April 7th & 8th Update

Ellie is still hanging in there! As of last night, she has officially surpassed her birth weight, and is now up to 3lbs 11 1/2 ounces! Her cheeks are filling in, and she is beginning to look like her sister and her cousins!!! The next obstacle the nurses and I are trying to tackle is getting her to eat without the tube. We are bottle feeding her twice a day, anymore than that would move us backwards as she would be burning more calories then she is taking in. The morning nurse got her to take a whole ounce. But I had no such luck with her evening bottle feeding, she was more interested in sleeping. As soon as she is eating regularly, with no complications, she will come home. She has had no drops in her heart rate or respirations for quite a while now. I heard her truly cry for the first time yesterday, and it was the sweetest thing I have heard since she was born. Jeffrey changed her tiny diaper yesterday afternoon, which is a lot harder than it seems amongst all the wires, and the fact that the premie diapers are still too big on her. When I came back for the night feeding, the nurse lectured me on how to properly put on her diaper as little Ellie achieved what Uncle John refers to as "Poop Back". I explained that Daddy had changed her diaper for the first time, and we both had a good laugh at Jeffrey's expense..... He'll get the hang of it!