The Many Faces of Ellie

Ellie has been home from the NICU for two weeks now and just passed her one-month old mark.  I seriously can't believe how fast time is flying, at least in retrospect.

November 17
I absolutely love how sweet Leila has been with Ellie!  She loves to hold her baby sister and anytime Ellie's hands are free, Leila puts her face up to them so that she can be tickled by Ellie.  She is also always willing to help give Ellie her binky, help hold a bottle, or even throw away messy diapers.  Such a big helper already!

November 21
My mom was kind enough to bring my grandma down from Bountiful to meet Ellie.  Grandma brought with her Ellie's blessing dress that she had already finished.  Such an incredible lady!  I can hardly wait to figure out when we will be blessing her so that I can put her in that special dress.

Later that afternoon, I put Ellie in our bouncer for the first time and she is so small that she nearly got lost in it!

November 22
Ellie is officially already a month old!  I found a picture of Leila at the same age for a side-by-side comparison (Leila left, Ellie right).  While they have certain sisterly similarities, these two are definitely different from each other in looks and personality (so far).  Leila was never a very good sleeper as a baby (and even now, sometimes) but that's about all Ellie wants to do.  I know part of that is because she was a premie and she is still growing like mad, but still!  It will be fun to watch for other similarities and differences that arise between these two over the years.

November 23
My sister Jori was able to come down from Rexburg for the weekend so Ellie has now been able to meet all of my sisters.  Slowly but surely she is being introduced to her loving family!

November 24
Just felt like taking some pictures of this perfect little girl!

Recap of Ellie's Stay in the NICU

October 23-Ellie had an uneventful first night and was able to be taken off the ventilator early in the afternoon.  They monitored her closely but the respiratory therapist gave her a glowing report and she was able to stay off and just be on room air for most of her time in the NICU.

October 24-I was discharged from American Fork hospital and made my way to Provo as quickly as I possibly could so that I could finally hold my sweet Ellie.

I just wished that Leila could have come with us so that my family could finally be together, but alas, cold season prevents kids from coming into the NICU so Leila won't get to meet Ellie until we bring her home.  They told us to plan on her release date being close to her original due date (which was December 5).  That seems so far away! But rather than focus on a date, we are watching for her to meet 3 main criteria for discharge: 1) maintain her own temperature, 2) consistently gain weight, and 3) be able to take all of her feedings orally.  She did have a PICC line inserted because her IV sites kept failing.  Thankfully the procedure went off without a hitch.  The hope is that she will only need it in another 3-4 days.

Jason's parents were able to make the trip up from California to come meet Ellie.

October 25-I swear there is something new to update about Ellie every few hours and pretty much all of it positive.  Based on her lab levels this morning, they are taking her off of antibiotics, which means no infection.  Her bilirubin levels have started to climb so she does get to do some light therapy.

She was wide awake a good portion of both of our visits there today and it was so fun to watch her just absorb the world around her.  I also got to start working on some feeding skills with her tonight, which was a lot sooner than I thought it would be.  Just dry nursing right now, but it is definitely a step in the right direction!

October 26-Under the Lights

October 27

October 28-It has been a relatively quiet couple of days which as been nice.  But even though it's been quiet, Ellie has still been making significant progress!  We did our first real feeding this morning and she totally rocked it.  The nurse said that someone forgot to tell her she's still too little to be doing so well.  they are putting sugar water in her central line for today just to keep it open in case they end up needing to do any more fluid supplements.  If they don't, that line should come out tomorrow.  Her bilirubin levels are still high, so she still gets light therapy most of the time.  Basically, she is a rock star and is cruising through everything at lightning speed!

October 29-I could snuggle like this all day long!

October 30-Ellie got her PICC line out yesterday and also got to come out from under the photo therapy lights.  Feedings are still going well, we just need to work on her stamina which means that I will be trying to make three trips to the hospital a day now.  She is officially maintaining her own temperature and so got moved to a bigger bed without an overhead heater tonight.  She is also back up to her birth weight after dipping down to a low of 3 lbs. 12 oz.

October 31

October 31-Tiny Toes!

November 3-Daddy's Girl

November 4-Having Ellie in the NICU has taught me one thing: plans can (and do) change often and quickly enough to give you whiplash!  Ellie is a superstar and taking about 50% of her feedings orally.  I'm told that this is incredible for someone her age/size.  In fact, if things continue to progress as they have been, chances are looking good that she will be discharged much earlier than anticipated--possibly as soon as this weekend!  But, like I said, plans change awful fast around the NICU so we'll see how everything shakes out!!!  I'll definitely be stepping up all the prep work at home I didn't do before she was born, just in case.

November 6-Ellie is quite the trooper, but she was a little worn out today and feedings were a bit more of a struggle.  So we are backing off a little tonight so that she can recoup some energy and hit it hard again tomorrow.  Jason and I got to help give her a bath tonight.  They do what's known as a swaddle bath and I could hardly believe how calm and relaxed she was.  I think all parents with infants should be shown how to do one!

November 9-Ellie went tube free today!  Other than getting a little tuckered out occasionally, she has been doing well.  Overnight she'll be completing an oxygen saturation test to see if a little oxygen would help make things a bit easier for her.  Other than that, we are just waiting to make sure she can handle feeding herself and keep growing without the use of the feeding tube.  She's a whopping 4 lbs. 10 oz. now!

November 10-On oxygen

November 11-Hospital Sleepover

November 12-After 3 weeks of hospital visits and juggling schedules, we were able to bring Ellie home today.  She did end up coming home on some oxygen to help give her some more energy.  So Jason and I got to "room in" with her at the hospital last night to that we could be trained on how to set up her oxygen and apnea monitor.  Once we were officially discharged, we made a beeline for our house so that we could finally introduce Leila to her little sister.  She also got to meet her aunts Ashley, Annie, and Jessica.

While having a baby in the NICU is not an experience I would wish upon anyone, I am so incredibly grateful for all of the resources that were available to us and helped us to get Ellie home as quickly as we did!