We had 2 buns in the oven…

Man, things are happening left and right!!

We came in Monday morning, for our baby CPR class, to find Emma had shed her igloo for a new and improved bassinet! That’s another BIG step for her. Taking a bottle for the first time on Sunday and now stepping up to a bassinet on Monday. Next thing you know she’s gonna wanna come home?! We are so very cool with that!

Emma's new house

But some news just as good, miss Ella finally busted out of Levine’s Children Hospital and headed back down south to her birthplace in Pineville! We were so happy and apparently so were the nurses in Pineville. She looks so much better there. She’s been very stable, and they even decided to put clothes on the girl. She’s actually dressed and starting to work on holding her own temperature now.

It’s so awesome to go to one place and see both of them side-by-side now. Each of us also get to hold a baby at the same time now. Awesome. Her nurse last night, Maggie, let us have some fun and some photo ops by putting them together again. Apparently they also did this before we got there, cause they wanted them to be able to see each other again. They have been incredible throughout all of this. The girls seem to like being beside each other again. Tonight when we visited E-squared, Monica held Emma and I held Ella. We held them for about almost 2 hours. The doctor also had to come in and do an eye exam on them. Emma whined a lot more then Ella. I think Ella might end up being a little tougher than her big sister, but should that surprise anyone? I didn’t think so!

Don't forget you can click on pitcures to make them bigger!

Monica, Maggie and Ella

Miss Ella is also doing very well. She was up to 2 lbs and 12 oz the other night, when we could actually find out what she weighed. This has not been the best week at the main hospital. We’ve had a different nurse every night pretty much, and it’s ones we’ve never met or has never met miss drama. Miss Ella does not like a lot of things, and all of her regular nurses have figured this out. Not the new ones! We talked to Dr. Payne tonight and he’s very hopeful that Ella will be able to get back to Pineville this week and be back with her sister and all the wonderful nurses at the NICU in Pineville. We are hoping and praying. Maybe by the middle to end of the week?

Miss Emma is up to 3 lbs 15 oz as of tonight. Today, Erin, decided that it was time to introduce miss Emma to the bottle. Normally they take a couple of drops but aren’t really sure what to do with all of it. Not Emma, she decided to go ahead and drink the entire bottle down…and in about 10 minutes! We were amazed when we found out because we thought they would not start until later in the week and that it would take another week for the feedings to pick up. Well I guess the girl likes to eat because as of tonight, she’s had 4 bottles. Pops got to feed her tonight for the first time and it was pretty sweet. The girl acts like she’s ready to bust the joint. Now we need to get Ella there!

still munching…

Man, what a night, I got to go hold Emma and check her out, and then I got to go hold my baby girl Ella for the first time ever. What an awesome night. Ella, who never stops, actually sat totally still the entire time I held her. It was only like 30 minutes or so, but for her, that’s a lifetime! She just laid there, looked around a little from time to time, and then would just go back to sleep. Her daddy likes to look at the monitors like a hawk, and usually gets all stressed out with the oxygen saturation levels, but she gave him nothing to worry about tonight. It was just an awesome night all around. Both girls, two hospitals, held them both….kick ass!

Me and Ella

Ella does…finally! They finally started Ella on breast milk today. She hasn’t had anything since the day she was born. They’ve been worried about her stomach, wanting her to get rid of a couple of “things” but finally decided to just go ahead and start the milk. She gets like a milliliter every 30 minutes. That’s equivalent of a couple of drops, but it’s getting her digestion system started as well. Maybe now, once she starts getting some more, she’ll start to put some weight on! It’s funny, she got her feeding tube the other night, and not even a couple of hours after she got it, she yanked it out. The next day, they put another one in, and decided to tape it all the way across her little face and put socks on her hands to so she wouldn’t yank it out as well. Wow, we’re going to have our hands full…seriously! Monica got to kangaroo with her the other night for the first time since birth, and also got to last night as well. I’m sure Ella loved it! Ella’s at 2 lbs 5 oz.

