removed the NG tube and he pooped for the first time shortly thereafter. I was able to start breastfeeding him again Wednesday afternoon and at that point the nurses were mentioning that we might even be able to take him home the following day. We were very excited but didn't want to get our hopes up because we thought that the earliest we would be able to go home was Friday. Sure enough though, when his surgeon came by on Thursday, he said "Is Eli still here?". We certainly had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!

After coming home, the worst issues we had to deal with were severe diaper rash from his diarhea (that was expected since he's never used his colon before and he was on major antibiotics) and trying to get his sleep schedule readjusted to being home. Last week was rough with upwards of 20 diaper changes a day for those first few days back and several nights of only getting 3-4 hours of sleep. But I'm happy to say that the diarhea is now gone, he's pooping like most babies, his diaper rash is almost completely healed (he's just a little pink), and we're all getting a little more sleep.

Chris and I are so thankful that we've had such great doctors through all of this, that we've received so much love and support from our family and friends, and that Eli has been such a little trooper. It's not only amazing how quickly he's recovered physically but that he continues to smile through all the trauma and still be such a fun and happy baby.

Eli on Monday after being returned by the nurses but before the cleanse began.

Sleeping peacefully in his room, post-surgery on Tuesday.

Awake from his post-surgery nap and already smiling and playing.

So happy to have his NG tube out on Wednesday.

Ready to go home - Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy to be home and playing with Colin.

Battle scar!

What an Imagination!

Lately Colin has been very into imaginative play. It's amazing what he comes up with - he cracks me up everyday. One of his favorite games to play right now is fireman. He pretends the couch is his fire truck and he gets out all of his tools and various other toys and pretends they're his equipment. He pretends to have axes, crowbars, hoses, gas masks, etc. He got a lot of these ideas from fire fighter books that we've read. He likes to pretend we're at the fire station and the bell rings and we have to jump into our trucks to race to the fire. Once there we tell spectators to "stand back!", we put out the fire with our hoses, break open windows with our axes, open doors with our crowbars, put holes in the roofs to let the fire escape, and rescue people from the house.

Here he is, proudly standing in front of his truck, ready to race to the fire.

Eli is 7 Months Old

Eli is 7 months old today and what a difference a month has made! As opposed to last month when he could care less about solid foods, he has started eating like a true child of mine and has tried almost all of the different fruits and vegetables. He is now eating solids for 3 meals and nurses 6 times a day. His unofficial weight (meaning his weight taken on our scale) is 18.2 pounds and he's 27 1/2 inches long. He's also starting to show more of a distinct personality. In addition to being a very happy and smiley baby, he's also mischievous. Whereas last month he preferred to be held over exploring, this month he is definitely becoming more curious (he's still a snuggler though!) He isn't crawling, but he spins in circles on his tummy to get across the floor and if left to his own devices will often get into diapers, Colin's toys, the cats, or whatever else might have the misfortune to be left on the floor. He loves to be tickled and thinks just about anything Colin does is hilarious.

Of course, he also had another surgery this past month which he recovered from like a champ. He got his catheter out last Wednesday and has been so happy ever since. The urologist said that everything is healing nicely and we'll follow up with him in another month.

Happy 7 months, baby!

Surgery #3 - Check

Yesterday Eli had his cosmetic surgery to correct his bifid scrotum and his penile torsion. Our day started at 3:30 AM because despite waking Eli up at 11:30 PM to give him a little snack (in the hopes of tiding him over until game-time), he still woke up at his usual time to nurse. We were at least able to calm him so he didn't wake up the whole neighborhood, but at that point he had no interest in going back to sleep. On the plus side, he stayed in a great mood until they took him away to anesthesia. He was even flirting with the nurses in between rubbing his eyes and yawning. The surgery took a little over two hours and then we stayed in recovery for about another two hours. It was nice to be able to come home so quickly because I think all of us are more comfortable here despite having to deal with Eli's catheter. They sent us home with some Tylenol with codeine so Eli stayed pretty comfortable and slept a ton yesterday. By yesterday evening Colin was getting him to laugh. Today he's already acting like his usual self. His face is still a little puffy but he's chatting, smiling, laughing, kicking, and doesn't seem to be in much pain. The worst part right now are the diaper changes. His genital area looks like Frankenstein's monster to me, but his surgeon seemed pretty proud of the work he did and reassured us that once it's healed, everything should look fairly normal. He's very sensitive to the catheter so he cries when we have to fuss with that. We currently are using 3 1/2 diapers on him with the intention of keeping the surgery area as clean and dry as possible. One diaper is folded up to provide pressure to prevent any bleeding, one has a hole cut in it for the catheter to poke through, 1/2 is used to go over the stomas, and the last one is pulled up over everything. We will be able to stop using the folded diaper this weekend and we can stop using the diaper with the hole once the catheter comes out. His surgeon said that it could fall out on its own, but it's stitched on, so we have a follow-up appointment with him next Wednesday to get it removed. Eli continues to amaze us by being such a little trooper. Here's a picture of him taken yesterday afternoon after his marathon nap. He's trying to smile, but his face is still a little too puffy to see the full grin. Just one more surgery to go, little man!

Happy Halloween!

The boys and I had a great Halloween this year. It seems to get more fun as the kids get older. Some highlights include Colin actually helping carve the pumpkins (last year he thought they were too gross to stick his hands in); shopping at Meijer on Halloween and finding out there were firemen, a fire engine, candy stations, and a cookie decorating station; making pumpkin pie (inspired by the book Pumpkin Fever, by Charnan Simon) and roasting pumpkin seeds; dressing up as a family as the Imagination Movers; finding out that Colin wasn't too shy to trick-or-treat and that he filled his pumpkin so full of candy, Chris had to carry it for him; passing out candy with Eli and then with Colin; watching Halloween at the end of the day (I finally own it - yessss!).
And of course, the scary man.
Hope everybody else had a great Halloween too!