Welcome to the NICU...

...where "nipple" is a verb...

...and occasionally the thing your daughter grabs onto with all her might in order to survive a gas pain.  Her fist might be little, but I couldn't pry off her fingers for the life of me. Luckily Gabe was there with the camera to record this "first" of ours.

Ellis sleeps in an open-air crib now.  That's right.  Our girl is out of the isolette. We were/are very excited with this development.
Of course she's practically covered from head to toe in order to stay toasty, but she's still in a crib!


Our camera battery needs to be recharged, but hopefully I'll get some new pictures of the cutey-pie posted soon.

weight update

3 lbs. 13.4 oz.

(16 oz. in a pound, so *she's very close to 4 pounds!!!)

*In case anyone's been living in a hole in the ground for the last month, I'm referring to Ellis Jane's weight gain (on breast milk alone, I might add =)

We're hopeful that today will be her last day in the isolette. One of Ellis' favorite nurses, Angie, has been conspiring to switch her to an open crib tonight...we'll see if Angie still thinks Ellis is ready.  WE think she'll be ready, but you just never know with that little one.

Some of the many faces of ellis jane...

Changing diapers will be SOOO much easier when we don't have to reach through two portholes to do it!

Her gas faces crack us up every time.

So do her big yawns :)

So sweet.

ellis jane knows how to gain.

Ellis weighed in at 3 lb. 8 oz. tonight.  In your face.  Sorry for throwing that in your face. I know there is no reason for me to throw that in anyone's face.  It just seems like I should be competing on her behalf for some reason.  She's gaining weight on breastmilk alone, so maybe I should throw it in the face of Human Milk Fortifier that made her so gassy and distended the doctors wouldn't let her eat for over 48 hours.  In your face HMF.  We don't need you anymore (for now).

I'll try to get more sleep tonight so you don't have to read another post like this tomorrow.

Lots of photos!

Dad's first bottle:

First time being held by Grandma Vickie (only one of them cried, and it wasn't Ellis...)

No tubes, for once!  Look at that chubby face, it's so good to see :)

p.s. there is another new post below!

Nursery update and a Grandma picture

My mom was here last week.  She basically cooked and cleaned for us and just loved us the way moms do.  It was great.  She also got to meet and hold her granddaughter, which they both enjoyed very much. Another huge help was painting the dresser I bought for Ellis ($14!), which Vickie and I had planned on doing not long before I went into the hospital.  It didn't happen because I started feeling crummy and very busy.  After about 16 hours of cleaning and painting the dresser was transformed---and I didn't lift a finger.  It looks great and the nursery is closer and closer to being ready for a little girlie to come live in it.

Ellis with her Grandma Shelly

BEFORE...

AFTER!!!

These are just postcards I bought months ago that I thought would look cute in the nursery.  I bought four mismatched old frames at Goodwill and painted them white.  I like it.

Someone should really update this blog...

Time seems to fly when your life consists of sleeping, pumping (for breast milk, that is), driving to a downtown hospital, spending 8 hours at said hospital, driving home, pumping, sleeping, repeat. We've gotten into our routine and driving to and from the hospital is not the pain in the neck I would have expected.  It's actually really nice most nights to be able to talk and process things with Gabe for 30 or 40 minutes. Other than the fact that we are desperately anxious to take our little girl home, it's a very tolerable routine.

I have a new appreciation for "roller-coaster" as a figure of speech. Take tonight, for instance. The Knipps came up from the Springs and took us to lunch at Wahoo's and then followed us to the hospital.  Ellis was wide-eyed and alert for a lot of the visit, which was fun for all of us.  After the Knipps left, Ellis started to get a little frustrated with me and here's why.  On Friday afternoon, with a very distended tummy she decided she couldn't eat.  The docs were a little concerned that she could potentially have an intestinal infection, but hopeful that it was just a really bad case of gas caused by the fortifier {extra calories} that is added to my breastmilk.  So she was x-rayed and taken off food.  Flash forward to today {3 x-rays later, no sign of infections}--the girl hasn't gotten to eat in over 48 hours {was being "fed" through an IV a concoction of nutritious liquid}, then I come along smelling like dinner, she starts showing every cue in the book {opening her mouth, sticking out her tongue, smacking her lips, looking longingly at me with sweet, pleading eyes...}, and I won't feed her.  What kind of mother am I?  I cried four different times and almost opened the milk bar when there were no nurses around.  But I didn't.  So Ellis got fussier and fussier because she could smell who I was and she was trying to suckle from every blanket and knuckle that came near her mouth.  Poor girl. 