Emma’s doing great! She gave us a little bit to worry about yesterday. She’s testing positive for an infection and they wanted to do a spinal tap to see if it was also in her spinal cord. They tried a couple of times, but decided to just wait and see, since another culture they did, did not show anything. Therefore, it might just be a minor infection. She’s getting antibiotics so that should help. We get to hold her every time we go up there, so it’s pretty awesome! It was my turn tonight, so I got to hold her. She opened her eyes and smiled at me once…She’s at 3 lbs 7 oz. Big girl!

thanks Linda, for the idea!!

Ella finally got her little chest tube removed! It’s great news and the better news is that she’s doing ok without it. They said that they are not seeing anymore air around her lungs, which was the main reason for the chest tube. Hopefully now because of the chest tube being removed, they can start weaning her off of all her pain-killing drugs. The drugs are slowing down her respiration and bowels, and she really needs those functions right now. We also got some initial results on another ultrasound of her head and it seems to show improvement. We’re not exactly sure how much improvement, but that sounds positive to us, so we’re extremely happy to hear about that!! They pushed her esophagus study off until at least Sunday because they have to move all of her equipment, and they want her to recover some from her surgery. Once her esophagus is better, then she can get some food!

Miss Emma was up to 3 lbs 5 oz the other night. We didn’t see what she was up to last night, but her feedings are progressing up. She’s been on a tear!

Stay tuned!

Ella’s surgery went very well the doctors said. Now, she just has to get thru the next couple of days. Apparently after this type of surgery, they get a little sicker before they get better. Totally normal, but still kinda sucks. Hopefully, her contrast study will also be done today which will check her esophagus and make sure it’s healed up. If it’s healed, they can put an OG tube back in her little belly, and let the air out. After that, the food will start. Small, but at least some will be going into her. AND, hopefully the chest tube will come out in the next couple of days. Man, that would be awesome!! A couple of less things to worry about! Will are also supposed to hear today about the ultrasound they did related to her little brain, the thing that really worries me the most!

As far as Emma goes, that girl is on a tear! She’s up to 17ML om her feedings 8 times a day, which is a LOT, and hopefully her fluids will be turned off this weekend. Once that happens, she will most likely get her main-line taken out. After that, all she’ll have in her is her feeding tube. That would be awesome. She’s doing fantastic (knock on wood!!). We pray she keeps it up! Here’s her latest shot..my new all time favorite picture I’ve ever took.

Emma – being pretty!

Well, the ultrasound came back on Ella’s kidneys and they look normal. Great news!! The ECHO also came back on her heart and it looks like they are going to have to do surgery to fix her PDA (heart valve thingy). It seems to be a pretty routine procedure, but it’s not going to be real easy on her and they said that she will be pretty sick the next day or two afterward. They are not going to do it until her esophagus is healed, so they are supposed to do the contrast study hopefully by tomorrow. If it’s healed, it’s time for the surgery. The sooner the better since it’s not helping her respiration any. Also, once it’s complete and her esophagus is healed, the chest tube comes out! That would be awesome!! On a good note, Emma is doing great and eating up her mama’s breast milk. She’s probably back to her birth weight, in at a whopping 3.2 lbs! She looks so good, it’s incredible to us. We know her sister will look just like her once she can get healthy. We can’t wait to see them together again!!

Here’s a picture of the big Emma girl!

Ella sure does have a laundry list of items going on with her. The doctor gave Monica a list, and wrote them down so like she said, I’d have a list of questions…..pretty funny he wrote them down for me. This is what we are looking at:

• Wean her off of the ventilator. Slowly. She’s initiating almost all of the breaths on her own
• Perform another Echo of her heart to decide about the PDA and if surgery is going to be needed to fix. Most likely.
• Perform a contrast study of her hole in her esophagus and see if we can remove the chest tube and maybe get a feeding tube back in her. The poor girl has not really eaten since she was born and she needs food for weight!
• Perform ultrasound of her kidneys. There’s been very high levels of  creatinine in her urine. Her flow is good, just the levels.
• At last but not least, perform another ultrasound of her head on thrusday to see how the blood levels are and make sure the spinal fluid is able to drain well. This is the one that worries me the most.

That’s about it. It’s long, but it could always be worse I guess. Thanks everyone for thinking about her and putting her in your prayers. She really needs them. As always, I’ll keep everyone updated!