Elliott at 1 week old

We have been spending as much time as possible up at the hospital with baby Elliott. Of course Brian is back at work, and I need time to sleep, but we are so lucky and blessed to live so close to the University hospital. Here is Elliott's home for now.

It is wonderful that the hospital uses "real" blankets and outfits. Somehow it makes it feel more homey and comfortable. Here is Elliott at 3 days old in a cute Pooh outfit.

This day was hard since so much volume was running through his IV, they kept going bad and so in an effort to save his hands and feet, they tried putting them in his head. Here it looks like he has horns.
Here we are at 4 days old when I got discharged from the hospital and had to go home without Elliott. It was very emotional, but we got through. This is also the day the doctors hooked Elliott up to the nitric oxide and you can see the giant tube it runs through to connect with the nasal canula.

Here is Elliott at 5 days old and wide awake. The ng tube goes into his tummy and we had to give him the breast milk that way while the flow was so high with nitric and oxygen. In this picture, the tube taped to my shoulder is venting out the extra air he swallows.

After they turned down the flow, I was able to bottle feed. He did so well with that, they let me breast feed him again.

5 days old and ready to "rock on!"

Here is his outfit for the day on Tuesday. The nurses have trouble finding outfits big enough as he is quite larger than the preemie babies in the rest of the NICU. And even though he looks so good and healthy, he has been quite sick. But he is getting better and stronger each day.

Now this is Elliott at 6 days old on Wednesday. He went through 3 outfits that day because he kept peeing when the nurses changed him. It is kind of their fault though since they leave the diaper open to measure his belly - now they close the diaper on 1 side and hurry to measure so he doesn't squirt them. Brian and I have gotten lots of opportunities to change him, but it will be much easier when we don't have to move around the leads and cords.

As much as I love holding Elliott, I love watching Brian hold him too!

And now we are caught up to 7 days old. I had to sing happy birthday to my little guy since he is 1 week old today. He already looks bigger and has more energy to eat.

He still gets pretty tired while breast feeding and so when he is too tired to keep eating that way, we get to supplement with the bottle. Tonight Brian got there after work in time to take over the feeding. He is becoming quite a natural at this dad thing.

He even burped Elliott, although all he got were the hiccups. Don't my guys look so good together?

All in all, its been a great week! It is still very hard to leave Elliott at the hospital and come home without him. But we are trying to focus on all the positives and blessings and how far Elliott has come. It will be no time at all before we have the little guy 24/7 and then we may wish we still had some of the help we do now. But miraculous things have happened and continue for us as Elliott gets better. We know our prayers have been answered. The nitric oxide treatment is working and already Elliott's heart is healing and beginning to work as it should. We will keep you posted and hope to soon have pictures of his first day at home.