Happy 1 Week Birthday to our sweet Ella!

She looks chubby in this picture but that's actually the water retention. 

7 days old/days in the NICU

Weight: 3 lbs 3 oz (the increase in weight is water retention which is BAD weight)

Health Update: Ella is still doing really well. They have continued to slowly bring her vent down and she's currently at a 24 (as opposed to in the high 80's the other day when she was so sick). In order to be moved to the CPAP machine, the nurse said she'd probably need to be between 12-16. Those numbers, I believe, are the amount of pressurized oxygen that's being used on her but I'm not totally sure about that. I keep forgetting to ask and there are so many things that are used on her and so many numbers that I get them mixed up sometimes. But regardless, I do know that when it goes down, it's a GOOD sign! She's also being slowly weaned off her last BP med. I thought she'd been taken off both but I misunderstood and it was just one she'd been weaned off and now they are weaning her off the other one. Ella is still reacting well to the antibiotics and her chest x-ray this morning was a "teeny" (their words) bit better, which is great! In the world of preemies, we'll take a teeny bit! :) She's starting to loosen up the junk in her chest herself too which is super exciting. They suction it out but she moves around a little and gets some up herself. There hasn't been any growth on any of the cultures yet but they are positive that it is pneumonia and are treating her for it. They said that it's not uncommon for that to happen sometimes. I suppose in a way, it is good because it must mean that it's not super bad?! I don't know that makes sense to me at least! Ella is retaining a lot of water and they had to give her another diuretic today which will hopefully help her pee. She's currently on a catheter and we're really hoping that she'll start getting more urine out, to help decrease that water retention. Her neck and around her eyes are pretty puffy. She also still has the heart murmur and they are saying they'll need to treat her with another dosage of the medication to help close that. Shane spoke to the doctor today and she told him that if it it doesn't close, they'll probably have to do surgery on the heart murmur to close it up. I don't know what the chances are of that but from what Shane told me, it's a pretty minor surgery in the world of surgery but definitely not optimal to have to perform surgery on her. 

Today was a really neat day. When I went in to visit Ella today, she had her hand curled up by her mouth and she was sucking on her fingers very lightly. I was SO excited!! It was so precious to see. Her little legs were curled up and she was moving them around a little too. This is the first time she's been so active, but in a calm way, if that makes sense. I was sitting there talking to her nurse, Kelly, and Kelly was telling me how earlier she'd been in the room and was holding on to Ella through the incubator and talking to her for almost an hour. I broke down crying, I was just so touched that this nurse had come in to give Ella a comforting touch. I worry about that a lot, when we aren't there because of course the nurses are there to medically take care of the babies. We have run into two nurses whom I know wouldn't go in there and give the babies a comforting touch. They were very much the job and that's it. Of course, they were two nurses that we had twice, one right after the other so I had a big freak out about how the nurses there must suck. After them though, we've had nothing but wonderful nurses, so that's been a relief. But today, when Kelly told me she was in there talking to Ella, telling her how much her mama and daddy loved her (crying harder!!!!!!!!), I was touched beyond belief. 

It is Ella's one week birthday today. We decided that after such a crazy week with so many ups and downs it was worth a big celebration! So we went out and bought her a balloon in the shape of a princess crown that says "Happy Birthday Princess" and we wrote "1 Week" on it before they blew it up. We also got her a card. We've decided that every month that Ella is in the NICU, we will celebrate her birthday with a card and balloon. Just a little something to celebrate and look forward to while she is in the NICU. 

I have a cute Olivia story to share with everyone too. today, in the Sibling play room at the hospital, Olivia brought me a play white jug that she thought was milk (was actually dish soap) and said "Milk! Milk! Milk!" then she put it near my boobs, handed it to me and then lifted up her shirt to show her chest and said "Milk!" I about DIED!!! It was hilarious. She's so used to seeing me pump by now that milk just comes from boobies and goes into bottles.