September 23rd

We are out of the PICU! Woop, woop! We moved down to the regular pediatrics floor at around 3:00 this afternoon. Our new room is much smaller, but it's kind of nice because now we can sit on the couch and be really close to Elijah, also we can see the tv :-P And this room has its own bathroom!

It feels so great to be out of the PICU, we feel like we've made a HUGE step towards recovery. Things are much more relaxed down here, we don't have a nurse sitting outside our door at all times, or coming in the room all the time to check everything. We can pick him up and hold him anytime we want, we don't have to ask permission or anything :-P We also got to give him a little food today. The speech pathologist came to look at him this afternoon and gave him some apple sauce and he took it great, so he told us that we can start him on a soft foods diet. So tonight he got some mashed potatoes and gravy and some cooked veggies. He was definitely enjoying having some food again. We are starting it off slow, so hopefully he will keep doing well with that.

He's also started talking more and his voice is getting better and better. And he's playing more than ever, as well. He wants us to read to him all the time! It's so funny, he will grab my hand and then put the book in it :-P What a goofball. He is also moving around like crazy, kicking his legs, trying to pull himself up on the crib rails (not succeeding), and he even rolled over today! He wants to get around so bad, but he gets all tangled in his tubes and wires. We're working on getting rid of those!

Here's a picture of Elijah feeling much better!