Bringing Home Baby Eli
May 6th, 2020 was the best day of my life as it was the day my wonderful wife gave birth to our baby boy, Eli Ardas Joseph Beyrouti, at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver.
Our experience at Lions Gate was fantastic. The doctors and nurses were great and my wife's C-section went smoothly. Once the baby was out, the hospital staff ran some tests and noticed something wrong with the baby's breathing. They quickly hooked him up to a bunch of machines. After a while, they informed us that he would need to be transferred to the NICU at BC Children's Hospital. For anyone that doesn't know, the NICU is where they take care of newborns and give them some of the best care anyone could ever ask for. It's like the Disneyland of hospitals.
When he arrived at Children's, the doctors thought the problem was one thing and then realized it was something else. Then, they realized that it wasn't that either, and figured it was something else...On and on it went for about a week until we were finally given the green light to take Eli home!
In hind sight, things worked out pretty well and I feel for all of the parents who may have had to spend weeks, months or even years in the hospital with their children. It's an incredibly stressful time for a family.
I will say, driving home from the hospital with your own kid is one of the cooler things I've done in my life.
Eli has been such a blessing. One of the few benefits of this pandemic is that I've gotten to spend so much time with him and really get to know everything about him. My favourite thing to do lately is just spend time with him, stare at each other, and go for walks. PS—the "UPPAbaby Vista Stroller" is definitely the way to go if you're in the market for a stroller.
He's changing so fast, it's crazy. Today, his legs could stand up and hold his weight dramatically better than before. His eyes are also slowly changing colour—right now, they're bright blue.
Another cool thing to witness is just how head over heels in love my wife is with the guy! I've definitely been bumped to the number two spot but that's okay, I get it. My Mom and Preet's mom have also bumped us to number 2 and Eli has stolen the top spot. That’s been fun to watch.
Unfortunately, my brother hasn't been able to come and meet the baby because he lives in California and he would have to quarantine for fourteen days and that just wouldn't be efficient. While Covid has given us more time with each other, it's also gotten in the way. That said, we just have to keep our heads up, keep moving, and keep doing our thing.
I can't wait for Preet and I to watch this guy grow more and more each day. So far, parenting is fun. I hope it stays that way!