Gabe and I had to leave the NICU from 7-8. While we were away I got a little more emotional and we both decided we were going to press for Ellis to get a real meal when we returned.  We put together a strong case and marched back to the NICU.  When we returned we were immediately informed that Ellis was approved for real food again!  Instantaneously our spirits were lifted.  Gabe got to feed her a bottle for the first time (his, not hers), which she WOLFED down, and promptly fell fast asleep. 

----

The infection near Ellis's left shoulder seems to be clearing up, though she'll be on antibiotics for another 10-14 days to make certain it's GONE for real this time.

Her belly is soft and smaller than its been in days. These are great signs.

Despite being taken off rood for the last 2+ days, she managed to gain back some weight and is sitting at 3 lbs. 6 oz. now.

She is off of oxygen and breathing like a champ all on her own.

She continues to get cuter everyday.

I'll try to post some new pictures soon.  We've got at least 160 to choose from that are still just sitting on our camera.

(Hopefully) Small set-back

Yesterday I noticed a lump on Ellis's left shoulder.  This is also where she had an infection over a week ago due to a pick line (large IV) that ended in her left shoulder.  She had five day's worth of antibiotics and it seemed that the infection was gone.  The doctor was concerned it had localized in the form of this lump last night, so she was started on some more antibiotics. All of her blood tests as of last night came back normal, which is encouraging.  We're hoping that the antibiotics will just knock out whatever the lump is, with no further poking and prodding.  It was a stressful night, knowing she had to be poked for blood and a new iv line, and not knowing what this lump is.  Plus, the last couple of days had been SO great, it was really hard to see her not feeling like herself.  Please pray for nothing serious to come of this and that it would be wiped out quickly so she can stop the antibiotics.  Thanks to all of you.

The new girl in town...

...has gained nearly 2 ounces beyond her original birth weight, and I'm guessing she'll be over the 3 lb. mark by the end of today!

...has breastfed three entire meals-- that tube is on its way out, people!

...is more alert and social everyday.  I love it when she looks right at me.

...went from crying at the nurse who was putting clothes on her to total silence when I came around the corner and started talking to her.  Melt.

...really grows more beautiful everyday.

...makes me cry every time I think about how much I want for her.

...makes me cry every time I pray for her and every time I think about how thankful I am that God put her in our life.

...has developed a reputation with her nurses for being tiny but quite mighty. One nurse says Ellis is the big lady in the tiny package.

...has already humbled me into better understanding how much we all must be loved by our God.

...has perfect little fingers and toes.

...makes the cutest noises, and yawns and sneezes.

Historically, Feb. 5th has turned out to be a great day for us

I just spoke with one of Ellis's nurses this morning and nothing much to report other than her swelling has gone down some.  Yahoo!! Otherwise, she's doing fine and had a good night.

Last night I got to kangaroo care hold Ellis for over 2 and a half hours.  We both loved it.  Gabe and I left at 7 instead of 9 or 10 like we normally would.  We had decided to go out for a sushi Valentine's dinner, which has been our tradition since 2005.  PLUS, I've been craving sushi since the moment I found out I was pregnant and wouldn't be able to eat it.   Ellis made it easy on us by sleeping right through the process of transferring her back into her isolette.  This is not always the case.  The couple of nights prior she let out some pretty healthy cries, which makes it really hard to leave, impossible actually.  So after a swift, sleepy transition, we slipped out sans tears this time.

We sat down at the table of the sushi place and I think both of us just sat and stared into space for a good while.  People passing by may have assumed we were fighting.  Once the food came, we perked up a little and began talking about different emotions we'd been feeling over the last 9 days.  What surprised us, what was strongest, etc..  Despite our fatigue, we managed a very decent level of depth in our conversation.  

Our plan had been to call the hospital before bed, but we both passed out before we had a chance (once home, I'm not saying we passed out at the restaurant.  We're tired, but not THAT tired).

Oh!  And I keep forgetting to post this:  Gabe figured out (because of it's nearness to the Super Bowl) that our first kiss in 2005 was February 5th.  Four years later, on February 5th, 2009 at 11:23 p.m. Ellis Jane joined our family.  I thought that was kind of cool.