I can’t believe that Ella is already 8 months old.
Tomorrow we have our appointment with Dr. Kays. We pray that Ella has gained weight (two weeks ago, she weighed in at 11lbs, 9 ounces). We never heard back about the oil to add to her food for calorie enhancement. We hope to follow-up on this and begin adding it over the next few weeks. We’re hoping that it does not cause any issues. If you remember, the MCT (medium chain triglyceride) oil in the Pregestimil formula caused her lots of grief. Also, any non-MCT oil might cause her lymphatic system to empty out more fluid via her thoracic duct. Since Ella is always fighting the fluid issues, we will simply want to monitor her closely.
In addition, we did not hear the results from her labs 2 weeks ago. We tried to follow-up and heard that her other electrolytes looked “good” but were told that the BUN (blood urea nitrogen) did not come across on the labs. This is our main gauge for dryness in Ella’s body. Since she is taking such a high dose of diuretics, our assumption is that Ella will need to have blood drawn again. We are not looking forward to that part!
Hopefully, Dr. Kays will be happy that we reduced her oxygen to 400mls. Maybe she will perform and give him a better number when he checks her saturations. As I type this, Ella is sound asleep with her saturation at 99 and her heart rate at 106. So, she is getting stronger. Praise God!
Ella had a pretty good day. She was real happy besides a couple of moments when things weren’t going her way or we tried to make her work (e.g. having her sit up). The other night, she started rolling from side to side in frustration. This is promising to see her do this activity on her own.
Today, her favorite activity seemed to be laying on her activity mat, grabbing the toys above her and rolling from side to side. She was happy and content. As I mentioned previously, we are excited for her first physical therapy appointment on Wednesday this week.
When Ella turned 6 months old, we were discharged from the NICU (first photo below). Although we had another hospital visit shortly thereafter, it is amazing to think that two months has passed (bottom photo below).
Each day we praise God for our baby girl. She is so special and so sweet. We just love her so much and although this parenting role is the toughest job, we are so blessed.
We couldn’t have imagined this journey. It is amazing to see how far God has carried us.
Thank you for your continued prayers. They mean so much.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.