Words cannot fully express what a wonderful mother Tina is. The pictures below say more than words ever could.

Thank you Jesus for blessing Ella with such an amazing mother!

 
What a big day…
 
We had some “fans of Ella” come visit us for lunch. Jeanie and Alfred drove from Melbourne, Florida and they brought along a surprise. Doug and Laura (our friends from Orlando) hitched a ride with them and totally surprised us!!! We had no idea they were coming up, and in fact, they hid outside while Jeanie and Alfred came in first. After about 5 minutes, Alfred said he had to get something from the car, and low and behold, Doug and Laura appeared behind him.
 

 
Jeanie is the long time best friend of Laura. They’ve known each other since 10th grade which is a total of 25 years of best friend bliss. Jeanie started following Ella’s story in October of last year, and has been in love with our girl ever since.
 
This was our first time getting to meet her and her husband Alfred, and it was absolutely fantastic. I’m so glad she got the chance to see the Bun in person before we head back to CO. She has been so incredibly sweet to us and she has such a love for our girl. By the slideshow below, I’m pretty confident that Alfred is a little smitten too ;-).
 

 
At the end of the visit, Jeanie had another little surprise. She gave Ella a beautiful bracelet with a forget-me-not flower charm. It was such a sweet gesture and something that the Bun will cherish for years to come.
 

 
Speaking of forget-me-nots…
 
This post is dedicated to the memory of Charlotte Rehrig (1933-2008). For those of you who don’t know her and may not have recognized her comments on the blog, she is the mother of our favorite Uncle Cliff, and a huge fan of Ella Renae. She experienced a severe stroke a few days ago and went to be with our Lord today.
 
Thank you dearest Charlotte for all the love, prayers, and comments, and for following our baby girl’s story from day one. Even though we only met once, I knew what a gift you were from God. Now, He has brought you back home to be with Him.

The picture says it all. Ella had a busy day.

She had her longest / best PT session ever with her new therapist that came to our apartment. We’ll miss seeing Claudia on a regular basis, but we’re very excited to have Ella getting in house PT sessions 5 days a week!

It was a GORGEOUS day here in Gainesville (just like the photo gallery below). There was no way we could stay in for lunch so we headed over to the Tioga Town Center so Ella could enjoy the fresh air.

Tioga Town Center

We sat at one of the tables outside of Starbucks. Very comfortable until a couple people around us began to smoke (bleh). Besides the fact that Tina and I are not fond of being around it, it can be incredibly detrimental to Ella. So, when people would start smoking Tina would take Ella for a walk until the air cleared.

While there, we ran into one of the respiratory therapists that took care of Ella in the hospital! What a great surprise to see her. She had mentioned what a funny coincidence it was because just yesterday she was looking at our blog with some other NICU nurses. So great to know that Ella has her fans checking up on her in the NICU :-).

Tomorrow will be an exciting day. A close friend of the Boemler Wareings, and a HUGE Ella fan is coming from three hours away with her husband to bring us lunch! Is that crazy or what!!! She’s been following Ella’s story since last October and wanted to meet her in person before we leave the state.

We feel so blessed to have all these people around the country (and globe!) that love and care for our baby girl.

Thanks to YOU for being one of Ella’s fans. We love all of you.

Mmmmm….tastes like chicken.

Ella had some bad gas pains today, and I don’t think it was from the flamingo. She would just cry in waves, so much that it started to make me cry. Man, it hurts to see your child in pain. Personally, I feel that Ella has already had her fair share of pain, at least enough to last into her 30’s.

Fortunately, she’s doing better tonight. I know because we enjoyed watching American Idol together. =)

Oh how far we’ve come!!! 40 weeks!!! Holy Moley!!!

Thank you Lord for this precious child.

Ella and I let mom take a break for a few hours while we worked on our feeding / napping / playing skills.

The pictures above were taken during her afternoon feeding session. It seemed that the Bun was getting a bit hot so we vented the outfit a bit to let her cool off. She does run warm (like her dad), and it takes her no time at all to get sweaty if I’m holding her. In fact, when she falls asleep on my arm she leave a big sweat print once I put her down. She does this when Tina holds her too so it’s not just me. No…really…it’s not just me =).

Looking forward to another relaxing day with the Bun. I’m so glad it’s only Saturday.

What a good day for the Bun.

Her heart rate has come back down a bit over the last 48 hours, now hovering closer to 120bpm while she’s sleeping. Not that it was a huge deal, but I’m glad to see the numbers going that direction.

Ella got to try another fruit today: mangos. She did OK the first time she tried them. Tina gave them a taste too and decided they should be sweetened up with a little sugar. Ella agreed. The next mango session Ella kept opening her mouth for more. Just a spoonful of sugar helps the mangos go down.

In the afternoon, Tina took the Bun for a walk, and when they returned we had a little family photo session.

Ella’s morning PT went well with minimal fussiness. Tina and the therapist were able to coax Ella into some good tummy time, and Tina carried that trend throughout the day. In fact, Ella was comfortable enough on her tummy tonight that she fell asleep on her boppy.

We also have a PT session scheduled at the apartment first thing tomorrow morning.

