A Big Week for Ella

Another new hat, thank you Nurse Blanca!
Snuggle time with Mommy.

Ella has made great progress this past week with her bottle feedings. This is a huge answer to prayer so thank you all for praying specificly that Ella would start taking her bottles better. She has increased the amount she is taking to around 2 ounces and is not putting up such a fight when we feed her. We are so proud of her! Her doctors and nurses kept telling us that it would just take some time and it seems that she has finally gotten the hang of it. She is still spitting up frequently but she is continuing to gain weight so that is great. She is up to a whopping 5 pounds 10.8 ounces!

Yesterday her doctor increased the number of bottle feedings she gets during the day which is a good sign that Ella is getting more ready to go to all bottles. She still gets 2-3 feedings a day through her feeding tube but if she continues to take the bottles well then they will take the tube out and go to all bottles. We are very excited with her progress and are hoping that in the next few days they will try to go to all bottle feedings. The other big news is that her surgeon took her central line out and took the wound vac off last night. She looks so good without all the wires! Her tummy is looking really good and her wound has gotten smaller even since last week. They are now putting a cream on it to continue to help it heal and we will continue using this dressing once she comes home. It will still take some time before her tummy is completely closed but it looks really good and all her doctors seem very happy with how it is healing.

We don't know yet when Ella will come home but all of these things are steps in the right direction so we are hoping it won't be too much longer. We are so thankful for all the encouragement and prayers for our family. Please continue to pray that Ella will take her bottles well so we can move to all bottle feedings. Also, please keep praying that her tummy continues to heal well and does not get infected. We'll update when we have more news, hopefully we will have a coming home post sometime soon!

Love, The Carders

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

Update on Ella

Ella has had a good week this week. Not a whole lot has changed since my last post. We are still working on her feedings. She has been on and off the feeding tube this week. They tried her on all bottles again yesterday and she took them well but was taking the minimum amount and sometimes less than they wanted her to have so as of last night she was put back on the feeding tube. She really needs to be taking more but she just tires out in the middle of her feedings so it has been really hard to get her to take a full feeding from her bottle. She also is still spitting up some so they have put her on a reflux medication to hopefully help keep everything down. She still weighs just a little over 5 pounds which is good but she just needs to start gaining weight consistently and taking more at each feeding. It's going to take time so we will just keep working on it. Please keep praying that Ella will be able to take more and get back to all bottle feedings.

They checked her wound vac on Thursday and said that it looks good. Her surgeon came by and said that he thinks her wound has come together enough where he can go in and surgically close it. We don't have a definite plan yet but it looks like sometime next week she will have surgery to close her wound instead of waiting on the wound vac to do it. They will check it again on Monday so hopefully by then we will have more details about when the surgery will be and what the plan of action is.

We'll keep everyone updated as we find out more. Thank you for your continued prayers for our family. The main prayer request right now would be for her to be able to increase the amount she takes at her feedings (without spitting up too much!) and be able to take it in her bottle. This could be set back a little with her facing surgery again next week so please pray for that.

Love, Rick, Amy, Eva and Ella


I love my passy and swing!

Quality time with Mimi, Dee and CC

3 Weeks Old

Raise your hand if you're ready to go home?

I pulled my feeding tube out and I feel so much better!

The old tube is back but how about this hat? My nurses like to dress me up in cute hats!

Ella is 3 weeks old today! It's hard to believe that it's been three weeks already since she was born. She is making progress everyday and we are so thankful that she is continuing to do well. Not a whole lot has changed since the last update. Ella still is feeding through her tube and getting a bottle at every other feeding. On friday they took her tube out and gave her all bottle feedings which was exciting but she spit up quite a bit after each feeding so they decided to put her tube back in and continue alternating feedings for a while longer. She is getting tired of the old feeding tube because she has pulled it out several times. Poor Ella! Hopefully later this week they will take the tube out and try all bottles again, we'll just have to see how she does in the next few days. The doctors seemed pleased with her progress and are saying it's just going to take time for her body to handle everything considering the surgery she had.

As far as her incision goes it is making progress as well. Each time they check it they are seeing some changes. On Thursday it looked like some new skin tissue was starting to grow so that is great news. They will check it again tomorrow so hopefully we will continue to see that it is growing together. The surgeon said he would like for her to have the wound vac for another two weeks to let the incision continue to grow together on it's own so I think that is the plan for now. Things change so quickly in the NICU so we never know what they are going to tell us when we go see Ella everyday!

Overall she is right on target for where she should be. Thank you all for your continued prayers for Ella's healing. Please keep praying that she is able to tolerate her feedings as they increase the amount and go to all bottles and that her incision heals quickly. We are so ready for her to come home. We know she is in the best care right now but it is hard not having her with us. Thank you for the encouragement you continue to give our family, we are so humbled by your love and support.
Love, Rick, Amy, Eva and Ella

Taking a Bottle

Drinking her bottle

Trying to burp!

Worn out after eating!

