The Burlingames

Contrary to what the title asks, Eli is a good sleeper (thankfully). As fun as it is when he’s awake, it’s very good that he’s sleeping a lot. Eli’s doing really well and eating plenty. We’re hoping that he comes home Sunday. They pulled his feeding tube this morning, so he’s back to being a real baby.

As proof of his good sleeping, you’ll notice that a lot of the pictures we get of him involve closed eyes. Here’s another. Poor little guy has some nasty marks on his face thanks to the stickers they used to keep his feeding tube in place.

We’ve been slacking on the posting of new pics lately. So, here are a couple new ones to make up for it. Wednesday was interesting because aunt Sarah and cousin Alexis paid us a visit. This was the first time we’d seen Eli and Alexis together. You’ll note Alexis has been eating very well. She’s also taking her turn flexing for everyone to see.

Yesterday morning was also a fun day as Eli did a fair amount of bottle feeding. He was quite tired when he finished and was doing his old man impression, catching some flies.

Eli was apparently awake this afternoon because Megan got this great shot of his eyes. It’s a bit out of focus, but still a nice look at his eyes.

He did really well with his bottle feedings today. The doc was very impressed with the pace at which he’s been recovering and gave us an estimated release date of Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday (hopefully leaning toward Sunday). Praise God for his mercy and grace.

Today has been such a wonderful day. The doctors have stopped the continuous nose feedings and have him eating from a bottle every few hours. Now he gets to experience what it feels like to be hungry, so far he is doing a great job with the bottle feedings. His speech therapist will be pleased to know that he is eating most of his bottles, leaving only a little bit for his feeding tube. This is a huge ‘praise God’ moment, we are that much closer to bringing him home. Yay!!

Eli is also in a new room. They moved him up to the third floor to the Pediatric Intermediate Care Unit (IMC). The IMC is much nicer that PICU and NICU. Eli now has his own room with a TV, couch/bed, closet space, recliner and his own bathroom. He was so excited about the transfer that he slept through the entire thing.

Eli’s new room number is 3128 and the phone number for this room is 612.874.4978.

Eli is continuing to progress at a rapid rate. He lost a few more lines the last couple days and is down to just a few things. The doc gave us an estimate of 3-10 days remaining in the hospital, depending on how well he eats.

Megan went back this afternoon to hang out with the boy. While there, she gave him a bottle and he ate it quite well and quite fast. There’s talk of him possibly moving out of the PICU tomorrow to his own recovery room upstairs. Here’s hoping.

Eli started our visiting time this morning by sleeping, but, before long he was wide awake. We had a great time holding him and pinching his chubby little cheeks. He was also practicing his smile. Here’s a look at one of his smiles. The timing of the photo wasn’t quite perfect, so his smile looks a little funny. Trust me, it was a very good smile. You’ll also notice that he’s finally wearing clothes. Yesterday was the first day he didn’t spend naked.