We continue to count down the days before heading back to Colorado. Praise God for how far our girl has come, and we know that He will continue to be with her every step of the way.

Thank you Lord for Ella Renae.

It’s just me and the Bun at the moment. Ella is down for the night while Tina is out running some errands.

For the last 24 hours or so Ella’s heart rate has been a bit more elevated than normal. When she sleeps at night it usually falls somewhere between 112 – 122 bpm. Last night, it averaged about 20 beats higher, 134 – 144 bpm. This is no where close to where it has been during her previous bad spells (175 – 185 bpm while she’s sleeping!!!), but it’s still above her “normal” sleeping baseline.

Tina and I talked about it before going to bed, but couldn’t think of any changes that would have caused this. I woke up a couple times during the night, just to see if the number had gone down, and it hadn’t.

This morning I thought it may have been cause by her recent vaccination…Tina had thought the same thing. She has been more fussy the last day and a half, and past vaccinations did cause some similar symptoms. She still hasn’t had any teeth break through either, so that may be contributing as well.

The good news is her saturations are normal, and other than being somewhat fussy, she’s doing well clinically. Even with her elevated heart rate, she slept real solid last night, only waking up a few times.

We’ll see how tonight goes. I think we’ve been on such a good track, I really don’t want to see us get derailed any time soon. Heck, if we don’t get derailed at all, I’d be fine with that too. The reality is, I expect us to have some bumps in the road moving forward, I would just like us to be settled back in Colorado before we have to experience them.

Bottom line…like it has been this whole time…

Trust. Trust in Him.

Ahh…nothing like a cool down in Gainesville. It was rainy and cool in the morning, but later in the day it was 75 degrees and the humidity was very comfortable. The weather in the afternoon reminded us of Southern California’s near perfect weather. This was not a day to stay inside, so we ventured out a couple times.

In the morning, before it warmed up, we strolled around our neighborhood. Ella was dressed up in her Bun-ny outfit to keep her warm. She did great the whole time and really didn’t fuss at all.

In the afternoon, we hopped in the car, grabbed a couple sandwiches from Jimmy John’s, and headed over to the Haile area of town to have an “in car” picnic.

On the way, Tina was feeding Ella some pears. Man, it blows my mind to see how much she’s taken to these. She’ll just open her mouth wide for Tina to feed her more. Yeah…that’s MY girl.

We found a nice shady spot to stop that overlooked the Haile Plantation Golf Course. After parking the car, Ella started getting fussy. Tina was trying to feed her but the Bun’s mood was starting to disintegrate. I decided to start driving through the neighborhood. No sooner did the wheels start turning and Ella’s emotional state improved. I have heard how kids are comforted when driving in the car, I just hadn’t seen this contrast with Ella until now.

We spent about 20 minutes doing 10mph on residential streets until Ella got all her food down. She fell asleep so we figured we could go park in the spot we found before and have some lunch ourselves. No such luck. Once the engine was turned off, Ella’s engine turned on. She started fussing again.

Instead we found a bistro table outside where we could sit. Once we gave Ella what she wanted, out of that car seat, she calmed down and really enjoyed looking around. In fact, she started talking and cooing more that we had ever heard. So neat to see her express herself!

After lunch, we strolled around the The Village at Haile and Ella loved it. She was smiling a bunch, listening to the birds, and looking at the squirrels.

What a beautiful day to enjoy as a family. I continue to be in awe of how far she’s come. I don’t ever want to take any day with her for granted. We are so blessed to be her parents.

Wow…the Bun sure can get excited. There are times when she’s just so smiley and happy, that I think she’s going to turn herself inside out! Check out the video below…and yes…that’s her crazy dad egging her on. (high speed Internet connection required).

Although we missed capturing them on video, the Bun gave a few giggles for Tina and I today while she was sitting up in her PT seat. This is the same giggle she gave me a couple weeks ago. It’s so cute.

It’s neat to see these aspects of progression, because for Ella, they’re huge. Developmentally, she’s really a 3 month old trapped in an 8 month old body. She still has a lot of catching up to do.

I got up with Ella this morning around 6:45, hoping to let Tina sleep for a solid couple hours. My girl and I sat in the rocking chair and just cuddled for about and hour…even dozed off together for about 30 minutes.

Ella wasn’t real interested in the bottle today. She only took 35ccs from me in the morning and didn’t do much better the rest of the day.

We were hoping to show off the Bun’s new feeding feat of finishing the bottle to the occupational therapist, but no such luck there. Her stranger anxiety kicked in and she had a total melt down while the OT was here.

“Aunt” Marla stopped in for a visit today. Even as much as she and Marla connected in the past, Ella’s stranger anxiety still got the best of her. Marla barely got a couple kisses in before the Bun started getting upset. I actually took this harder than Marla. It’s tough because you want Ella to be ok with people, but it’s a very typical behavior milestone for an infant her age.

I’ll take any forward progress the Bun makes as positive, even the stranger anxiety. We know there’s still a long road ahead, but we’re content in trusting that her life, and development steps forward, are all part of His plan.

Thanking God each day for Ella Renae.