Update on Eli: 2 Months Post-Op

Well, now it's been 2 months since the surgery.  And Eli is doing awesome!

His hair is growing and starting to cover the scar, which healed really well.  His left eye is evening out nicely, and so is the shape of his head overall, which took a little time but he's still growing all around so we expected that.  I was a little nervous before the surgery about how different he would look after, but he's still our little Eli and he looks great!  And his sweet scar is healing really well.

Taken just a few days shy of 1 month since the surgery.

His development was on pause for a couple weeks, but he's gotten right back into the swing of things. I wasn't sure what to expect with his development but it's like he didn't even have a major surgery done! He's rolling over both ways and both from back to tummy and tummy to back, eating solids like a champ, gaining lots of weight, playing with anything he can get his hands on, and smiling and giggling and talking away!  He's having a blast in life and doing very well in health and wellness.

He's been to see the neurosurgeon once and the plastic surgeon twice since being discharged from the hospital.  We won't see the neurosurgeon again unless we need to, and we have our next appointment with the plastic surgeon next month. We'll be seeing him regularly, but not as much as I thought we would need to, which is nice. We'll probably see him a few more times before the year mark from the surgery, and then once a year after that until Eli stops growing when he's in his teens.  We also have an appointment with the opthamalogist in a couple weeks just to make sure everything is still good and normal with his eyes.

About a week after we came home from the hospital Eli got sick with a stomach bug and spent the Sunday puking and the rest of the week diarrhea-ing.  It was a messy week.  But he's been fine other than that.  Everything is looking good and normal with the pediatrician; his 6 month checkup and shots were fine.  The biggest thing is that he was having trouble sleeping through the night.  He was sleeping through the night before the surgery so it was tough having to deal with him waking up again.  I'm sure he was used to being woken up in the hospital and eating around the clock again, but after about a month or so of being home, after trying to sooth him without picking him up or feeding him, we let him cry himself back to sleep during the night.  It took a couple days for him to adjust but he's back to sleeping all the way through, with the occasional 10 or 11pm 1 or 2 minute whimper wakeup (and then right back to sleep). 

All in all, this has been a very positive experience.  Everything has turned out better than we anticipated.  The surgery itself was longer than we thought, but his stay in the hospital, his bandaging, his recovery at home, his development, his personality coming back, his head shape and look, and more were and are much better than we expected.  He is doing great, and we love him!  We can't believe the support we've had from so many people.  We are so blessed and so grateful!

This was a difficult thing to go through, and I'm glad it's behind us.  But I'm grateful for this experience because we are better people and a stronger family because of it.  Our outlook of hope is solid because of our solid hope of and faith in Jesus Christ.  He atoned for all our afflictions and pains and succors us in times of need.  In His holy house, in the sacred temple, we have made covenants with God which has enabled us to be sealed together as a family for eternity.  So long as we stay clean and worthy of the blessings, nothing in this life on Earth can break that family relationship.  Eli will always be ours.  We thank our Father in heaven every day for the tremendous blessing and joy he is in our lives.  :)