The big news for the past two days is that Ella is taking a bottle! We are very excited and proud of our girl. She is still taking half of her feedings through her feeding tube but they are alternating every other feeding with giving her a bottle. She is taking 25 cc's which is a little less than an ounce every three hours through her tube and by bottle. It takes her about 30 minutes to take her bottle so it is slow going but she is getting the hang of it! She has some good spit ups every day but the doctors seem pleased that she is tolerating the feedings as well as she is. So, as Ella does well and takes these feedings they will gradually increase the amount until she is on full feeds. It's going to take some time but so far she is really working hard at taking her bottles so we know she will have it down in no time. The doctor looked at her wound vac on Monday and said that he is seeing some progress as far as her incision coming together a little so that is good news. More than likely she will have the wound vac on for awhile but they are checking it twice a week to see what changes are occurring. So far so good! They did tell us yesterday that Ella has a hernia caused by trying to get everything back in her abdomen from her omphalocele surgery. Apparently this is common and is to be expected but we did not know about it until yesterday so it was a little bit of a surprise. It's not necessarily a big deal in the grand scheme of things, it just means another surgery later down the road to repair it. Even though it's not a big deal, anything extra like that right now feels like a big deal to her mommy and daddy. We are just trying to take one day at a time and focus on the fact that she is doing so great considering all she has been through.

Ella weighs 5 pounds now so she is a big girl! She is so sweet and the nurses all say that she is very laid back. She loves to suck on her passy and listen to her little rainforest mobile. It puts her right to sleep. We are so thankful that she is content and doesn't seem to be in pain. We know it is because of all the prayers being prayed over her for peace and healing. Thank you for your continued faithfulness in praying for little Ella. She is doing so well but still has a long road ahead so keep the prayers coming. You all are such a blessing to our family!

Love, Rick, Amy, Eva and Ella

2 Weeks Old

Ella with Dee (Rick's Mom)

Ella with Mimi (Amy's Mom)
Ella with Pawpaw (Amy's Dad)

Big sister Eva in her favorite shirt...the glasses and necklaces are a good look don't you think?

We can't believe little Ella is two weeks old today! She has come so far these past two weeks and we are so proud of her. Thank you for your continued prayers, emails, cards and phone calls. We feel so blessed by the love and support that everyone is showering on us and we are so thankful for each of you. We believe we are all witnessing God's hand and the power of prayer as we continue to see Ella heal and grow. Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for our sweet daughter, God is answering your prayers everyday.

Amy here, I figured it was time for me to take over posting on the blog before my sister Ann shares any more embarrassing stories about me. I feel like I should address the All My Children look-alike comment made and explain that I wouldn't exactly take it as a compliment being that it was made to me by a 60 year old man. Really? Does anyone else think it is strange that middle-aged men are watching All My Children or is it just me?

Anyway, back to Ella. She is doing so well. They increased her feedings today from 6 cc.'s to 10cc's and are working towards 15 which is about half an ounce. This afternoon she seemed to be tolerating them well and only spitting up a little bit so that is great. The wound care team will check her wound vac out tomorrow to see if there is any change with her incision. The wound vac is supposed to suction out any fluid as well as hopefully speed up the process of helping her skin grow together over the patch they put in at surgery over the area that they couldn't get completely closed. So we will see how things progress with that. The nurses are saying Ella is their little trailblazer with the wound vac! Apparently they use it a lot on older patients at Harris but have never really used it on babies. Go Ella!

She is so sweet and we can't wait for everyone to meet our girl. We'll continue to keep everyone updated as things progress. Please keep praying for her to take her feedings well as they increase and for her incision to heal quickly. So far there have not been any major setbacks and we know it is because of all the prayers being lifted up for Ella. Thank you for loving our family, we love each of you.
Love, Rick, Amy, Eva and Ella

Go Ella Go!

Ann writing again. I've just returned from seeing my little niece Ella and I just don't have the words to tell you how great she is!! She is absolutely the most precious little girl. She has these beautiful eyes that seem to spot you a mile away and draw you in. She was very alert today when we got there and busy staring at her little aquarium that the nurses gave her the other day (they said she looked bored :) Her wonderful nurses change her into a new outfit everyday and many days she has a little bow in her hair. So she is definitely lookin' good in the NICU. I got to hold her for the first time and she snuggled up next to me and sucked on her giant pacifier and went to sleep. It was such a blessing to finally hold that little girl that has been prayed for so much by so many. God continues to answer our prayers for her healing every single day and night. She is so little, but full of such strength. You can just see it when you look at her! We are all so proud of her and so thankful for how well she is doing. Her bed is covered in pink these days and she looks content in her little area of the room.

Okay, now for the medical details. She is continuing to progress well with her feedings. She is up to 6 cc. of milk right now and as of last night she is starting to digest it all. They will probably keep her at 6 cc for the weekend and then move it up. The doctor seems pleased with how the feeding is going (Ella is on a feeding tube through her nose now). Please keep praying for her feeding and digestion to increase and get better and better. So far so good though. On another good note, her wound vac seems to be working well. She looks very comfortable and content every time they see her. So hopefully it is speeding up the healing.

Amy is healing well too. She is very tired but her blood pressure is much better. It looks like she will be on the strong medication for another few weeks. She looks great though. And she won't tell you this but I will....a man at the hospital told her that she looked like an actress on "All My Children"! Pretty high compliment don't you think? I mean, not many people are told that a week after having a baby! :) Sorry Amy, couldn't resist.

Eva is doing great. Today I watched as she wrapped the blood pressure thing around her arm and pushed the right button to check her own blood pressure. Amazing. She is hilarious as usual and ready to meet her little sis.

And ol' Rick is taking great care of all of the Carder women. He is a wonderful and attentive husband and father. Thank you Rick for taking such good care of my sister. You are doing a great job!

Prayer requests:
Ella's feedings and continued healing for her incision
Amy's blood pressure and healing
Strength and energy for Amy and Rick as they care for their family


Just had to post a picture of me holding Ella, forgive me!