Elijah Kim

Rolling, rolling, rolling Elijah

Yesterday Jan 2, 2009 was Elijah’s 1st month of life. We witnessed through the frantic tantrum of hunger, a graceful orchestration of bodily rotational maneuvering. During his crying while waiting for the milk, Elijah did his first and second roll. A roll is what you would commonly see dogs do as a trick.

How it happened
I placed him on his stomach since he enjoys that, and also makes his breathing a little bit easier from phlegm. I then noticed that he started to kick, turn his head, and push his arms up. It was so slow and natural, it looked more like gravity might have caused his random movements to make him move little by little till he has rolled over. Annie, after seeing this, excitedly said, “did he just roll on his own?”. I said, “No. he just kinda moved and randomly kinda went on his back”. To test this, I did it once again. I placed him on his stomache, hands and feet stretched out, head to the side. He started flailing again and wow, there he was, on his back again. Even then, I was not convinced.

Second Testing
This morning before his feeding, I did the same thing. He wasn’t as frantic, but in a calm and almost methodic way, he started to turn to his side. In order to see if it was an accident or intentional, I blocked that side with a roll of cloth. Then he proceeded to turn the other way. He succesfully rolled to the other side. Annie once again stated that this is a landmark event. I still think that it’s just gravity + innate appendage movement coordination + new strength of muscle that translates into a roll. Perhaps that IS what a legitimate roll is and I’m sciencing away his accomplishment.

We dont’ have a movie of him rolling yet, but here are some recent pictures.

Hickups on the bed with his O face

Zanzibar Bouncer

We got a Zanzibar Bouncer as a gift / hand down. At first Elijah was too small to fit in there, but one day, he was able to sit in there without sliding down and all over.  It works well. We use it to spend some of his awake hours. We don’t really use the music or the vibrating functions much.  There was once a time where he jiggled himself becaues he had the hickups. 

Finally Home!

Elijah is finally home! I picked him up on a warm Saturday.  Thank God that the weather was great that day. We finally brought him home and was able to put in the crib. These pictures are actually taken on our bed.

Annie’s Mom’s House

Just as Elijah was about to be discharged, the very same day that I drove down to the hospital to pick him up, 10 minutes before I arrived, December 5th, Elijah started to excrete blood from his belly button once again. The hospital decided to keep him there a little bit longer to observe.  He stayed there for another full week under observation. He underwent a colonoscopy and an endoscopy and was diagnosed as having an ulcer.  How does a week old infant have an ulcer?  The gastroenterologists said that he was allergic to either formula or something in the mothers milk such as cow’s milk or soy.  After that week, we were discharged. He still had bleeding so he was put on prescription drugs till the ulcer heals.  His next destination was Annie’s Mom’s House.

Burping at CHOC

At Choc, they taught us how to burp Elijah in the sitting position.
It really calms him down and allows for us to get a good look at him.

Transferred to CHOC

Right after he was born, he was vomiting and excreting blood. He entered the NICU to drain the blood out of his system.  We found out that his insurance was not accepted at the hospital so we were transferred to CHOC

Thank you everyone who has prayed for Elijah and us.  We feel that God has really done a miracle to stop the bleeding that occured initially.  After transferring, the docters were looking at the charts and numbers and could not believe that it was this same baby. We are very thankful.

His first birthday ever

Few hours after he was just born.

In the bassinet where evaluations occur.