Happy Mother's Day!

First things first: Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful moms out there, particularly those that have had such a major impact on my life.  There are too many people to thank individually but I am so grateful for the example each of you are to me.

23+ years ago I was given life by the most amazing woman I have ever met and feel blessed beyond words that I was given the mother I have.  She is the greatest example of how a mother should live her life and is one of the biggest reasons I am who I am today.  Mom, thank you so much for teaching me what my true priorities in life should be--most importantly that of raising my own family.  I love you so much and hope to one day be half the mom to my kids that you have been to me and my brothers!

From the time I was very little I dreamt about becoming a mom and knew it was what I wanted more than anything.  It wasn't easy getting Eli here and it hasn't been the easiest past 4 months either but it is far greater than I could have imagined.  Only those who are mothers themselves know what an incredible feeling it is to bring a baby into this world and have the calling of motherhood.  Being Eli's mom is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me and I will forever cherish the opportunity to be his mom.

Eli continues to make progress in many areas but still has a ways to go.  His lungs are getting so much better and his vent settings have been getting close to the point where he could be extubated so that is very exciting but we had a small setback with his respiratory status the past 24 hours.  They took Eli off the type of dialysis he was on and switched him to a much safer form of dialysis but he's having a tough time with the transition.  With this new Peritoneal Dialysis they fill his tummy with a large amount of fluid and let it sit there for 45 minutes and then drain it all out.  His peritoneum acts as the filter so it is a very healthy form of therapy but he doesn't like having all of the fluid in his tummy at all. It pushes his lungs up so he can't breathe as well so they've had to go back up on his vent settings so that's a bummer but hopefully he can adjust to this new dialysis soon and get back to where he was.  He's also bleeding again from his lungs so fingers crossed that resolves quickly as well.  Despite these minor setbacks, we've had several doctors come in the past couple days and tell us excitedly that Eli is no longer the sickest kid in the unit because of the progress he's made so that makes us very happy!

Tomorrow marks 3 months since we've been in the hospital.  It's hard to imagine that I haven't slept in my own bed in that long but there's nowhere I'd rather be than here with Eli (other than at home with him healthy, of course).  We were originally told we'd be here 4-6 months so we're still on the low end of that time frame for sure.  As long as Eli continues to make progress, that's all we can ask for!

Fight on, Eli!