Today was a day forward for Ella with small steps in the right direction.

When the surgical team did rounds, they determined that no major changes were needed in Ella’s care. Dr. Paddock was talking and Ella rolled over and gave her a grin – – that showed that Ella was starting to feel better.

Ella was stable on 1 liter of oxygen for the past few days, so Dr. Paddock wrote an order to decrease her oxygen to 500ml, which is her baseline.

Fortunately, Ella took to the change like a champ. She was easily able to maintain throughout the day except for two times. Both of those times, Ella must have been experiencing some type of pain (my guess is gas/tummy trouble). During these 2 episodes, we simply had to increase the oxygen to 1 liter for a short period time, but did not require blow-by oxygen. This means that some of the fluid must be coming off.

Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) is a waste product produced in the liver and excreted by the kidneys. Upon admission to the hospital, her blood work showed a BUN of 12. We will be here in the hospital until the BUN is 20 or higher (the higher the number the more dry). All the times that I can remember, Ella was doing well when her BUN was at least 24.

Although her urine output is high, she is still not outputting enough. Please pray that she will dry out. This is the only way that we will get home.

Ella had one full day of her new formula, Pregestimil. Throughout the day, she was having tummy/gas pain. However, she did stool tonight which was a positive sign that this new formula is definitely easier for her to digest. I think it is good that we are switching the food out and also waiting for her to get “dry” at the same time. This way, if we can get her BUN high enough, it should not be because of the food.

Most likely, Dr. Kays will re-assess her on Monday and look to take her labs either that day or shortly thereafter.

Ella’s grandpa showed up tonight and had the privilege of holding her for the first time. One thing is for sure, I am thinking that Ella got her blue eyes from her grandpa. They sure look cute together.

Please pray that Ella will continue to tolerate her new food with limited gas pain, that she will pee like she never has before (we want her dried out) and that she won’t have too much pain from teething. For Dad, that he can continue to make progress on his work project this weekend and that Mom will catch as much shut-eye as possible while hanging out with the Bun at the hospital (I’ve been sleeping in her room overnight too).

As always, thanks for thinking of us and joining us on this journey.