Her Own Suite

The NICU Elise is in has a fairly open floor plan with various large, open rooms that have multiple babies in them. We met the director a couple of days ago, and she told us that they plan to have private rooms for everyone in 18 months. We didn't realize how valuable that will be for both babies and families until Ellie got "upgraded" to the small room next to where her bed was. The room has two walls and then two sliding glass door walls. She's in there as a precaution because of her possible infection and because the room was available. While we are now enjoying her (probably brief) stay in this more quiet and private room, please pray for the family whose baby boy was in the room before Elise. We don't know anything about their situation, but I don't believe the room became available for positive reasons.

Today's call from Ellie's doctor brought the news that they increased her continuous feeding yet again today. She's now up to 6.5 cc per hour. And tomorrow they plan to take her off of her IV fluids and remove her percutaneous line. Praise the Lord that she is doing so well and that my milk is providing her all the nutrients she needs (other than of course those extra calories with which they are fortifying the milk).

They haven't received the preliminary results from the swab of her pustule (I think she actually just had one and not more than one like we originally thought); however, she isn't showing any signs of infection and the antibiotic ointment seems to be helping her nose heal. She's still on the nasal cannula, but they plan to put her back on the CPAP tomorrow. While it has been nice to be able to rub her little head and see her little face more (last night and today she didn't have a hat or chin strap on), having her go back on the CPAP will be relieving. The nasal cannula just doesn't provide the consistent oxygen support she needs. Between her times of crying (mainly because of gas/pooping or not being in a position that she likes) and her independent desire to twist her head to escape the cannula and pull, tug and yank at the cannula out of her nose, her levels need to be adjusted quite frequently. And having her monitors beep so frequently during our visits is just a bit stressful.

Guess we didn't get any other photos of the room, but here you can at least see part of her bed and then one of the glass doors.

Here's the safety precaution sign related to her possible infection.

Kangaroo care.

Such a little sweetie.

She loves to cuddle and so do I.