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!