Ella: March 24th

Hello Everyone, Ella had a wonderful Easter Weekend. She is continuing to improve, she is off of the oxygen, we can finally see her face! She is breathing great without the help of oxygen in her nose. As well as being off of oxygen she is off the blood pressure medicine. We know she is showing signs of improving by the fewer and fewer medicine pumps she has in her room. Ella has been continually blessed with kind nurses and respiratory therapist. One of her therapist in particular has been kind, one day while Ella was crying she got her out of her bed and walked around the NICU with her! We are amazed at the patience and love the staff at Children's provides Ella. Ella is tremendously hungry right now, although she has been getting her nourishment through the IVs, her stomach is empty (which is what the doctors want). This has caused her to be very irritable, Sunday she cried off and on for three hours, finally one of the nurses gave her a lemon flavored cotton swab to suck on. This swab calmed Ella down tremendously and sent her right to sleep. This Wednesday Ella will have completed her allotted time for the antibiotics and yeast infection medicine. The nurses will begin feeding her, while the doctors watch her intestines for signs of the infection returning and to see if her intestines suffered any damages from the infection. Please continue to pray that she will be completely healed and will not have to under go surgery to repair damaged portions of the intestine. Bentley and I are continually amazed at the outpouring of love and kindness from so many people. We are truly grateful for everyone's prayers.

Here are more Ella pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/carr.ab/Ella3