Ellie's still hanging tough

Ellie is still doing good!  Her feedings are up to 14ml per hour, soon to be at full dosage which is 20 to 21ml per hour.  Ellie is still tolerating being moved from her bed to April or my arms/chest.  It's always a huge ordeal though, the nurse, respiratory therapist and either April or I are involved in the move.  Her blood oxygen levels drop some during the transition, but they quickly bounce back. No other changes have been made..... and we are thankful for that!

Through the grapevine we have heard questions about the overall health on Ellie.  To clarify some false information out there, Ellie is still in critical condition.  She is however, doing better than she was, but nonetheless, she is still sick.  Please continue to pray for healing for our baby girl.  Pray that God will continue to perform miracles for our Ellie and that we would be able to take her home soon.  Also, please pray for April and me.  While Ellie has improved tremendously from where we were 2 weeks ago, she still has a long way to go.  The mental and emotional issues we are facing now is that her progress has in some ways plateaued, for now.  We were able to see huge improvements in the matter of a few days and now we are not seeing those same forward strides.  So April and I at times get disappointed because we are not seeing the same progress.  To be perfectly honest, it is very difficult having a baby in the NICU.  It's something no one ever thinks about and no one ever thinks it will happen to them.  We believe without a doubt that if it wasn't for our Faith, our love for each other and our love for our baby girl, we wouldn't be able to handle it near as well as we are.  It is a huge emotional roller coaster.  We want to be at Ellie bedside 24 hours a day but we also need sleep.  FYI - there are no sleep quarters available for us in the hospital, so we have to leave Ellie.  We start to drive home and after a few minutes we want to go back.  We lay in bed and we think about going back.  We do laundry, pay bills, I work, etc, etc, and all we want to do is be with Ellie.  It's a tough journey that we have been faced with, but we have our Heavenly Father that sustains us. 

Please help us pray for all the ill children all over the world, especially Payton, from Indiana.  She is being treated at Children's for injuries sustained from a vehicle accident.  We do not know this special young lady but she is from the area we are from and she is in a hospital room one floor above our Ellie.  Please pray for God to heal her and pray for her family and friends during this difficult time.

Matt (Ellie's daddy)