A Happier Update

After last post I thought I would assure my readers that I am not slipping into a funk. I have my good days and I have my bad days. The other day was not my best day. As evidence I present a picture taken after I arrived at the hospital the day of my last post.

Although this whole NICU thing is a real buzz kill we do have our good times. We spend our days and evenings with our girl. As she has gotten bigger and stronger we are able to hold her more and do more of her everyday care. In addition to changing her diaper, taking her temperature, and getting her dressed and undressed we now give her a bath every few days (ok Shazam gave her a bath I just supervised) and take her in and out of her isolette.

We also get to feed her! I nurse her most of the feedings that we are at the NICU for and the nurses are starting to try bottles with her when we are not there. Today we went and grabbed a snack at a local establishment and I had a glass of wine (gasp if you want but I really needed it and quite frankly think I deserve one!). Since I didn't want to nurse Ella post Pinot Noir we decided to let Sue give Ella a bottle. This was bottle number 2 but we have no photographic evidence since Mommy G forgot to take a picture (sorry Mommy A). Also we will not be posting any breastfeeding pictures. But here is my favorite two girls working on taking a bottle (she drank 18 mls, more than half the feed the rest she got through her gavage tube).

Ella is doing really well and we are hoping to be getting to go home in a few weeks. The last meeting we had was that they thought she would be in the NICU until her due date now it seems like we might be able to get out a little before that. She is still spelling but mostly during feeds and now mostly while nursing. She got an eye exam yesterday and needs to be seen in 2 weeks. Our nurse Traci asked if we would be seen as outpatients if we were discharged before the two weeks! So perhaps we may have to go to Children's Hospital for that eye exam. Wouldn't that be great! We still have a few hurdles to get through but we are really excited about but also a little scared to be taking our little girl home. Do you think that we can get our nurses and Drs to come home with us?? We seriously love our nurses and Drs and they have become our family. They love our Ella as much as we do and I don't know how we will ever thank them for everything they have done for us.

The girl is also getting pretty chubby and weighs in at 4lbs 5.5 oz and is 17 inches long. So she has gained over 2lbs since birth and grown 3 inches! That is a ton of growing! I can't wait until she hits 4 lb 10 oz which will be double her birth weight! You can see in the pictures that Ella is starting to get a double chin!