Hospital Stay

Elijah's oxygen levels were low overnight so he restarted oxygen and had a breathing treatment. Today he has done well on pain meds and tolerated baby food. Elijah has been more himself by smiling, waving, blowing kisses, and playing with toys. 

This evening Ethan visited Elijah in the hospital. The nurse kindly disconnected Elijah's IV for a while so the boys could run around the room. Elijah was obviously stir crazy and had energy to burn! Ethan chased Elijah, tickled him, and gave him kisses. Surprisingly, Elijah was not drooling while running around, even though it's typically worse when he's active. The speech therapist thought it may be more of an open mouth (awareness) problem than a cleft problem, but I'm hoping the palate lengthening will help control the drooling now.

The most exciting part of Elijah's recovery has been better hearing and the beginning of recognizable speech. Last night the respiratory therapist tried turning the oxygen up to 10L but it was too loud for Elijah. He has been very attentive to our voices and words. His babble is starting to sound more like syllables. Tonight he attempted to say Ali (which was pretty much Aaah) but he was able to say Mama! The funny part is that I've been working with him to say MaMa by touching his chest and saying Eli, then touching my chest and saying MaMa. So now when he says Mama, he touches his chest. Oh these little copycats!

Here's to hoping for a much better night and discharge in the morning. We really appreciate all of the prayers for healing!

(Couldn't get the camera to focus before they took off again!)