Hello everyone! Ellie is doing good, sleeping a lot..... April and I are not. The doctor came in and spoke to us today, by our request. It's so nice not seeing the doctors everyday, that means that Ellie is doing better. The doctors words were "Ellie is exceeding our expectations"!!!!! That's what we like to hear. Our God is continuing to work and is exceeding the doctors expectations because our Doctor in heaven is much better at medicine than any NICU doctor! Unlike the doctors here, our Heavenly Doctor isn't "practicing" medicine! Ellie's milk consumption was increased again today and is set to increase every 8 hours now instead of every 12 hours. As of now, Ellie will have her Bronchoscopy a week from tomorrow. They told us today they will start reducing the Nitric Oxide Sunday and she should be completely off of it by Wednesday or Thursday. We were told last week that Ellie may have a "duplication on her intestines" by two different doctors. We were told that if she did have this problem that her digestive system wouldn't operate properly and she would have to have surgery on her intestines. So the doctors started giving Ellie human milk on Monday in very small doses to see if her body could process and digest the milk. To be blunt, she has had two bowel movements today so the "duplication" doesn't seem to be a problem. Praise Jesus!! We were extremely worried about that. April and I both were able to share skin to skin contact again with Ellie today. One of those wonderful things in life that you cannot express with words. An absolutely awesome experience to have our daughter so close to us. The nurses say that in third world countries where medicine isn't near as advanced as it is here in the U.S., they will have mothers come into the hospital for days on end to allow the child to have skin to skin contact with their mother. They say the physical contact between the mother and baby can heal many sicknesses that an infant may have. I believe God created us that way. To have contact with one another in many different way not only as infants but as adults too. The more I learn about the human body and how everything is formed and how everything works, the more I know that only God could have created such an unbelievable complex being.
April & I were blessed with a monetary gift and we decided to use some of that gift to show our love and our Fathers love to others at Children's. I went to a local Christian store and purchased a number of baby security blankets that say "Jesus Loves Me So Much" and "Babies Are A Gift From God". The only reason I mention this is because I met a grandfather tonight while I was passing through the waiting room outside the NICU. He told me he was vi sting his granddaughter at Children's. I went to Ellie's "closet" next to her bed to get one of the security blankets to give to this grandfather for his granddaughter. After giving him the blanket and telling him that we would pray for his family we chatted for a few minutes. I believe the Holy Spirit touched his heart at that very moment because he seemed to have had a since of peace come over him. I learned that his granddaughter was terminally ill and would probably meet our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ within the next 24 hours. I shared our story about Maddy and about Ellie being at Children's. There is know doubt in my mind that God put us together tonight to meet and talk with each other. Please help us pray for their family. I honestly don't remember his name, but pray that God would bless this little 3 month old baby girl at Children's and that he would comfort their entire family. We know first hand that loosing a child (or a grandchild in his case) is the most difficult thing anyone can go through in life. We pray that God would be with them just like He was for us.
Thank you all so very much for follow our blog. To know that so many loving people are following us through this difficult journey is only something our Lord could do. We appreciate your prayers and support more than you can imagine. Please continue to pray for Ellie and please pray for all of the sick children all over the world! God bless!
Matt (Ellie's daddy)
