Rocky road.

No. Not the ice cream. The official title to our previous 3 weeks. We can't seem to catch any sort of break. No matter how many times we "yell" at Eli and tell him to behave, he bites back with some sort of blip. He takes 5 steps forward, then BAM! 3 steps back! He's fighting through each and every one of them. I can't say that we don't have one strong 3 week old, obviously we do. Just look at this timeline. 

7/16 birthday! 

7/26 Norwood heart surgery 

7/28 closed chest

7/30 first feeding 

8/2 Clot/Shunt revision, re-open chest

8/6 closed chest 

8/7 cath lab procedure 

We have a very strong willed baby on our hands. Today he got aggravated with the RT team when they tried to suction out his lungs. The nurse said she got the meanest look. I will take responsibility for that :) 

They are keeping his lung function as a top priority. He's got an infection and its causing him some issues. Once this clears, they can start prepping him for extubation. He's gotta be able to breathe on his own with no vent! This is a huge step to his recovery. 

My biggest struggle lately has been seeing the calendar days get crossed off. I go back to work in 3 1/2 weeks. (sept 3) I cry everytime I think about it. There is a very high chance Eli won't be home before then. This, for me, is tough. I had a hard time going back to work with Lucas and I was off for 10 weeks with him. This time, I was only able to take 6 weeks off. I had so many doctors appointments that all of my PAID TIME OFF kept getting used up. So what I had left was all I was able to use to be home with Eli. Well, in this case, at Children's Hospital. Not the ideal "maternity leave." I hate it. I pray everyday something falls into place and I can be able to take off a little bit more time to be home with Eli when he gets discharged. I pray! 

Lucas has been staying with us at Ronald McDonald. He has done so well adjusting. His bedtime routine is very messed up but we expected that. 3 weeks with grandma then here and back to grandma and back here. That's tough on anyone! Hopefully soon he will catch back up and be my 9:00 sleeper again :) 

Here's a few pics of our last few days. 

Xoxo