Friday, June 24, 2011

Look Ma -Clothes!

Ella is a fashionista! She is free of her temperature lead and can therefore be clothed. Continuing to do well, eyes wide open at the beginning of my time holding her today, then sleepy time. Went down on her rate for her respiratory support and continuing to gain weight up to 2 lbs 2oz. Happy 5 week birthday sweet girl!

6/24

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Peek-a-boo I see you.

Happy Summer!

It's official- summer is here and Ella is over a month old! Her respiratory support was changed from CPAP to BiPAP (bi-level positive air pressure) last night. It was explained to me that both systems basically do the same thing, but that BiPAP is a smidgen less support. So she's going in the right direction! Got her eye on the prize!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day!!

Ella must have secretly snuck out and done some shopping yesterday to show Daddy how much she loves him. She has excellent taste by the way. Daddy loved his Chai Latte! :) She continues to do well.  Changed a very poopy diaper today (should have saved that for Grant as a father's day present, hahaha) Still on CPAP. Feedings increased and she is tolerating. Right on the brink of 2 lbs! Go Ella Go!

Friday, June 17, 2011

4 Weeks Kiddo!

Saw alot of Miss Ella's eyes tonight, but when I tried to take a picture of them, she said "No thanks, Mom" and shut them. Still on CPAP, overall doing ok on it. Still having some of her reflux and apnea of prematurity but these are common, and it is felt she will outgrow them if we give her some time. Still wiggling away- apparently had been positioned on her stomach but when I first saw her tonight she was on her back!
My little turtle repositioned back to her stomach. She traded up diapers- look how big it is. 6/17   


Success! Aunt Lyndsey caught you with your eyes open 6/15

6/15

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Doing well. Eyes open alot during being held today. Has been tolerating that well. The March of Dimes photographer took these photos of her last night. I have to laugh because this is the exact pose she was in for her ultrasound. She's camera shy! :-p




Sunday, June 12, 2011

Ella is continuing to do well. Still on CPAP and so far so good. Held her for her hour feeding today and she did really well with it. Sang some lullabies. Medical staff very pleased with her, just looking for her to gain weight.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Wiggle Worm!

Happy 3 week birthday Ella!

Ella is back giving CPAP another try after extubating herself again overnight. I guess this can happen fairly easily if they pull on the tube or turn their head (both of which she does like crazy!!) because moving it only a centimeter in these little guys pulls it out. So far she was doing pretty well with it, so we will see....
I held her again today, she did pretty well with it. She's finding her voice with her little grunts, groans, and cries... So cute.
Also she was moving around like crazy in her incubator, literally moving and lifting herself up. She's got some power in those little legs!
Her weight has remained the same, so her feedings have been increased, in hopes she'll gain. Then she can move to regular preemie diapers! :)




 

Thursday, June 9, 2011

News for the day. Ella is off of TPN (total parenteral nutrition) and therefore got her PICC line taken out. She continues to tolerate her feeds. Yay!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Ella had her eyes open alot today during our visit! And her hair is really coming in too. Such a cutie. I know we are partial, but she really is! All the nurses say so too. :-P

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

One of the many usual positions

Her diaper :-)

June 7, 2011

Ella continues to be quite active, wiggle around, and get herself into some very interesting positions! Recently, I have heard she kicks herself in the head or looks as if she is trying to somersault. She stretches and moves all over, and one of the nurses likes to say she's saying "kiss my feet" and she kicks them up to whoever is entering her incubator.
She was taken off of the oscillator machine that she had been on since birth, this past Saturday. She then went on the conventional ventilator. Since the tubing for this machine is more flexible, that allowed me to be able to hold her. We spent over an hour together on Saturday doing that and she did very well. On Sunday, Miss Ella decided to pull her breathing tube out. We have been told by the practitioners in the NICU that when a baby does this, they will give them a trial with CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), this requires the baby to have to do more work and breathing on their own. She did ok for a few days with this but was re-intubated this afternoon, due to increasing apnea spells. We were told this most likely would happen, as she probably wasn't quite ready for it yet, due to her small size, but they wanted to give her a try. The longer they are on it the better - so kudos to Miss Ella for doing it for 48 hours kiddo. Now all her energy can be focused on growing. Goal coming up 2 lbs!
She continues to open her eyes and is such a little sweetheart. Grant had his first experience holding her on Saturday night. Daddy and Ella had some bonding then, as they made eye contact and she smiled. If she hadn't already stolen his heart, it was official then!
We love our little peanut. I will try to update as often as I can now that I have started this, as there are so many changes taking place everyday.
 
Also, I have had the blessing of meeting 2 sweet little girls awaiting heart surgery, while staying at Ronald McDonald House. Their families have amazing generous faith, and have asked and prayed for our family. I ask everyone to pray for them, the girls will have their surgeries this week, Wednesday and Thursday.
May 25th

June 4th