Eli's Hernia Surgery

As you probably know, Eli had hernia surgery on Monday. He has had hernias for months due to his premature birth. Basically his little body was not supposed to be digesting food yet when he was born, so as they began to give him food his little intestines became larger than his little body was ready for. So, for months his intestine would sag into his scrotum. This obviously caused Eli discomfort and we were glad to finally have this fixed for him. The surgeon told us that not only Eli’s intestines, but also his appendix had sagged down into his scrotum. Awful.

So, he passed with flying colors. We couldn't feed him after 2 am but he hardly fussed at all. He was so calm and content. He came out of surgery and shook off the anesthesia really quick. What a champ. We are so glad to finally have him home and for him to be, at this point, more or less a normal newborn baby.

Something I didn’t expect was how good Eli looked when we took him in to the NICU pre-surgery. He weighed in at 7 lbs 9 oz, which was bigger than we expected. We were so happy he was gaining good weight. When he was lying in that NICU bed, he just looked so good. At home, we gradually, day by day, watch him grow. Seeing him in the NICU bed really put in to perspective how much he has grown these last five weeks. He looked so big, his skin looked so smooth and almost bright. He just looked like a sweet healthy baby.

Day of delivery compared to day of surgery. (December 2nd - March 14th)