Whew…I finally got a chance to come up for some air. I’ve been swamped with a project for work but I was able to get it done on time. The only reason I was able to do this, was because of my amazing wife who let me focus on work while she focused on the Bun.

Well, last night was my turn to give mom a break. Tina slept in the guest room, something she allowed me to do multiple times last week, while I spent the night attending to Ella.

Let me tell you, it is TOUGH taking care of her at night. When she’s asleep, it’s all good*, but when she’s fussing ’cause she can’t get comfortable, or she needs a diaper change, or she’s pulled her oxygen cannulas out, or her binky fell out, or her food pump finished too soon, things get a little rough. Especially when you don’t have any sleep, or are trying to sleep, or are hunched over her crib while falling asleep and your back cramps up.

*By the way, when I say she’s all good, she’s all good, but I still wake up every so often to see if she’s ok.

I’m sure most of this is “normal” for any baby this age, but I don’t have a concept of what is normal considering this is our first kid.

Anyways, Ella and I survived the night, no worse for the wear, and the multiple cups of coffee in the morning helped a little too. Coffee for me that is…heh. Ella and I did our best to let mom sleep in. She did pretty good too, stumbled out around 10:45am.

Ella did well with her feeds today. We did bolus feeds of 45ccs and she took all but one without issue. We think we’re also seeing a trend too. All the feedings that went down well occurred when she was asleep. The one that gave her problems was administered while she was awake.

Ella’s teething symptoms seemed to have intensified. She keeps rubbing her face and wanting to gnaw on things. She took my finger for a bit, but then it seemed to inflame her gums even more. We thought we would try some Anbesol but we haven’t been able to get to the drugstore yet.

She doesn’t like any of the different teething rings, which is why we’ve ended up letting her gnaw on our knuckles. I had an idea to put one of our fingers in ice water and see how she likes that. That didn’t work so well, but it spawned a better idea. Keep a couple binkys in ice water and swap them out every so often for her. We’re doing this right now, and she really seems to be digging it!

Overall, the weekend has been pretty restful. I have tomorrow off for presidents day which should give us one more day to rest and catch up on other life things, like taxes (yay).

Before I wrap this post up, I want to share about a special moment we had this week. In the midst of all the recent hospital drama, and Ella’s feeding issues, and everything else, we paused and took stock.

Last Tuesday we had our first clinical meeting with Dr. Kays outside the hospital. Normally, for anyone else, this is just a simple check up to see how your kid is doing.

But…wait….this is our Baby girl….the one in the picture at the top of this blog….the one who only had a 20% chance to survive in Denver…that baby girl….Ella…THE BUN!!! She really made it…she’s thriving…she’s gaining weight and making forward progress.

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!!! This was such a magical moment for us. And I think it really hit me in this “normal” moment, just how amazing our girl is, and what an incredible gift from God she is.

Thank you Lord for our miracle girl and for everything about her. She is EXACTLY who you desired her to be, and she’s perfect in every way. Thank you Lord…thank you…thank you.