6 Weeks Old

Today Miss Elora is 6 weeks old (she is 32 weeks gestationally).  What is new with her at 6 weeks, you ask?

WEIGHT:  It goes up and down a little from day to day - but today she weighed in at 2 lb, 11 oz

EYE EXAM:  Thanks everyone for praying for her eye exam!  All went well and there were no initial signs of any issues.  However, the eye specialist was not able to get as close of an exam as he wanted last week, so he ordered another exam for this week (Thursday) to check things out again.  Please continue to pray that all is well and that her immature eyes develop as they should.

BRAIN:  We have another good report!  Today Elora had another head ultrasound and her bleeding is still exiting the brain in the way that it should and the "pooling" of blood in her ventricles has gone down.This is a HUGE answer to prayer!

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM: Elora has continued to "keep things moving" in the digestive department.  She is tolerating her feedings well and so the doctors keep increasing the amount she receives.  She has a feeding tube that goes down her nose into her stomach. She receives a continous drip of breast milk .. right now she gets about 7.8 ML per hour. 

LOOKS:  Her looks have changed so much since she was born. She is filling out a lot and looking more like a "baby" instead of a fragile little thing like when she was first born.  She keeps her eyes open a lot longer now and has started taking a pacifier (which by the way is SO CUTE).  We have been able to dress her now, which helps give her that "real baby" look, too. Even preemie clothes are a bit big on her..but we just roll up the pants and problem solved!  She has beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair, eyebrows, and eye lashes. We promise to post more pictures of her once her tubes are out & you can actually see her :)

MOM & DAD:  Overall Peter and I are doing well.  I am at the hospital each day during the day and then Peter joins me after work. We typically rotate who holds her each day (we usually get to hold her for about an hour each day) and we cherish that time of being close with her.  I think we are a lot more stable emotionally and that has so much to do with the fact that we are getting such good reports from the doctors on El's progress and health.  I had my 6-week post pardum check up today and am pleased to report that all is well with my health and healing from preeclapsia and the C-section.

PRAYER:
1. Please pray for endurance for me and Peter. We still have a long way to go on this journey with Elora in the hospital (most likely until mid-Aug)
2. Pray for Elora's eye health
3. Pray for her home-coming that Peter and I would feel prepared and confident to meet the special needs of a preemie (we are so used to nurses by our side 24x7!  We can't imagine when we have to care for her all by ourselves!)
4. Pray for continued strength for Elora's respitory system  - that she would continue working towards breathing without support.