May
05
    
Posted (Tina) in All Posts on May-5-2008

Ella has experienced a lot more congestion the past few days. This has increased her respiratory rate and is making it tough for her to work on her feeding skills. Imagine sprinting around the block and then trying to drink: you would need to stop to take breaks and breathe. That is what it feels like to Ella when she is trying to take the bottle.

Ella decided that she likes peaches…she tried them for the first time yesterday and finished them off today!

Aside from trying peaches, we have hit a plateau as far as forward movement on Ella’s feeding skills. Things aren’t really showing huge signs of improvement, like they were initially. The good part is that she has gained enough skills to actually enjoy eating. Now, the biggest thing that will help her is simply getting bigger and stronger. All of it goes back to her underdeveloped lungs and having a tough time breathing.

Her PT session was good. It was hard for Ella. She melted down a handful of times. The good news is that she was able to settle down and collect herself within a few minutes each time. If you remember, she used to meltdown once and it would take her a long time to recover. This is a huge area of improvement for her.

The PT discussed that even over this past week, Ella has shown great improvement. She confirmed that Ella’s physical/developmental skills are at ~ 3 months. We have known this for a while, but the reality just sunk in deeper today.

We’re praying for the day that Ella gets bigger to where some of these basic things, like holding up her head or breathing, won’t be so tough for her.

Above all else, Ella is happy. She is happy a lot of the time. So maybe there is a lesson to be learned. Regardless of her challenges, Ella thinks that life is peachy keen.

Wow, she is already teaching me so much.