Ellie in Manhattan - "few-weeks-ish"

Miss Ellie had a great night last night. She had only 1 desat and no bradies. Since she gained some more weight, she got her feeding increased to 45 mL. Wahoo! They replaced her NG tube (so now it's in her other nostril) and they do this every 7 days unless Ellie takes it out herself before then. We do have some new prayer requests: Ellie has developed a umbilical hernia (which they said she probably has had the whole time - is common in preemies) which is showing now. Ellen, our nurse practitioner, (who's back today! WAHOO!) said that it should be completely gone before 2 years old - before they would do any sort of surgery. Also, Ellie's stooling patterns have changed. They said this is possible as Ellie gets older, but she hasn't had a bowel movement for three days - so she got to have a rectal temp today at 9 am. If that doesn't work, then back to an enema. Praise Jesus though because she hasn't had a distended stomach or anything like that and her bowel sounds active every assessment - she just hasn't pooped! Ellen was SO proud to see Ellie's progress while she was away and was very optimistic about her progression. They are going to keep her on nipple (bottle) feeding daily for a while - just so she can practice that coordination of suck, swallow, breathe...but not too much to exhaust her. Our new anticipation is "what time will she want to eat for her "one" bottle feeding today?" Who knows, maybe Daddy will try to feed Ellie today! She's been a good girl so far today. She sure wiggles out of her snuggly a lot though and will arch her head back. I told her she needs to stop doing that - or she'll have to wear a helmet when we get home. Oh..and Ellen said that maybe we would introduce trying breastfeeding next week. So that is also exciting! Then she also mentioned that we'd be home in - a "few weeks-ish" Scary and exciting all at the same time. Oh, how if feels so good to hold and now feed her bottle to her...so real! I think I'm really going to like this mommy thing! Oh, one more thing: Ellie is really excited to meet her new baby cousin - Renae and Micah are due with Baby Boy tomorrow! Prayers for them as they prepare for a new little one to join the family and most importantly - a safe delivery! We enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa Weber and Aunt Wendy here to visit this weekend. Although it was very tough for them not to touch Ellie :) Dad of course couldn't sit still very long so he would make periodic trips to wander and one afternoon he made apple bars and apple pie (with the volunteer who actually taught him some cooking tips) at the Ronald McDonald House! Grandpa Weber also brought some pumpkins and gourds and gave them to the kiddos who were staying at the Ronald McDonald House with us. They were pretty excited about them! It was too cute. Well - enjoy some more pictures of our little princess!