Yes, who knew that a meltdown from Ella could be a good thing?

Ella had a pretty good night, but started stirring at 4am. Since I went to bed at 12am, that was not quite what I was hoping for. From that point until 7am, I was literally out of the bed every 5 minutes. I told Josh today that I liken it to Vegas. You never know…she might just go back to sleep and I could catch some needed zzzzs too, so I keep trying. This time, 7am was the start of the day.

She did pretty well, including 25ccs in her first bottle session and 20ccs in her second session. Again, we are just trying to get her to practice and get better suction each day, so she can get better. Practice does make perfect.

In the late afternoon, we decided to go to the grocery store. Since it is literally across the street from our apartment and the weather was gorgeous, we decided to walk across the street together and make a trip out of it. Ella did great on the way to the store and through 95% of the store visit. Towards the end, she started to have a meltdown.

She became sweaty and was clearly upset although I was not sure what was causing it. Initially, it just seemed like she wanted me to hold her, which would not work worth our arrangement. So, I increased her oxygen to 1 liter and let her cry it out on the walk back to the apartment. I could tell by her color that she was doing “ok”, but she was not happy.

When we got her home, I think her episode lasted for 30+ minutes. She was sweaty, crying as hard as she knew how to do, and was clearly trying to tell me that something was not right. It seemed that she had gas pains or something. I tried venting through her g-tube to see if that would provide relief, but it didn’t seem to work. In any case, she was not consolable which is so tough….especially after 30 minutes of her crying hard.

The good news is that we had scheduled for Nurse Michelle and her husband to come over for dinner (thus the trip to the grocery store) at 7pm. Well, Ella finally gave up at 6:30pm,shortly after I pushed a feeding via her g-tube. She does not normally sleep at this time, but she wore herself out.

Once our friends came for dinner, Ella was sound asleep and she stayed asleep the entire time. That might mean a rough night ahead for me, but it was so nice to have a few hours to ourselves. It was nice to have a nurse that cared so much for our baby girl and for us, come to visit with us…outside the hospital.

There are a few NICU staff that have visited us while we are local and it means so much. I think tonight emphasized how much we miss being around friends.

On this Good Friday, we commemorate the passion, the suffering, and death on the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We praise the Father and thank Him for His son, who sacrificed His life so that we might have life eternally. And we thank Him for our baby girl and pray that we can grow and become the parents He wants us to be.