Rough night for Ellie

Well, this morning when I called for the update, the news wasn't as good as I hoped. Ellie had a busy, rough night. I figured the set-back was due, since she had so many good days in a row. So in the last post, I mentioned how she had troubles keeping her nasal cannula in. Well at the 11 p.m. feeding last night they decided to put on the nasal cpap (set up) which has a velcro piece on her head and will work better and allow her to move a little bit and still get the 2 L of O2 (room air) that she needs. With all this in her nose now, they also had to move her feeding tube back to her mouth (so now it's back to an OG tube, not NG tube). Nurse Mandie said that Ellie got really stressed out while they were messing with her and had a big desat (down in the teens) so they had to get out the bag and mask. She did come back after that, praise Jesus. From 7 pm until 4 am she had 29 desats/bradies. A majority were self-resolving. She had 4 that needed intervention - one while we were still there last night, the one big desat, one at 3 am (where she needed extra O2), and one at 5:30 am where she also needed extra O2. As far as feedings - at her 11 pm feeding (when they changed her tubing) she said that the tube measured 15.5 cm length from her nose to her stomach, but with her growth it should now be 15 cm. So checking her residual at the 11 pm feeding - she had 25 mLs of air (this is alot for a small stomach) - which Mandie said was in part that she was crying/upset from them adjusting everything - and 6 mLs of undigested milk. Nurse Mandie also said this could have been building up all day (since the tubing measurment was off) and she could have been decieving us with her feedings up to this point. :( She called the Dr. and they decided to subtract the 6mLs - so then she only got 9 mLs of fresh mommy's milk. Then at 2 a.m. she only had 1 mL of residual (which is good and means that she actually did catch up from that 1/2 cm being off); Then at 6 am she only had 1 mL of residual, but this time it was only mucus and digestive enzymes. Obviously that was a hard report to hear, but at least I have an idea before I see her this morning. I know they did what they had to do - but of course, it just breaks my heart. Please pray for little Ellie today - please pray for a restful day for her. Please also pray for Mommy's emotions (these set backs are hard). Lord, Please be the comfort that Ellie needs right now. Please cradle her in your arms and give her a restful day. We thank and praise you for this precious little girl and believe that you have the power to give her what she needs to get through this day. Be with her growing tummy and Lord, help her further develop her brain to remember to breathe. Lord, I thank you for every person praying for Ellie today. May they be blessed in ways they have never experienced before. Thank you for the nurses and doctors at the NICU who are also watching out for our little Ellie. Be my strength Jesus, I need you today too. Amen. We went to the Topeka Bible Church again yesterday, and the title of the sermon was "Moving with God on the Detours of Life," based from the life of Paul in Acts 25-26. The road rules he mentioned were: 1. Look down the road and plan your life. Be intentional. 2. Learn that God's plan for your life includes detours. (I think this counts). I think it's a hard lesson to learn that our God is so soverign, that he never does something accidental. He posed the question to us: Do you trust God on the detour? 3. Let people know that you trust God on the detour. 4. God uses you in amazing ways when you share Him on the detour. Whoa, was that for us or what? Many times I wonder why he chose Team Gramkow to go through this detour...I guess I just have to trust that He knows what He's doing and that He trusts Ben and I to be able to handle it. Boy, that's a hard lesson...I'm trying...Oh, Lord, how I'm trying. Pray for us today. We can do it through HIS strength. Pray that my thoughts would c0nstantly be filled with hope and not despair today.