Happy 1 Month Ella!

Ella is 1 month old! It's hard to believe that a month has gone by already. At times the days crawl by and other times they are flying. Ella has had a big month and we are so proud of how far she has come. She is so sweet and we are so thankful that she is our little girl!

We talked to the surgeon last night and the news is that she is not going to have surgery at this time. He thinks that her tummy is healing well and will continue to come together on it's own. If he were to go back in now he would have to disrupt some of the work that has already been done and he doesn't see a benefit in doing that so he is going to leave it alone for now. Time will tell how everything all comes together. In a couple of years it's highly possible Ella will have another surgery once they can see how this has grown with her but for now they are going to let her grow and heal on her own. We are happy with this decision and a little relieved. Her wound is about half the size it was a month ago so it is making good progress. We were there yesterday when the wound care team changed her dressing so Rick and I got to see what it really looks like and it looks good. She still has a significant opening but you can see where new skin tissue is growing and coming together so that is exciting. I think the plan now is to keep her on the wound vac for another week or so and then re-evaluate whether to keep her on the wound vac or change to a different type of dressing.

So the big challenge now is her feedings. If anything is going to keep us in the hospital it's going to be this so PLEASE pray for her to start feeding better with her bottles. She still weighs a little over 5 pounds. They are still alternating her feedings through the bottle and her feeding tube and trying to increase the amount. It is just a battle at times to get her to take an ounce through her bottle and she needs to be getting more. I know it is going to take time and feedings are always a big challenge for babies like Ella so we are really praying that in the next week or so she will really step it up. We would appreciate all of your prayers on this.

Love, Rick, Amy, Eva and Ella