Two weeks old!!

14 days old/days in the NICU

Weight: 3 lbs 4.5 oz (-2 oz)

Today was another excellent day for Ella! She came down even MORE on her vent and O2 and the doctor vaguely mentioned the possibility of her being off the vent soon. She said she wouldn't give a time line or make any promises because it's totally up to Ella (and I told her I didn't want any promises!) but it sounded like there is a very good possibility it will be very soon!! As in, within a few days!!! That's GREAT news! After that, she'll move to either CPAP or the nasal cannula (mentioned in other posts). I'm hoping for a nasal cannula because it's less intrusive but it's completely up to Ella and how she reacts. I'm including some pictures of CPAP and the nasal cannula so you know what each looks like, for those of you who don't know. 

CPAP (I don't know this baby)

Nasal Cannula

Ella lost 2 oz today of the water weight, which is great. It sounds kind of weird to say that it's good that our little 2lb10oz baby is losing weight ha-ha! But she's peeing super good AND she's pooping on her own so they are no longer going to be doing the suppositories regularly, just as needed. They also increased her feedings. Every 8 hours, it will go up .5 ml. So at noon today, she started getting 1.5 ml an hour and then at 8:00 PM, it went up to 2 ml an hour, so on and so forth. She's digesting her food really good. 

She's really starting to be aware of the ventilator and she apparently finds it extremely disagreeable. But then, if you had a tube down your throat, wouldn't YOU find it disagreeable?? She is trying to cry but can't with it down her throat. It is so sad to see her mouth open up and her face scrunch up and tears coming out of her eyes but no sounds being made. I want to tear that dumb thing out of her mouth and tell her to just let it out! :sigh: In time, I know it'll come out. 

I feel like there was something else that I wanted to add but to be honest, I'm so exhausted writing this blog post, I can't really think straight. Olivia didn't want to take a nap today which meant that mama didn't get to take a nap. OH OF COURSE!! I got to hold Ella again this evening! She was kind of cranky when she first came out, just from the movement but once we figured out how she wanted her arms and legs to be positioned she zonked right out on mama! I sang to her a bit and then I dozed off as well. It was nice to cuddle and hold Ella while I dozed a little bit. It gave me a slight sense of normalcy. Here are a few more pictures from today's Kangaroo Care session. They aren't the best because I was taking them myself! 

Our friend Meghan made this pretty hat for Ella.

Kissing my Ella <3

Oh my gosh, she's so pretty!